If you’re wondering whether your nervous system is dysregulated and stuck in survival mode, you’re in the right place.
Whether you’re feeling physical symptoms such as waking up in the middle of the night feeling anxious, your heartbeat races at various times throughout the day or you become sweaty – or you’re experiencing emotional symptoms such as chronic worry, irritability or becoming easily overwhelmed; these are all huge signs your nervous system is struggling.
Nervous system dysregulation is when there’s a state of chronic imbalance between fight-or-flight mode (your sympathetic nervous system) and rest-and-digest (your parasympathetic system). This is often caused by chronic stress (or even potentially trauma).
Common causes of your nervous system being in survival mode are;
- Chronic stress and burn out: Being exposed to high-pressure environments for a prolonged period of time
- Lifestyle factors: Poor diet, lack of sleep, lack of exercise
- Any type of trauma
- Underlying health conditions: Autoimmune conditions or hormone imbalances
If you experience a few of these signs below, I’ll explain how I manage to calm my nervous system down with some Body Regulation Tools in the hope it’ll work for you too.
1. Brain Fog
If you have trouble remembering things or you can’t cut through the noise in your mind to be able to focus, this could mean your nervous system is in survival mode.
When feeling at my most overwhelmed with little things and life in general, I couldn’t think clearly to save my life.
It’s a frustrating feeling; like there’s a crowd of people in your head all talking at once, makes it so difficult to remember anything, let alone try to focus on one thing at a time.
This could be due to being in fight or flight mode – the nervous system experiences many things as threats, including your negative thoughts.
The more negative thoughts you have and the more you begin to worry about various things in your life, the more overwhelmed your nervous system is going to become – making it difficult for your brain to focus, and therefore it allows various thoughts to whirl around your head, causing brain fog.
2. Irritability
A little irritability is normal for us humans to experience, however, if you’re finding you’re getting arsey and annoyed at little things or loved ones, that’s probably your nervous system trying to tell you it’s not okay.
Irritability feels like you’re on edge and the slightest thing can either annoy you or send you spiralling into anger.
Like sometimes when I hear a loved one being so negative when I’m already feeling overly irritable, it annoys the hell out of me because I’m already in a crap state of mind, I feel my brain cannot take anyone else’s negativity on since I can’t even process my own – resulting in me becoming short or hostile towards them or even shutting down and internalising the irritation due to fear of it exploding outwards in a terrible way.
Feeling overly irritable means you’re in your head instead of living your life.
Take a few deep breaths and try this short grounding exercise to bring you back to your body and out of your head, it’ll help to begin to calm your nervous system right now.
3. Constant Overthinking
This one is a vicious cycle that never ends.
Constant overthinking can ruin your life.
Seriously, if you overthink things to the point you freeze and don’t take any action, your nervous system is stuck in the fight-flight-freeze-or-fawn mode and you’ll never progress in life.
It happens to us all, however, if that mode kicks in regularly throughout your day over things that aren’t real threats to you and your safety, this is a sure sign your nervous system is struggling massively.
The fight-flight-freeze-or-fawn mode is ingrained in our bodies from our ancestors; remember, they had to hunt for food and had no idea if they’d return to their families alive, let alone if they’d get a meal that day.
Nowadays, that mode can be activated through what we think, as well as reacting to real dangers – for example; walking out into a road and a car suddenly comes racing towards us, we either freeze and potentially die, or run to safety. This mode is there for that reason.
If we’re overthinking about taking action towards something for example, then we find we’re unable to move due to fear caused by overthinking whatever it is not working and that we’d look like failures and so on, our thoughts have now activated this survival mode within; and this proves your nervous system needs you to learn how to be calm again, and how to change your negative thought patterns and behaviours to prove to yourself you have nothing to fear because it’s your thoughts that have caused this, nothing and no one else.
4. Chronic Pain
Over a year ago, I developed lower back pain that I couldn’t explain.
I was fit, eating healthily, sleeping well, however I had bouts of crippling anxiety and worry.
After visiting a physiotherapist and undergoing various examinations, he suggested that unexplained pain can potentially be caused by chronic stress or worry, and sometimes concentrating on regulating your nervous system and “thinking yourself better” actually works.
This blew my mind.
So over the next couple of weeks I told myself every night and every morning that my back was okay, I am okay, and that there’s nothing wrong with me.
I began researching on how to calm my nervous system and my pace of life slowed right down.
After those couple of weeks, my back began to feel normal again.
I’d shifted my mind from worrying that there was something terribly wrong with my health, to focusing on gentle exercise, improving my mindset and allowing myself time to learn how to calm my mind, and it worked wonders for my physical health.
I’m not saying all chronic pain can be cured via regulating your nervous system, however if there’s something you’ve had doctors look at and they have no idea what could be the physical issue, it’s maybe time to learn how to comfort your nervous system.
5. Poor Sleep
If you wake up in the middle of the night or wake up feeling absolutely shattered, this could be your nervous system telling you it won’t stop racing around.
If we go to bed stressed, we won’t sleep well, and when we wake up, it’ll start our day off in the worst way.
Having a bedtime routine helps with this alongside limiting screen time.
There’s nothing I like more than to light some candles, get warm under a blanket and write in my journal before I go to bed.
