Nervous System Regulation and Chiropractic

There are 4 main states in the nervous system

-Ventral vagal (safe and social)

Alive, connected, play, seeking and maintaining social engagement.

-Parasympathetic (rest and digest)

Resting, intimacy, stillness, healthy sleep patterns.

-Doral Vagal (shutdown)

Depressed, shame, exhausted, lethargic, avoidance.

-Sympathetic (fight or flight)

Annoyed, aggressive, scared, alarm, terror/rage.

A healthy nervous system moves between ventral vagal and parasympathetic 80% of the time.

The other 20% moves into dorsal or sympathetic when there is a relative stimulus/threat.

The problem is when that ratio changes and our nervous system gets predominantly ‘stuck’ in shutdown or fight or flight.

This tends to happen accumulatively over time, bit by bit, the body can start to store unprocessed experiences such as childhood trauma, chronic stress and repressed emotions. 

Gradually the nervous system loses is ability to bounce back into the healthier aspects of the nervous system.

Does this mean you feel this in your body? You can. But everyone’s expression is different.

One day you might just wake up and feel more disconnected from yourself, or lacking motivation.

You might start to get physical symptoms like anxiety, headaches, digestion issues or find it harder to sleep and like your mind doesn’t “switch off” easily.

Some people swing the other way and feel less especially if in ‘shutdown’ and may not have a lot of symptoms.

When we start adjusting someone who has predominantly now shifted into the fight or flight or shutdown response, this activates their nervous system to begin to move OUT of that state, back into the the heather aspects of the nervous system.

In time with consistency, this repatterns the ratio of the nervous system so the nervous system operates in rest or digest or parasympathetic the majority of the time.

If this resonates for you, perhaps it’s time to reach out to a nervous system trained chiropractor.

Dr Katelyn Boucher

(Chiropractor)