how anxiety & depression go together (according to Polyvagal Theory)
read time: 8 minutes
disclaimer: This is not medical advice. This is intended to educate, inspire and support you in your self healing journey. Speak to your medical professional. Some content might be sensitive; I invite you to practice self-harmonizing.
The clock approaches 2 am. If you go to bed now, maybe you can still salvage tomorrow without being completely exhausted.
Maybe you are diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder or Major Depressive Disorder, or you might not have a clinical diagnosis but feel anxious or depressed.
Anxiety and depression exist on a continuum, they are co-morbid, they exist together (albeit not usually at the exact same moment in time).
Both anxiety and depression are symptoms of overwhelming stress in the nervous system.
When you are faced with a stressor (stressful life experience) your nervous system’s first line of defense is Social Engagement, the ventral vagal branch of the vagus nerve — you look to your community for support.
If your needs aren't met in community, your nervous system drops into the Sympathetic Nervous System (fight/flight).
Here your nervous system signals to increase adrenaline and cortisol to fight back or run away.
Adrenaline and cortisol create a mobilizing energy, if you don’t use this energy to fight or flee, the mobilizing energy becomes feeling anxious, scattered, fidgety, restless, ruminating, worrying, can’t focus, distracted, hypervigilant, urgent, ADHD, obsessive/compulsive, etc.
If this nervous system state doesn't work and your nervous system still perceives (unconsciously) a threat in your environment, then you drop down into Shutdown, the dorsal vagal branch of the vagus nerve.
In Shutdown, your nervous system “checks out”, numbs, dissociates to protect yourself from the really bad stuff that you couldn’t solve in Social Engagement or Sympathetic. It dos this by pumping opioids into the body, a immobilizing energy.
We could even look at bipolar as a drastic swing between manic (mobilizing, adrenaline, cortisol, Sympathetic) and depressive (immobilizing, opioid, Shutdown).
important: I’m not saying that anxiety, depression, OCD, bipolar, ADHD aren’t disorders. They are debiliating disorders. What I am saying is that perhaps, you’re not born destined to experience the disorder. That your nervous system (therefore endocrine and other systems) learned to wire itself in a way that we’ve labeled as anxiety, depression, etc. And if your nervous system learned to wire itself that way, it can also learn rewire itself into a new way. The nervous system can effectively relearn new ways of being with somatics.
Sometimes Shutdown is called Freeze or Functional Freeze, like a deer caught in the headlights. Freeze is actually a combination of Sympathetic and Shutdown, a simultaneous foot on the gas and the brake.
Whether you call it Shutdown or Freeze, this “shell shock” reaction is essential for keeping you alive when necessary, i.e. you break a bone or cut yourself badly.
The issue is the nervous system ramps up a protective response (Sympathetic, Shutdown, Freeze) for any overwhelming stressor.
Overwhelming stressors could be a traumatic experience, but it could also be daily, consistent, “small” stressors that pile up and overwhelm the nervous system. See this expansive list of stressors.
All three nervous system states are important for surviving, and ultimately thriving.
The goal is to adapt to meet the demands of the present moment. To be flexible and flow between Social Engagement, Sympathetic (fight/flight), and Shutdown when it’s appropriate, to not get stuck in any one… and, ultimately, to be in harmony with life itself.
Do you feel stuck in anxiety and/or depression?
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infinite love,
Stephanie
