Do you experience anxiety or chronic pain without a definite cause? You might not be sick, but you may be dealing with nervous system dysregulation symptoms. It is a state in which your nervous system becomes stuck in survival mode and is unable to resume rest and recovery.
Dysregulation of the nervous system happens when your autonomic nervous system fails to properly interpret safety and danger. Your nervous system becomes stuck on the perception of danger at the time when you are sitting in a safe place at home. This causes your body to be continuously in an activated state.
There are two main branches in your nervous system. When you are threatened, the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. When you are safe, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated. These two balance each other in a healthy nervous system.
Standard medicine frequently overlooks nervous system dysregulation, as the test results are normal. This is the reason why functional medicine acknowledges what conventional medicine fails to
What Is the Nervous System
Nervous system dysregulation is a functional failure of your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) to maintain balance, which is medically called homeostasis.
Your ANS is expected to swiftly alternate between your sympathetic (fight or flight) state and your parasympathetic (rest and digest) state in accordance with what is occurring around you. It becomes dysregulated when it becomes stuck in one state.
This is scientifically proven by clinical studies on Heart Rate Variability (HRV). HRV is the number of milliseconds between heartbeats. When your HRV is high, it indicates a healthy nervous system. It can change stress to relaxation.
But studies reveal that patients experiencing chronic dysregulation maintain a low HRV. Their pulse is stiff, and it is a physiological fact that their brain is in survival mode.
There is also a study on what is known as allostatic load that reveals that sustained dysregulation actually changes the structure of your brain.
It is a physical enlargement of a portion of your brain known as the amygdala, and it is hyper-reactive. Meanwhile, your logical, calming brain, called the prefrontal cortex, is weaker.
Thus, the threat-detection system of your body gets out of tune. It literally fails to understand when it is safe physically.
Nervous System Dysregulation Symptoms
When you are stuck in this sympathetic state, it creates a cascade of physical, emotional, and mental symptoms. You should look for these common signs:
1. Anxiety
You can be okay one minute, and the next time, when you are inconvenienced, you have a huge emotional meltdown. This anxiety is generalized and not specific to any particular thing.
This is because your nervous system is still in the mode of threat detection. Your amygdala is over-sensitive. Thus, you respond to small stressors in an exaggerated manner since your brain interprets them as real dangers to your existence.
2. Irregular Heart Rate
Irregular heart rate is also one of the nervous system dysregulation symptoms. You have a racing heart that just suddenly comes on without any reason.
Even when you are resting, your heart rate remains high. It is your sympathetic nervous system that is revving your heart, ready to cope with the crisis which it believes is approaching.
3. Digestive Discomfort like IBS, Bloating, Acid Reflux
When your body is in fight or flight mode, it cuts all blood supply to your digestive system.
Thus, you experience symptoms such as chronic bloating, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, or acid reflux. You might be having the most ideal diet, but as long as your nervous system is out of control, you will not absorb the nutrients.
4. Chronic Pain
Chronic pain that moves around your body or is not related to any condition also points to a nervous system dysregulation.
Muscle tension and tightness may be present, especially in the neck, shoulders, and jaw. You can have headaches that do not have any obvious cause and body aches that leave doctors confused due to no structural issue.
This is referred to as central sensitization. Your nervous system is oversensitive, and it interprets normal sensations as dangerous.
5. Breathing Problems
Difficulties in breathing occur when your nervous system remains in the stress mode. Even at rest, your breathing is shallow and quick. You can feel shortness of breath without any physical activity and chest tightness. This causes you to be concerned that something is wrong with your heart. But the problem is not your heart or lungs.
Your nervous system is in emergency mode, and this is why your breathing pattern is in emergency mode.
6. Sleep Problems
Insomnia is almost universal when there is dysregulation of the nervous system. Even when you are tired, you can hardly fall asleep. You experience regular nightmares or daydreams.
7. Fatigue
Normal tiredness is not the same as fatigue, which cannot be rectified by rest.
This is tiredness that sleep fails to heal. This is due to the fact that your body is burning huge amounts of energy operating the stress response 24/7.
Your nervous system is not really resting even when you are asleep since the nervous system remains in a state of threat.
8. Emotional Dysregulation
Emotional dysregulation refers to the fact that your moods change abruptly and strongly. It is very common in individuals with dysregulation of the nervous system.
9. Brain Fog and inability to focus
Brain fog and concentration problems develop because your brain prioritizes threat detection in survival mode.
More advanced mental processes, such as concentration, memory, and planning, become secondary since your nervous system believes that survival is more important.
10. Light, Sound, Sensation Sensitivity
You become hypersensitive to light, sound, and sensations. Sensory experiences that others experience without discomfort become overwhelming to you.
