3 states of the nervous system
Most of us are likely to have heard of the autonomic nervous system of the body. We commonly talk about the 2 states of the parasympathetic and the sympathetic, but it’s important to consider a third state of the nervous system which can affect how we feel and behave: the dorsal vagal state. The parasympathetic, sympathetic and dorsal vagal states, all have their own somatic signature, a set of felt body senses, emotions and behaviours.
When I learnt about the dorsal vagal state, it all started to make sense particularly when it came to understanding how you could be someone who could be both anxious and depressed. Two stress responses that seem to create polar opposite responses when we experience them in the body.
Depression and anxiety are responses from two different states of the autonomic nervous system, not just the one. So what are these 3 states?
Parasympathetic
Also known as Ventral Vagal. Experts say we want to be aim to be spending 80% of our time in this state, this is when we are feeling mindful, connected, grounded and present to the now. When we’re in parasympathetic, we tend to be more curious and open to life. Physically, this is when our body:
increases digestion
reduces inflammation
increases resistance to infection and our immune function
allows for rest and recuperation
increases circulation to our non-vital organs (our skin, extremities)
increases oxytocin, helping to increase our ability to connect and relate to others
Sympathetic
This is our stress response, often known as our Fight or Flight mode. I think of this as our “I can” state. When we lived as cave people, our need to run from real danger from a predator was a high probability. Nowadays, our stress comes from emails or deadlines, scrolling or missing the train making us late for an important meeting. Our bodies response to stress doesn’t differentiate between the lion or the email - it just responds in a way to get you ready for action. In our sympathetic mode, I am ready for action..!
So our body responses by:
increasing the heart rate (ready to run from the lion)
increasing the blood pressure (allowing for oxygenated blood delivery to the muscles that you need to run from the lion)
increases fuel availability (so you don’t run out of resources you need… you guessed it, to run from the lion)
it also
stops digestion (you don’t need to worry about digesting food when you have a lion chasing you)
decreases our immune response (no need to reduce inflammation or fight infection if the lion is going to eat us anyway…)
decreases our relational ability, i.e. our ability to connect (it’s every person for themselves when you’re running from a lion..)
you get the idea…
How often in our modern lives are we in a real state of danger that we need to strike into action to this extreme?
Dorsal vagal state
Ever been so stressed and burnout that can no longer do anything, you want to stay in bed and do nothing. A shower on these days is an achievement… Yep, I’ve been there. This is our dorsal vagal response, i.e. our freeze state.
Going back to the days living in a cave, this is when the danger is upon us and all we can do now is play dead and hope the lion doesn’t eat us. This is when the body:
immobilises behaviour (with fear)
increases endorphins that help numb and raise the pain threshold
decreases heart rate and blood pressure
decreases temperature
decreases facial expressions and eye contact
decreases immune response
In our dorsal vagal state, our body is preparing for death. Sounds bleak doesn’t it? When we’re in this state of the nervous system, we can feel hopeless, detached, numb and our body begins to shut-down. Now this is an incredible system, if we are experiencing trauma - the mechanisms of the dorsal vagal state can protect us from the trauma by numbing and raising the pain threshold as mentioned above.
HOW does this relate to depression and anxiety?
If, like me, you have battled with depression or anxiety at some point in your life - which I think will be most of us if we’re being honest with ourselves - then you may have wondered how you can have both responses to stress when they seem so different? One state being: overactive, constant worry, busyness of the mind, can’t stop attitude (hello Tigger). The other state being: I have nothing to give, leave me alone, yes Netflix I am still watching the 100th episode of the day (hello Eeyore). It’s because they are responses from two different states of the nervous system..
Tigger - sympathetic
Eeyore - dorsal vagal
THE ladder of the nervous system
Deb Dana, author of the book The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, created the concept of the polyvagal ladder as a visual metaphor for how we experience physiological change as we move through the three circuits of the autonomic nervous system. And it works like this:
Say we should be in parasympathetic 80% of the time, but our environment and lifestyle means we live in our stress, sympathetic state considerably more than we should. If the ratio keeps increasing to the stressed side of life, our body and ancient system of the dorsal vagal state will think we are constantly under threat and so activate the ‘play dead’ response. We’re unable to go from parasympathetic to Dorsal immediately, our sympathetic system is the gate keeper. This is the state where we need to check in and see whether we are actually under threat and choose our response.
But so often we ignore the signs, and carry on. Only to discover later on that we can no longer carry on because our body (our dorsal vagal state) says “no sorry not happening, I’m out”.
And it works both ways, to come back to parasympathetic from dorsal, we need to go via sympathetic - this is our threat check. Is it safe to relax? Am I ok? Is the danger gone?
THE power is within us
This is where the breath comes in. Our breath is the only automatic system of the body that we can control. By working with the breath, we can self-regulate. Meaning we can change the state of the body and tell the nervous system that you are safe.
If you want to bring yourself back into parasympathetic, join my weekly classes to bring you back into balance.
Join me for BREATHE each week, a breathwork class to balance the mind and gain freedom from stress.