That way, any negativity I’m feeling will lift off my shoulders as I’ve written down my feelings about it and always feel better afterwards – plus, it’s calming me-time that signals to my brain I’m in a safe space, I’m comfortable, and nothing can disturb my peace; a very powerful mindset to develop by introducing these positive little habits into your daily routine.
Calming your mind before bed is the answer to decent sleep.
6. Racing Heartbeat and Sweating
These are a classic sign of anxiety, which inherently means your nervous system is out of whack.
I used to be so embarrassed by the symptoms of anxiety (sweating) that I went to the doctors years ago and they put me on beta-blockers.
Even though they minimise the symptoms of anxiety, I didn’t want to be stuck on medication for the rest of my life; so I weaned myself off them (not advised) as I was fed up of going to the doctors to feel they never truly helped me with anxiety.
Anyway, sweating and a racing heartbeat is a sign that your body’s getting ready for fight-or-flight – a huge signal that your nervous system is dysregulated.
Seeking medical help is important if it’s significantly impacting your daily life, however, even though I do shake and sweat at times due to my heartbeat racing, I’ve learned to accept it whilst learning how to calm it down.
Acceptance of your current situation is powerful – you end the suffering associated with thinking about how bad your situation is by just embracing and accepting it.
Next, you learn how to calm your mind, then your body will follow.
7. Relying On Food/Alcohol
This is an important one.
Emotionally eating and/or relying on alcohol in order for you to feel “better” can be a dangerous sign your nervous system urgently needs some TLC.
I speak from experience because at various times in my life, I’ve done both.
Alcohol gives us a false sense of confidence and comfort, which can help us to relax and feel comfortable in our own skin in the short term, however, the next day we experience “hang-ziety” where we’re hungover and extremely anxious. If our anxiety becomes that extreme, we may find ourselves reaching for the bottle again for that instant, temporary relief – and before you know it, you’re addicted.
Emotional eating has crept up on me many times – feeling particularly low? Treat yourself to chocolate, that’ll make you feel better.
Or, even worse, binge eating to numb any negative feelings.
After a binge, I used to feel so full I felt sick, however I had a warm, fuzzy feeling inside that quietened any noise and negativity in my mind – I’d feel spaced-out for a while, which felt like a nice break, but soon reality came back and hit me in the face when the feelings of shame and guilt began to surface.
I’d feel so low because I lacked any self-compassion, it spiralled down into depression.
In my recovery from emotional eating and binge drinking, I learned I was damaging myself first in my mind; I’d listen to that negative voice that constantly judged me and believed it – therefore my self-worth and self-belief gradually began to fade away.
The first and most important thing is to realise you have a problem,
The second is to not judge yourself for it, it’s to begin to soothe your nervous system – to remind yourself you’re not perfect, you’re safe and you’re going to be okay.
Again, please seek medical help if these are impacting your daily life – I’ve been through 2 different types of therapy and parts of both have helped me recover and begin living life again.
This list isn’t exhaustive.
There are many other symptoms that could indicate your nervous system is in survival mode.
The good news is, this won’t last forever if you break the cycle and learn how to calm your nervous system.
My Body Regulation Tools
Focusing on activating the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest) to calm down the high alert (sympathetic) system is what your body needs to get your nervous system regulating normally again.
Here are some suggestions on how to calm your nervous system that have actually worked for me;
- Getting out in nature: Plan time to go for a walk or find a bench somewhere green. Immersing yourself as much as you can in nature. I find gardening calms my mind and body
- Movement: Going for a workout at the gym, a walk, physically shaking out the body can help release pent-up tension, signalling your nervous system to calm down afterwards – this brings awareness to the present moment instead of allowing your brain to wander off into the future or look back at the past
- Breathing deeply: Try 2 inhales followed by 1 long exhale – do this a few times and it’ll send safety signals to your brain
- Self touch: Giving yourself a hug or gently stroking your own hands and arms sends signals to the brain that you’re being comforted; may feel weird at first, but give it a try
- Put your phone down: Too much scrolling and screen time is linked to higher levels of anxiety and a sensitive nervous system. Got some time on your hands? Instead, do some painting, journal, be present with the smell and taste of your morning coffee.
All of these “tools” have one thing in common;
Becoming aware of your body in this moment right here.
Whether it’s moving your body to release tension or really enjoying the simple pleasures of the taste of good coffee, reminding yourself you’re here right now and not wherever you are in your head will begin to soothe your nervous system because you’ll know you’re safe exactly where you are.
Click on the TikTok symbol at the bottom of the page to connect with me and let me know if you have any body regulation tools of your own that help you.
Or, if you’re struggling, don’t hesitate to reach out, I read every message and hope to help, because I know how isolating it can feel when you’re experiencing anxiety, depression, burn out, overwhelm; the list is endless.
Sometimes, connecting with someone with similar experiences and knowing you’re not alone alleviates some anxiety and gives hope.
My life isn’t perfect, but who’s is?
I’m learning to navigate my life with the cards I’ve been dealt, whilst turning my back on fear and pursuing my dreams.
It’s not an easy road to take, but it’s worth it if you’re serious about changing your mindset and life in a positive way.
I hope this post has helped you in understanding a bit about why you feel the way you do, and how to begin to calm your nervous system.
A regulated nervous system creates a more peaceful life.
