With this text and the accompanying video I am going to explain on the basis of the Polyvagal Circle how our autonomic nervous system tries to ensure our survival, further what role experiencing security and connectedness play in this process, and how this can lead to individuals being traumatized. All this will be done on the basis of the Polyvagal Theory of Dr. Stephen Porges.
The autonomic nervous system is part of the comprehensive and multi-layered nervous system of human beings which pervades the whole body.
Simplified, the nervous system is initially made up of the brain. Together with the spinal cord it forms the central nervous system. The task of the central nervous system is to regulate the interaction of all areas and systems in the human body and to make sure they are balanced.
Moreover, the nervous system includes all the nerve tracts that run through our entire body. These include on the one hand the cranial nerves. They usually arise directly from the brainstem and lead mainly to the head and neck area. A major exception here is the vagus nerve, which leads not only to the head, but also into the chest and abdomen, where it reaches the heart, lungs and digestive organs up to the colon. In addition, there are the spinal nerves that arise from the spinal cord and reach all areas and organs of the body. Cranial nerves and spinal nerves together form the peripheral nervous system, which is connected to the central nervous system.
On one hand, the peripheral and the central nervous system work together to perceive external and internal stimuli, forward them via the nerve pathways and process and store them in the central nervous system. On the other hand, impulses of the central nervous system are transmitted via the peripheral nerve tracts to the muscles and organs in order to allow reactions in our body and into the world.
The autonomic nervous system is a functional part of the entire nervous system. It controls and regulates vital body functions and body processes such as metabolism, blood circulation and thermoregulation. It does this completely autonomously, without the individual being able to deliberately intervene. Autonomic regulation allows our body to constantly and naturally swing like a pendulum between moments of rest and moments of activity.
For this purpose, the autonomic nervous system uses two subsystems:
With the help of the parasympathetic nervous system and its largest and most important nerve, the vagus nerve, the autonomic nervous system sets our body at peace, enabling health, development, regeneration and healing. And with the help of the sympathetic nervous system, the physical systems are activated, which causes movement in the body. This change between esse and activity is, as long as we live, a continuous process that ideally balances calm and activity in a natural way.
The autonomic nervous system pursues a fundamental goal with all what it does: it wants to ensure our survival so that we can reproduce ourselves as long as possible and take care of our offsprings. And this survival can be ensured by forming bonds with likeminded people and by defending ourselves against danger.
Therefore, our Autonomic Nervous System assesses at every moment to what extent the situation we are in, and the people we are confronted with, are safe, dangerous or life-threatening. And it makes this assessment of the current state of danger regardless of our consciousness. It makes use of all available current sensory stimuli from the environment and from our body as well as the experiences stored in the central nervous system. Stephen Porges coined the term „neuroception“ for this unconscious process.
Depending on its assessment the autonomic nervous system prepares our body immediately and very quickly to respond appropriately to the situation. Especially in case of danger, fast reaction is vital, because a slow reaction can be quickly too slow. Depending on this, our body is prepared for actions that create connectedness, ward off danger or conserve resources. For this purpose the autonomic nervous system regulates the respiration, the cardiovascular system, the hormonal balance, muscle tension, the gastrointestinal activity, facial expression, voice, and hearing through the parasympathetic or sympathetic nervous system.
When our autonomic nervous system, by way of neuroception, in ideal circumstances attains to the unconscious assessment that a situation or encounter is safe, it regulates all important areas of the body in such a way that social interaction with humans and other beings becomes possible and a calming and nourishing feeling of connectedness can arise. This regulation happens via the ventral branch of the vagus nerve:
- breathing calms down and is relaxed;
- the heart beats in a pleasant rhythm, sending signals of calmness to all parts of the body;
- the muscles are relaxed because no action is imminent;
- the gastrointestinal tract works to provide us with nutrients and to dispose of waste;
- hormones that promote social behaviour are released;
- relaxed facial muscles especially around the eyes allow us a friendly facial expression;
- our voice is melodic and friendly in tone, and
- our middle ear is autonomously tuned so that the human voice can be optimally heard.
So our autonomic nervous system swings, out of a sense of security, in an area where we can have relaxed contact with other people and at the same time send signals of security. We can engage in conversations with a sense of connectedness and turn to joyous play and exuberant dance. In this context, without losing our assessment of safety, this also automatically leads to a moderate activation of the sympathetic nervous system. We can tell because our breathing becomes stronger, our heart rate increases and our muscle tone rises.
If this arousal continues to increase for example in the form of excitement, the point can be reached when it becomes necessary for us to set our boundaries and defend ourselves. The autonomic nervous system slowly changes its assessment from being safe to that there is danger. This is the important area of "healthy aggression", when the individual - still being connected with the feeling of security - stands up clearly and decisively for his own integrity and security. The ventral vagus remains basically active, so that the sympathetic activation does not increase too much, and we continue to be able to regulate our emotions as well as our behavior, and thus our actions will not become overbearing and hurtful.