Your nervous system has increased the perceived level of threat of sensory input, so everything is more intense and more threatening than it is.
How to Reset Your Nervous System
It is best for you to address the root cause and physically train your nervous system to feel safe again. This is what you should do:
1. First, Stabilize Your Blood Sugar
Blood sugar crashes are a massive, hidden stressor. When you do not eat breakfast or have a sweet meal, your blood sugar level decreases. Your brain panics and secretions of cortisol to draw stored sugar from your liver.
This causes an immediate fight-or-flight reaction. Thus, you must not skip meals. You are supposed to consume a healthy-fat breakfast that is rich in proteins and should be taken within one hour of waking up.
This maintains normal levels of sugar in your blood and avoids sending false signals of stress to your brain.
2. Specific Breathwork & Strategies
You cannot always think, but you can control your breathing. Your parasympathetic nervous system is controlled by the vagus nerve. You need to turn it on every day. This can be done by using so-called physiological sighs.
You must breathe a long breath in with your nose, and then, a second quick round of air at the very tip, and then slowly blow out with your mouth. This 3-5 times quickly decreases your heart rate and sends a signal to your brain that all is safe.
3. Exercise and Right Movement
When stressed, your body releases adrenaline and cortisol to get your muscles ready to fight or run. When you spend your days sitting at a desk, that stress hormone remains in your body.
You ought to finish the stress cycle by exercising your body. But the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) should be avoided when dysregulated because it produces more cortisol.
Rather, you can engage in low-intensity exercises such as brisk walking, light yoga, or swimming for 30 minutes daily to burn the stress hormones.
4. Build a Sense of Physical Safety
Your nervous system must be provided with real-life experiences of safety, not merely with the intellectual knowledge that you are safe.
You should establish a routine of taking a rest. Not just sleep. You need to relax, lie down, inhale and exhale, and leave your body to rest. Without checking your phone.
Take a walk in the woods. Nature naturally activates your parasympathetic nervous system. Natural light, trees, and water are all indications of safety.
5. Emotional Control Using DBT Techniques
Stress is sometimes not the problem and it is the way your body responds to it. Therapies such as dialectical behavior therapy are aimed at teaching you to cope with the powerful emotions without losing control. This involves learning to stop and not to react immediately.
You may experiment with such basic tools as:
- Cold water exposure: Taking cold water on your face when you are overwhelmed, even a little bit of cold water on your face. This can induce vagal activation and recalibrate your nervous system as to the threat.
- Humming, singing, or gargling: This help stimulates your vagus-controlled muscles and increases vagal tone.
- Light exercise: You may practice yoga, tai chi, walking, or swimming. These are the movements that are rhythmic and gentle, and they help to regulate your nervous system without causing more activation.
These small actions create space between your trigger and your reaction, and that’s where real regulation happens.
6. Sleep & Rest
It is in sleep that your nervous system rests. Your body does not switch off completely if you are constantly on the phone, noisy, and stressed.
A simple wind-down routine is a good place to start. Remind your body that it’s time to take it slow. And, take some rest time during the day. It even takes 5-10 minutes to do nothing and get your system back.
7. Nutrition and Supplementation
There are certain nutrients that your nervous system needs. You should add these supplements to your routine.
- Magnesium: It is necessary to regulate the nervous system. There are plenty of individuals who are lacking.
- B vitamins: It is necessary in the production of neurotransmitters.
- Omega-3 fatty acids: It plays an important role in the health of the brain and nervous system.
- More Protein: You need 0.8 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight per day.
When you weighed 60 kg, you should consume about 48-72g of protein per day. Some of these best protein options are eggs, chicken, fish, meat, Greek yogurt.
8. Stop Forcing Relaxation
When you attempt to meditate with the nervous system dysregulation, you may feel more nervous. Instead, you should focus on somatic tracking. You just need to sit there and label what is happening in your body without attempting to correct it.
Tell yourself: I have a tightness in my chest. I have a knot in my stomach. This sends a signal to your brain that you are safely watching your body, and this instantly decreases the level of neurological threat.
Conclusion
Nervous system dysregulation means that you need to continually communicate safety signals to your body by exercising your habitual patterns, diet, and lifestyle.
When you have such symptoms of dysregulation and the traditional medicine no longer holds the answer, it is time to approach it differently.
At Kairos Health & Wellness, Lola, one of our functional nurse practitioners, is dedicated to finding the underlying cause of your neurosystemic imbalance, be it silent inflammation, deficiencies of nutrients, or metabolic imbalance.
We devise individualized, evidence-based strategies to enable your body to eventually get out of survival mode and re-enter the healing process.