‘A NEW WORLD’

The Neurophysiological Miscalibration that Could Redefine Humanity

It seems as if we are living in ‘a new world’. While a new normal has developed over 4 months, it has also taken us by surprise. Many of us are experiencing feelings of overwhelm and disorientation as well as grieving the loss of ‘the old world’ and the way things were.  As  I process what this means, I look to my foundations working in the field of complex health and origins of trauma.

When I assess a client, I  consider a number of things including their current health presentation, neurophysiological base line, their attachment history as well as ACEs (adverse childhood experiences).

The basic principle behind this multi-dimensional consideration, is that past traumatic experience may have direct implication on the development of mental health and complex health conditions later in life. Research shows that children who have experienced a certain amount of adverse experiences are more likely to develop these conditions. It also shows, that when adverse experiences are countered with positive experiences that invite internal safety and relational connection. This suggests, that while bad things happen in life, we can repair the damage with positive experience.

If we look a little deeper into the neurophysiology behind ACEs, we can understand how individuals are affected at a root level.

Traumatic experience can leave us with a disorganised nervous system. Essentially, our internal sense of what is safe and what is dangerous miscalibrates, so that danger becomes an underpinning of our personal and interpersonal experience. Through working in a clinic environment, I have come to believe that all complex conditions present with a disorganised nervous system at the root. Illness itself is trauma.

This all boils down to survival physiology.

When we experience something that is dangerous or threatening, our nervous systems detect the danger and alert us by sending danger signals through our nervous system so that we can self-protect. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory teaches that when we experience danger, we either switch into fight or flight mode (high tone sympathetic activation) or we switch into freeze mode (high tone parasympathetic activation).  Further research found in Nurturing Resilience by Kathy L.  Kain & Stephen J. Terrell teaches that sometimes, the nervous system experiences coactivation which is a dual response of both branches of the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic).

In a healthy nervous system, once the threat is over, the danger signal turns off, and the nervous system returns to its natural resting state – rest and digest (ventral vagal). It is in this state that we can experience a sense of internal safety and navigate relationships with others, and the world at large with access to rational thought and a capacity to manage difficult situations.

During our formative years, which some consider as 0-7, but may actually be considered 0-24 (the time during which the human brain develops to full capacity), our experience of danger or safety shapes our neurophysiological base line.

When there is an experience of either heightened or prolonged external threat, the nervous system miscalibrates to believe that danger is normal. It becomes our basic neurophysiological response, to survive. The external threat internalises, so the nervous system is constantly sensing threat… even when the threatening experience is over.

How does this manifest in a person?

The results of a miscalibrated nervous system can vary person to person, depending on factors including: the nature of the traumatic experience, predispositions in neurophysiology, levels of relational and environmental safety.

Some symptoms may include:

Sympathetic Miscalibration:

Anxiety

Fibromyalgia/unexplained pain

Insomnia

Peristaltic bowel motion

Muscle Tension

Increased heart rate/high blood pressure

Rapid breathing

Parasympathetic Miscalibration:

Depression

Digestive issues

Low blood pressure

Shallow breathing

Sensitivity to external stimulus (eg, touch, light, sound)

Coactivated miscalibration:

Emotional Dysregulation (oscillation into high states of emotion)

Mental health conditions with oscillating tendencies (eg bipolar and borderline personality disorder)

Brain fog

Tinnitus 

Dizziness

Unstable blood pressure

The relational aspect

In addition to physical and mental health implications, a nervous system that has miscalibrated to experience a permanent sense of danger, will cause a shift in relational capacity and social tendencies.

When we are geared towards survival, it comes out in the way we interact with other people and the way we respond to the external world.

If we are primed to fight or flight, we will tend towards over-assertiveness and aggression. We will not find it safe to enter a space of deep listening or empathetic contemplation. Our actions and decisions will derive from a need to self-protect; and the go to strategy is, in essence, war.

If we are primed to freeze, we will tend towards passivity, silence and what is known as a ‘fawn response’. Our actions and decisions will derive from a need to self-protect, and the go to strategy, in essence, is to isolate and hide.

