For many neurodivergent people, a nervous system reset is necessary sometimes to self-regulate the body. The nervous system is a complex thing.
I am providing an overview of the Autonomic Nervous System and its role in responding to stress. Scroll to the bottom for strategies to learn practices that help to retune and reset the nervous system.
Before a nervous system reset it’s helpful to understand what’s actually going on in the body. Let’s talk about the different parts of the nervous system responsible for stress and relaxation:
The Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for moderating our bodies’ response to external and internal stressors. The ANS is made up of two branches:
- the Sympathetic Nervous System (“Fight-or-Flight”)
- the Parasympathetic Nervous System (“Rest-and-Digest”)
The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for arousing and mobilizing our body for action. This system is what activates our “fight-or-flight” response.
The parasympathetic nervous system calms our bodies and aids the “rest and digest” process.
These two systems control the same organs; however, they work in opposite directions. Think of the sympathetic mode as the gas pedal and the parasympathetic mode as the brake pedal. When the nervous system is healthy, these two systems work in harmony to bring balance to the body.
1. Sympathetic Nervous System:
When we experience a threat, our bodies may become sympathetic dominant, commonly referred to as the “fight-or-flight” response. When our sympathetic nervous system kicks into gear, several things happen: we get a big shot of adrenal/epinephrine, and our stress hormone, cortisol, increases. These hormones are designed to give us the energy to fight off the threat. Other physical responses to the fight or flight process include:
- Pupils dilate so that we can take in more information
- Heart rate increases
- Breathing increase
- Blood diverts from our digestive tract to our muscles
These physical responses are helpful and lifesaving on the rare occasion we are out in the woods and run into a dangerous animal. However, it’s not so helpful when sitting in a classroom, and our fight-or-flight response gets tripped. We then have excessive energy with limited outlets to release it.
2. The Parasympathetic Nervous System
The parasympathetic nervous system (the brake pedal) slows down specific responses within the body and helps the body get into a state of calmness. When in the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system, we can slow down, calm the body, rest, relax, and sleep. Parasympathetic engagement promotes healthier digestion, repairs body cells, and fosters sleep.
When our body is in the parasympathetic nervous system, it experiences the following:
- Reduced heart rate
- Slower (deeper) breathing
- Soft eye focus
- Stimulates digestion
- Increased digestive enzymes
- Stimulates bile (digestion)
Our ability to activate the relaxation response and down-regulate our body is directly connected to our vagal tone. ADHDers and Autistic people tend to have reduced vagal tone, meaning it is more difficult for us to activate our relaxation response and recover from the stress response.
Dorsal Vagus Shutdown
When working in harmony with the sympathetic mode, the parasympathetic mode helps us stay within an ideal window of activity (also called the window of tolerance). However, when under extreme stress, the dorsal vagus nerve (part of the parasympathetic system) will initiate a shutdown of the system.
Just like our bodies can become sympathetic dominant during stress, they can also become parasympathetic dominant in response to stress and shut down. The dorsal vagus activates during extreme stress and causes immobilization, often referred to as the “freeze” response.
The freeze response is an extreme version of the parasympathetic nervous system involving the shutdown of the system, resulting in feeling foggy, disconnected, and a general sense of dissociation. When escape is not an option, we may shift from sympathetic mode to complete shutdown (dorsal vagal shutdown).
Click through to find Dr. Neff’s 13 tips for Nervous System Resets!
