Trauma and the Nervous System
When State Changes, Everything Changes
Understanding the relationship between perception, nervous-system state, emotion, behavior, and the way we experience life.
What we experience internally does not remain separate from the body. Our perception influences our state, our state influences what becomes available to us, and what becomes available influences how we respond to life.
State Changes What Becomes Possible
One of the most useful ways to understand the nervous system is to recognize that our physiological state influences the way we perceive, feel, think, and behave.
When the nervous system perceives danger, the body organizes itself around protection. Attention narrows. Emotional tone changes. Muscles prepare for action. Certain behaviors become more available while others become harder to access.
When the nervous system is regulated and connected, we have access to a different range of responses. Curiosity, flexibility, communication, reflection, connection, and creative problem-solving become more available.
The Nervous System as a State-Based System
Polyvagal Theory provides a useful framework for understanding this relationship between physiological state and behavior.
In a state of relative safety and connection, we can remain present, communicate, think flexibly, and engage with other people. When the sympathetic nervous system becomes activated, the body mobilizes toward action. Fight, flight, vigilance, urgency, anger, and anxiety can become prominent.
When the nervous system moves toward immobilization, we can experience withdrawal, numbness, disconnection, exhaustion, or shutdown.
Connection
Presence, flexibility, social engagement, communication, curiosity, and the ability to remain connected while experiencing emotion.
Mobilization
Energy, vigilance, urgency, fight, flight, tension, and preparation for action.
Immobilization
Withdrawal, numbness, disconnection, collapse, exhaustion, and the experience of being unable to respond.
When the State Takes Over
A person can be objectively safe while the nervous system is behaving as though danger is present.
The body may become tense. Attention may become hyperfocused on a problem. Thoughts may race. The person may feel compelled to control what happens next or urgently solve something that does not require immediate action.
This is where recognizing the state becomes important.
The reaction may be real without the perceived danger being present in the way the nervous system believes it is.
A strong reaction does not automatically tell us what is true about the present moment. It tells us something about the state from which we are experiencing the moment.
This distinction creates space between the automatic reaction and the present experience.
The internal representation changes.
The state changes.
The emotion changes.
The available actions change.
When We Become Rigid
One of the most useful signs to notice is rigidity.
A person may suddenly become extremely certain about what must happen, what another person must do, or what the future must look like. There can be an intense need to control the outcome.
Rather than immediately assuming that this rigidity represents the truth of the situation, we can recognize that it may be a sign that the nervous system has moved into a protective state.
The more activated the nervous system becomes, the narrower the field of perceived possibilities can become.
Curiosity can disappear. Flexibility can disappear. Alternative responses can become difficult to see.
Recognizing this does not require suppressing the feeling. It simply means noticing the state before allowing the state to determine the response.
The Space Between State and Action
A reaction is organized rapidly by the existing state.
A response becomes possible when there is enough awareness and regulation to perceive what is happening without being completely governed by the protective pattern.
The Mind Does Not Respond Only to the Present
The mind responds not only to what is physically happening in front of us. It also responds to memories, expectations, imagined outcomes, interpretations, and internal representations.
A person can remember a frightening experience and feel the body react as though something is happening now.
A person can anticipate rejection and experience tension before anything has actually happened.
A person can imagine being safe, loved, supported, capable, or successful and experience a corresponding change in emotional and physiological state.
The internal representation is not separate from the state in which we experience life.
Different Frameworks, A Shared Point of Interest
This is where Polyvagal Theory becomes particularly interesting alongside NLP, mindfulness, visualization, and the Law of Assumption.
These approaches use different language and come from different traditions, but they all place importance on the relationship between internal representation, state, perception, and response.
State Determines the Field of Possibility
Consider the difference between approaching a situation from fear and approaching the same situation from security.
From fear, the mind may immediately search for evidence of danger. The body may tense. Attention may narrow. The person may anticipate rejection, prepare for conflict, attempt to control the outcome, or withdraw.
From a state of security, the same person may notice more possibilities. They may communicate more clearly, remain curious, tolerate uncertainty, recognize alternatives, and respond rather than react.
The external situation may not have changed yet.
The internal position has changed.
And because the internal position has changed, the person’s experience of the situation and the responses available to them can change as well.
It Is Not About Eliminating Every State
The nervous system is designed to move through different states.
Mobilization is useful when action is required. Withdrawal can create distance from overwhelming stimulation. Connection allows us to engage, communicate, create, and relate.
The goal is not to eliminate uncomfortable states.
The goal is flexibility.
We become capable of recognizing the state we are in, understanding what has activated it, orienting to the present, and allowing ourselves to move into a different state when the circumstances call for it.
We do not have to become the state we are experiencing. We can recognize it, move through it, and return to a position from which a different response is possible.
A Different Internal Position
Polyvagal Theory gives us a language for recognizing the relationship between nervous-system state and behavior.
NLP gives us a way of working with internal representation.
Mindfulness gives us the ability to observe the present experience.
The Law of Assumption places attention on the state from which we are experiencing ourselves and our lives.
When the internal position changes, the experience changes.
When the state changes, different responses become available.
And when different responses become available, life can be experienced
from an entirely different position.