At the other end of the spectrum of neuroceptively experienced safety, cardiovascular and respiratory activity, as well as muscle tone calm down further, and the digestive organs work optimally to provide us with nutrients. We can focus on learning and have the opportunity to deeply relax, which enables mental development and physical recovery.
This process is supported by the additional autonomous activation of the dorsal branch of the vagus. On the basis of the feeling of security and connectedness with people important to us, we can tolerate more and more immobility, which is not only a prerequisite for relaxation promoting forms of yoga, deep relaxation, meditation or contemplation, but also for the willingness to intimacy, a state of deep familiarity with the readiness to be close to one another and limited in movement. And last but not least, healthy sleep becomes possible only when the dorsal branch of the vagus is activated through a feeling of safety. This only slight activation of the dorsal vagus supports the current well-being, physical development and regeneration, the stabilization of the immune system and general health.
Ideally, our autonomic nervous system oscillates somewhere in this area between healthy immobility and healthy aggression. The basis for this is the neuroceptively experienced feeling of security and the feeling of connectedness which is being developed and stabilized during the interaction over time. This is the optimal dynamic range of our autonomic nervous system where well-being, development and health are possible.
When our autonomic nervous system comes to the assessment that the situation we are in or the person we meet is dangerous, it immediately begins - through the sympathetic nervous system - to prepare our body for proper defensive behavior such as fight and flight:
- breathing is accelerated, because now much oxygen is needed especially in the muscles,
- the heart rate increases because oxygenated blood and energy stored in the body has to be pumped through the body,
- muscle tension increases, so that fast and powerful movements are possible,
- digestive activity in the gastrointestinal tract is temporarily halted because digestion is not necessary for the impending defensive behavior and would unnecessarily consume energy,
- stress hormones are released and inform the entire body that there is danger,
- face and neck muscles are strained to better focus on the source of danger,
- the voice becomes hard and threatening or shrill and alarming, and
- the middle ear is autonomously tuned to hear, above all, deep sounds of danger or high-pitched alarm.
In extreme cases, recognizing danger mobilizes all available energy and strength to protect or defend our personal integrity or the integrity of our family and friends. It does not matter whether that danger is real or is only assumed. We experience the agglomeration of energy in us as anger, fury or rage.
In this fight/flight mode, we are no longer able to create pleasant and nourishing interpersonal interaction and our demeanour does not invite our counterpart to be friendly, either. We now rather appear to others repellent and frightening, which most likely causes our possibly peaceful counterpart also comes in the defense mode of the sympathetic nervous system.
One form of fight that is often not recognized as such is subservience, in which case you are scared stiff and aim at saving your own hide by emphasising your own peacefulness.
The more survival energy our body generates, the more aggressive the fight becomes: The threat is the ultimate announcement of violence. An argument that is initially carried out with words can very quickly grow into loud shouting, where nobody listens anymore. Quickly, the dispute can get physical: shoving and dragging start and suddenly a brawl breaks out, in which our fury is acted out blindly and wants to achieve the destruction of the source of danger.
All in all, our autonomic nervous system does not tend to be proportionate and rational. It does not weigh its response when it comes to matters of survival.
If we succeed in averting this danger victoriously or in escaping from it successfully, then on the basis of our newly gained feeling of security, our autonomic nervous system can re-establish itself in the ventral-vagal dynamic range, which makes social interaction and relaxation possible. The same applies if we can resolve the danger by re-evaluating the situation, or if we have an emphatic human on our side who supports us in a co-regulative way.
But if the danger persists for us and no newly gained experience of security sets in, if we can not manage to regulate our emotions and behavior, and have no one to assist us in the form of co-regulation, then we will not find our way back to social interaction and relaxation. Our autonomic nervous system remains in a state of high sympathetic arousal. This also applies if the danger occurs again and again in close succession: Our sympathetic nervous system remains activated in order to counter the existing or expected danger with all our strength at all times.
When our autonomic nervous system remains permanently activated and moves only in a restricted, highly-activated dynamic range, we develop persistent physical stress with all the resulting disadvantages: we find little or no opportunities for physical relaxation and regeneration, and we are more likely to develop manifold diseases on a physical and mental level.
In this context, we speak of a trauma when our autonomic nervous system repeatedly discovers dangers in the here and now that do not exist on closer inspection. However, something reminds us, without our being aware of it, of something that has deprived us of the feeling of security at another time and place.
We react to a special tone of voice, to words, gestures and postures, to actions and behaviours, to touch, proximity or spatial situations, to smells or colours, to images, unconscious thoughts and ideas.
