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Freakouts and Shutdowns: Why Your Nervous System Isn't the Enemy

Freakouts and Shutdowns: Why Your Nervous System Isn't the Enemy

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 Freakouts and Shutdowns: Why Your Nervous System Isn't the Enemy

We're focusing on somatic skills this week with a primer on mapping your autonomic nervous system.

So here’s the deal: your nervous system isn’t out to ruin your life - it’s just doing its one job: keeping you alive. Every panic spiral, every shut-down, every overreaction? Not a moral failure. Just survival strategies that worked… until they didn’t. In this episode, we break down Polyvagal Theory as a way to map what’s really happening under the hood. Think of it like your body’s color-coded operating system:
  • Green Zone (ventral vagal): safety, connection, or, “I can text back without hyperventilating.”
  • Yellow Zone (sympathetic): fight/flight, aka "Is this email notification side-eyeing me?!"
  • Red Zone (dorsal vagal): shut-down, freeze, that “I can't even...” vibe.
We’ll talk about neuroception - your body’s unconscious radar scanning for danger - and how to track it through three streams of awareness: inside (your body), outside (your environment), and between (your relationships). The goal here isn’t to delete your defensive responses (that would actually be bad). It’s to learn compassionate self-regulation, improve vagal tone, and give yourself more flexibility - so the same system that used to lock you in survival mode can also unlock play, intimacy, and actually enjoying being alive.

Sources Referenced:

Armstrong, Amanda. Healing Through the Vagus Nerve: Improve Your Body’s Response to Anxiety, Depression, Stress, and Trauma Through Nervous System Regulation. Fair Winds Press, 2024.

Dana, Deb. Anchored. Vermilion, 2024.

Ferguson, Anna. The Vagus Nerve Reset. Random House Australia, 2023.

Maté, Gabor, MD. The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture. Random House, 2025.

Porges, Stephen W., PhD. Polyvagal Safety: Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation. National Geographic Books, 2021.

Porges, Stephen W., and Seth Porges. Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us. W. W. Norton and Company, 2023.

Walker, Pete, MA. Complex PTSD : From Surviving to Thriving: A Guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.

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