Polyvagal Theory - Vagus Nerve

Please remember that I am not a neuroscientist, but I can present facts and also my own experience.

It's actually a highly important theory that helps us understand trauma, PTSD, how extreme stress leads to dissociation or shutting down and learning how to read body language. It explains three different parts to our nervous system and their responses to the body becoming overwhelmed by stimuli (stress). Just by understanding this process, we can change our relationship to trauma and stress.

Emotions are our response to internal or external stimuli. Our bodies have a very primal desire to stay alive and that desire trumps our ability to think about staying alive.

Enter Polyvagal Theory…

Our nervous system is always running in the background, organising and directing our bodily functions. The nervous system can take over our emotional experience and there's not much we can do about it.

(Attenborough antelope analogy: an antelope grazing hears a noise, sympathetic fight/flight as it runs, then goes limp and plays dead, parasympathetic shutdown, and if dropped, springs back to life and escapes. Three things: Relaxation, fight or flight, and shutdown, all covered by Polyvagal Theory.)

Relaxation (Parasympathetic Nervous System)

If you are emotionally healthy and not under stress, your body stays in the social engagement state. We can feel:

• Happy and open
• Calm, peaceful and grounded
• Good immune system and general wellbeing
• We sleep and eat well
• We can emotionally relate to and understand others

This is called the Ventral Vagal Response.

Fight, Flight and Freeze (Sympathetic Nervous System)

Our immediate reaction to being overwhelmed; the response kicks in after just 1/100th of a second and affects nearly every organ:

• We become aware of a threat and scan our surroundings.
• Cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine get released.
• Heart rate increases, we sweat and generate more energy.
• Anxiety, fear or anger; facial expression changes.
• Blood moves to the muscles; digestion slows.
• We may feel tense, tight, aching or trembling; knotted stomach.
• Senses focus and become more sensitive.

And then there is SHUT DOWN (FREEZE)

Its function is to keep us still enough to appear dead to our attacker(s). The Dorsal Vagal Parasympathetic system takes over, a last resort to keep us alive.

• Emotional numbness, hopelessness, shame, dissociation, feeling trapped and disconnected.
• We may look spaced out.
• Heart rate, blood pressure, sex drive, immune system drop.
• Low or no feeling of pain; slower breathing; constriction around the throat.
• Loss of awareness, concentration and memory recall; slumped/collapsed posture.

Trauma affects our nervous system in the same way it does for an antelope

We alternate between rest (connection mode), fight or flight, or shutdown (freeze). Our response is down to our perception of the event. PTSD is the body's overreaction to a small trigger. (Sam teaches navy seals and military veterans, who often experience this during loud, sudden noises such as fireworks, storms, or a car beeping.)

How do we come out of shutdown?

The opposite to the Dorsal Vagal System is the Social Engagement System. To fix being in shutdown we bring ourselves into healthy social engagement. Ten supports:

1. Meditation: Vedic meditation is instrumental in enabling the parasympathetic nervous system and operating from balance (homeostasis).
2. Yoga: introducing some Asana into your daily routine.
3. Cold exposure: e.g. 30 seconds of cold at the end of a shower; especially good after exercise.
4. Deep, slow breathing: diaphragmatic; slow breath with a long exhale (start 4s in / 4s out, then lengthen the exhale).
5. Chanting, singing, humming, and gargling: the vocal cord muscles connect to the vagus nerve; improves vagal tone and HRV.
6. Probiotics: lactobacillus and bifidobacterium relate to the gut-brain connection.
7. Omega-3's: fatty fish, flaxseeds, walnuts.
8. Massage: regular or self-massage; foot reflexology.
9. Exercise: movement improves vagal tone and happiness.
10. Socialising and laughing: improves mood and vagal activity.