We react to something that we and our autonomic nervous system have actually experienced as dangerous in the “there and then“ which we were unable to ward off successfully at that time.
We are responding with a defense strategy that has saved our survival in the “there and then“, but was not brought to a successful conclusion. At that time we could not regain a sense of security and got stuck in high activation. We fall back on a defense strategy, even if it is no longer appropriate for the here and now.
If our autonomic nervous system comes to the assessment that in the case of an existing danger neither the fight that has possibly already begun nor the flight already initiated have the prospect of success, that the danger is rather overwhelming and absolutely life-threatening, then it activates the dorsal vagus: all essential systems of our body shut down in a state of anxiety and high stress hormone levels:
- breathing becomes flat,
- heart rate drops to a minimum,
- muscle tension is extremely low, and
- gastrointestinal activity almost stops.
In this physiological state, which is intended to protect the entire system also from the threat of sympathetic overload, we give the impression of being lifeless and thus become uninteresting for a potential aggressor. Our sense of pain decreases and all possible resources are saved for a time "after". The result is more or less complete immobility in the face of the threat.
One form of sometimes even slight immobility is sadness, because of which the individual no longer knows how to continue after a loss and at the same time can not allow anger and rage. If a frightening event comes across as overwhelming and surprising, there is not really time for an active reaction. The shock, the instant immobility, is physiologically the only way of defending an overburdened system.
Compared to flight, with which one wants to bring oneself actively out of the danger zone, the withdrawal is an escape into your inner self. However, in this way you still remain in the danger zone.
During torpor or shutdown, due to the very low muscle tension, this immobility is accompanied by motor immobility. And in the event of fainting, the cardiovascular system actually collapses for some time.
Once the individual is in a state of immobility, it becomes very difficult to get back into mobility because the autonomic nervous system has maneuvered itself into a kind of dead end. Above all, this is due to the fact that people in the state of immobility continue to be in the danger zone without being able to do anything actively so that the danger dissolves. So, when a human being returns from immobility to mobility, sehr immediately experiences the dangerous situation and feels anger and rage. And if the situation has not really changed, because either the danger has dissolved or someone helps us to get out of the danger zone into an experience of safety, the feeling of being overpowered quickly reappears. And that throws the individual back into immobility. In this way, the autonomic nervous system operates persistently in a very limited dysregulated dynamic range between anger and fainting.
If a person finds herself too often in the immobility mode - which is only intended for absolute emergencies - or in the described dysregulated dynamic range, then we speak of a trauma, from which not only our satisfaction with life and our vitality suffer, but in fact also our physical health: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, respiratory problems, pain and cancer are more likely to occur.
And mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety and the associated drug problems are much more likely. Basically, this also affects our higher cognitive functions, such as decision making, problem solving, and emotions regulation.
One way out of immobility back to the area of relaxation and social interaction leads via immobility without fear. This path becomes available when the threat and the pressure emminating from this threat dissolve and slowly, sometimes only very slowly, a sense of security in immobility can arise. If this process lasts long enough, moments of relaxation can occur again and the beginning of social interaction elsewhere will be possible. But this has not necessarily dissolved the threatening basic situation that has led to immobility with fear.
If a person actually continues to live in adverse circumstances such as abuse, violence, neglect or poverty, or if her adverse life experiences from “there and then“ are triggered time and time again, then there is a high risk for the individual of falling again and again into immobility with fear. Only when these current adverse living conditions are resolved or the adverse life experiences are renegotiated, an increasing and lasting feeling of security can occur. Only then is it possible for the autonomic nervous system to return to its optimal dynamic range.
Our autonomic nervous system works day and night to ensure our survival. That it does so very efficiently and successfully, is obvious, because after all, we are still alive. However, when we have been confronted with too many adverse life experiences in our life that have frightened us, and at the same time there has been no one to guide us back into experiencing safety, then our autonomic nervous system can fundamentally get out of the rhythm of rest and activity.
The good news is that it is always possible to recover that healthy rhythm. However, we can not do this healing on our own; we need at least one sensitive fellow human being who accompanies us on this journey. It does not necessarily have to be a therapist, it can also be a friend or a person we trust. Healing arises when, on the path of co-regulation, we experience time and again a feeling of security and connectedness in the here and now.
In the end it is not necessary for us to always and everywhere feel safe, because a certain degree of insecurity and danger is simply part of life. We also do not need co-regulation at all times. However, what we need and what we should give our children as the greatest gift is an embodied knowledge that we have, in principle, access to safe living environments and secure social relationships.
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Stephen Porges: Die Polyvagal-Theorie, 2010
Die Polyvagal-Theorie und die Suche nach Sicherheit, 2017
Kathy Kain, Stephan Terrell: Nurturing Resilience, 2018
Alaine Duncan, Kathy Kain: The Tao of Trauma, 2019
