The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Part 1
PART 1/4
Chronic stress could very well be a maladaptation that can be corrected with NPT
Introduction
When it comes to our bodies, you might be shocked to know just how large of a role our nervous system plays in just about everything that we feel. Whether it be something physical, like a variety of chronic health disorders, or something mental, like anxiety, depression, PTSD, or addiction.
The fact of the matter is that our nervous system is an important system that has the power to dictate just how we feel on a daily basis. You see, often times, the physical and mental symptoms described above often manifest themselves after dealing with lingering psychological experiences, such as trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and chronic stress.
Believe it or not, there is a term for this type of manifestation – and it’s called “nervous system dysregulation.” In the next few blog posts we are going to get to the heart of nervous system dysregulation by identifying the fundamental role that the ANS – the autonomic nervous system – plays in our daily lives.
By the end of this blog series, you should have a clear guide to help you calibrate your nervous system and relieve your body of physical systems by optimizing your mental health.
What Is The ANS?
The autonomic nervous system, also called the ANS for short, is in control of many of our automatic functions – in other words, these are the daily functions that our body completes on a daily basis without us having to think about them. For instance, your heart beats automatically to keep you alive and to pump oxygen rich blood throughout your body. You don’t have to think about your heart beating – it just does it on its own.
From there, the ANS is also responsible for controlling and regulating your digestive system, bodily temperature, and even breathing to an extent. And along with these core functions, the ANS also plays a role in our survival and stress response process – and this will be key during the course of our conversation. Essentially, the ANS plays a role in helping to keep us alive whenever our life is in danger. It is a pretty impressive system overall, especially when you take a step back and look at just how many different systems and functions it controls for us all on its own. Speaking of survival and stress response, let’s talk about that a bit more.
What Is Our Survival & Stress Response Process?
Whenever we situate ourselves outside of our comfort zone – say, when we leave our home to go to the market or to interact with other people, our body’s survival and stress response process gets activated. We begin to automatically scan our environment in ways that are above our consciousness. Our brain makes determinations for safety or for danger, and then elicits a response.
Typically, there are three general responses that the ANS provides us with, which all have an effect on how we feel in any given situation/environment:
Safe
The safe response leaves us feeling calm, cool, and collected – and we also feel comfortable with those around us. This is a good response to have, and it is a quite normal response to have during pleasurable activities like socializing, recreation, etc.
Mobilized
When our ANS detects a stressful situation, we enter into the mobilized response. In this response, the ANS sends out important messages all throughout our body, along with the release of adrenaline and cortisol. Our breathing rate increases, as does our heart rate, and we enter into a heightened state of alert. Essentially, this is our “fight or flight” response. Our body mobilises everything that we’ll need to survive a stressful situation, whether that means fighting or fleeing.
Immobilised
When danger becomes so great that we are unable to fight or run, our body does its best to essentially shut us down and leave us relatively immobile. In this state, our heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure decrease. Additionally, endorphins are released throughout our body to prepare itself for pain. These endorphins are pain-numbing, which is our ANS’s way of keeping us safe and mentally stable even in the event of injury.
And the best part about all of this? Well, our ANS does all of this automatically, without us having to give it a second thought. It is part of our natural abilities as humans, and it certainly stands as part of our most impressive natural instincts.
Understanding the ANS will help identify whether or not the current states you find yourself in, physically, mentally and emotionally is indeed an accurate reflection of your environment or perhaps a *maladaptation.
To be continued…
*A maladaptation is a trait that is more harmful than helpful, in contrast with an adaptation, which is more helpful than harmful. All organisms, from bacteria to humans, display maladaptive and adaptive traits. In animals, adaptive behaviors contrast with maladaptive ones