Both these survival strategies tend towards protecting the self and disregarding the needs of other. There is no room within survival to consider relationship, only self.

If this self-serving survival instinct underpins both our neurophysiology and our relational organising principles, it makes it very hard to exist in a collaborative and compassionate way. Our neurophysiological experience, tells us, it is not safe to live this way. It tells us to fight and conquer, or to isolate and be quiet as a mouse. It tells us to engage in war.

Zooming out to the current pandemic

Let’s consider the above information and zoom out to the current pandemic, where EVERYONE is experiencing some sense of threat. And I mean EVERYONE. Even if we are not physically affected by the corona virus, there is death and disease all around us, the media storm and government precautions is inciting fear and many of our basic human interactions have been labelled as dangerous. There is danger everywhere and our nervous systems know that. Danger. Danger. Danger.

As a global community we are being exposed to a prolonged sense of danger. Our collective nervous systems are calibrating to a new normal – to exist in a state of survival.

This is not just a passing phase. We are being affected on a neurophysiological and biological level.

A matter of resilience

For those of us with healthy, resilient nervous systems and healthily formed organising principles, we will be ok.

For those of us, who already exist with a baseline of danger and struggle to cope in ‘the old world, our capacity to mange through and beyond this is far less. Our capacity to cope is much less.

For our children, who are still developing their neurophysiological base lines and organising principles, this will change their foundation of interpersonal and environmental relating.

Looking forward

Knowing that there is a global neurophysiological shift occurring that will have long-reaching effects on the biology of humanity, what can we do? Here are my thoughts:

1. Education: awareness of our neurophysiological experience and most importantly, the impact on relating patterns

In order to create change, we need to understand what’s happening. We need to know more than ‘this is a mental health crisis’. 

Parents & Families: we need to educate parents and families – to know what is happening inside us, our children, our partners, families and friends. When we understand ourselves and others experience, we will have greater capacity for empathetic relating.

Health-care Providers: All healthcare providers need to be equipped to understand the neurophysiology of trauma, assess a current neurophysiological base-line, provide clear psycho-education and self-care tools for patients to implement. Ultimately, self-care IS healthcare.

Schools & Education Services: educators, especially for children and teens, need to understand the implications on the children’s nervous systems and relating patterns. They need to be equipped with language and tools that will best support feelings of internal and relational safety in individuals and within groups.

Employers, Community & Government Organisations: Organisations & business leaders need to be aware of how the neurological changes in so many individuals, will change the way employees and people in general respond to each other and to work responsibilities. They will need to understand that capacity to work and to engage will be reduced and provided language and skills to help employees and teams increase internal resource and improve team dynamics.

2. Building Resilience

Knowing that this problem stems from neurophysiology, we need to work with rebuilding resilience and capacity. This will be a foundation to recovering as individuals and as a global community. Resilience grows from pendulation from accessing internal safety to manageable levels of sympathetic or parasympathetic activation and back to internal safety. Our nervous systems need to know a)I can feel safe b) I can manage sates of threat c) I can return to safety. And it needs to learn in small increments, and though repetition. Building resilience takes time and consistency.

3. Leadership, Community, Connection & Co-regulation

Our nervous systems learn through mirroring. Our relating patterns develop through example and relationship. This idea is from attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby & Mary Ainsworth. When we are babies, our organising principles are learned from the example that our primary care-givers give us. We simply cannot learn alone. We cannot build resilience alone. We cannot learn to self-regulate and access safety alone. A fundamental of humanity is that we need, other, in order to survive and more importantly, to thrive. Now more than ever, we need strong leadership and community out-reach that invites experiences of safety and connection and teach relating patterns that stem from empathy and compassion. 

We are living in ‘a new world’. What is most important now, is that we remember who we are, as humans. That we look back to our biology and neurophysiology. That we do not move further into a state of war. If we take a collective breath, and go back to our beginnings, perhaps the future we desire will emerge.

What are our thoughts? Natalia is happy to engage on the subjects included here and work with communities and leaders who seek to effect long term social change. Email natalia@somaclinic.sg