Polyvagal Theory and Three States of Being
Polyvagal Theory identifies three autonomic nervous system states. To regulate the nervous system you must FEEL safe to heal from flight, fight, and freeze states.
Polyvagal Theory tells us there are three states of being, or three autonomic states.
Did you know your heart, brain, and face are connected by one of the branches of the parasympathetic nervous system?
The safe and social autonomic state controls this connection. This means that the state of your heart is quite literally shown on your face! Think about that. You don’t wear your heart on your sleeve, you actually wear it on your face.
Others unconsciously read your facial expression, so they are seeing (rather sensing) the state of your heart, and you are doing the same with other people.
This is one of the indicators our nervous system reads to determine safety or danger!
Safety is the key component of the social engagement system in the safe and social state.
Let’s walk through this. Or take a peak at my blog Polyvagal Theory and Anxiety: Befriend Your Nervous System for an overview to understand Polyvagal Theory first.
Imagine a ladder. At the top is safe & social, in the middle is flight or fight, and at the bottom is shut down.
This is the order of the three-different autonomic nervous system states of being. And ideally you want to spend the majority of your time in safe and social at the top of the ladder.
In your safe and social state your social engagement system is in full effect. The system is the newest to develop from an evolutionary perspective and developed out of the need for humans to live in community for safety.
So, what’s really needed for safety? Remember to FEEL safe, more than just to be safe.
There needs to be an ONGOING opportunity for safe interactions with others.
These safe relationships need to be reciprocal. The time spent with these safe people engaging in a shared activity keeps you in your social engagement system, and therefor your safe and social autonomic state.
Safety is understood through facial expressions especially those around and above the eyes. There is more movement here. You pick up on posture, and if the person is relaxed. And someone’s voice, they use a fuller range of tones.
Danger is indicative of such things as flat facial expressions and monotone vocal notes. This actually signals that the person’s heart rate is not beating at a normal pace.
When you feel safe, you can take a deeper breath from your belly. Your heart rate is slower. You can be in stillness. And you can converse. Saliva and digestion are stimulated. You are primed for optimal health because breath and oxygen are available for growth and restoration. Your cognitive skills, collaboration capacity, and problem-solving ability is accessible and firing. You make eye contact and can be in close proximity to others and enjoy safe touch.
In this state, you are able to access and implement pro social behaviors. You can connect naturally and instantly engage, it doesn’t feel like you are choosing it, you just do it. You pick up on safety cues, as well as red flags. You also naturally disengage when you pick up on danger cues.
You’re probably wondering where anxiety fits into this picture. And you guessed it. When in anxiety you are not in your social engagement system, or in safe and social. But you can get there. And that is first through finding SAFE RELATIONSHIPS.
Your nervous system just registered DANGER. And you drop down the ladder in Flight and Fight state.
Your heart is racing. Your blood pressure increases. Shallow breaths. Cortisol and adrenaline are pumping through your body. Your muscles are tensed.
Your body is being mobilized. Your limbs are primed to flee or fight.
This is sympathetic arousal. This is your flight or fight state. This state has been trigged by danger.
This system is for short bursts of energy discharge for survival. When you are in sympathetic survival mode you experience
Increased in pain tolerance
Increased vigilance to scan internal and external environments for danger
Tension in your chest and neck muscles
Middle ear muscles turn off to better hear deep sounds or high pitch sounds indicative of danger
Did you know that the instinct to flee always comes before the impulse to fight? If you can’t run away to escape, then you prime to fight. This system came be overridden if you perceive there isn’t an option to flee, or if there has been a consistent message that fleeing makes you “weak”.
When chronically triggered into FLIGHT mode the sympathetic arousal is experienced as panic, anxiety, fear, on guard, dread, and hypervigilance. Sound familiar?
When chronically primed for FIGHT mode the sympathetic arousal that cannot be discharged through running away, leads to anger, rage, irritation, aggression, and clenched jaw and fists.
Sympathetic arousal is supposed to be discharged, but sometimes people do not have the luxury of safety to do so. They cannot find release and relief from the sympathetic energy. And sometimes people learn they actually need to be in this danger state to get their needs met.
The nervous system is use-dependent, meaning it adapts to survive. The adaptations become constant states of being and a lens people view themselves and the world from.
You can move from danger back into safety, even after chronic states of survival mode.
The requirements:
Safe environment
Safe eye contact
Safe people
Safe discharge
There needs to be mindfulness brought to what the body is doing in combination with some sort of physical discharge.
The physical movement can be such things as shaking the body, dance, sprinting, pushing against a wall. But the key is MINDFULNESS and INTENTION with the movement. Connecting mind and body.
It’s scary to move back into safety. It feels vulnerable. It even feels dangerous. This perpetuates staying stuck in sympathetic arousal.
And sometimes we are triggered to drop further down the ladder. When danger feels life threatening the freeze state is activated.
The third of the three autonomic states in Polyvagal Theory is the oldest evolutionary response and defensive system.
It is also your last resort when faced with danger. This state is close to my heart as it is so tightly embedded with trauma, and also panic.
This effect takes place below the heart and diaphragm.
The freeze state is biologically a shutdown system. This state is triggered when you cannot run away, and you cannot fight because the danger is too large.
This danger is too large physical, emotionally or psychologically.
So what do you do if you are in danger, and this danger feels life threatening and you cannot get away or fight back?
You immobilize. You “play dead.” You shut down.
In this state physiologically:
There is a massive drop in blood pressure and heart rate
There is less blood going to the brain
Dissociation
Floating away feeling
Detached from body
Reduction in breathing
Movement inhibited
Numbing effect
These effects literally occur to feel less pain at the possibility of dying.
Numbness allows escape
Dissociation allows for a quicker escape
When someone survives this kind of danger or life threat they often don’t remember it. If consciousness was present then there would have been no escape.
You shut down to survive. Your nervous system was forced into shut down. You did not consciously choose to go back in time to this evolutionary defensive system.
Shut down and fear is the essence of trauma.
But shutting down is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT A NORMAL REACTION TO ABNORMAL EXPERIENCES.
It helped you survive.
It helped you shut down the sympathetic arousal and the fear by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system simultaneously.
It helped you get through to the other side. And you can come out of this state. If you are stuck in shut down mode now, you may be experiencing
Numbness
Hopeless
Feeling abandoned
Lonely experience
Foggy
Tired
Colder
Pressure on chest
Wanting to hide
Shame
Self-blame
Disorientation
Dissociation
A trapped sensation
To move up and out of shut down there needs to be a gentle return of energy that doesn’t over power the nervous system. The nervous system has to feel safe. It requires going slow, patience, calmness, and so much compassion.
The path back up to feeling safe requires going through sympathetic arousal. This step is often where the anxiety and panic show up. As uncomfortable and frightening as this is, this means you are moving up the ladder. You are feeling again, but haven’t learned how to discharge this energy. YET.
Through learning how to discharge the surge of energy, you also build resiliency and body awareness. The keys to coming home to yourself and a return to a safe and social parasympathetic way of being.