Nervous System Dysregulation vs Exhaustion l Ep 36

Everyone on the internet (TikTok......) thinks their nervous system is dysregulated - but what does that actually mean? Many people say their nervous system is exhausted or dysregulated, as if those two states equate to the same thing. 

However, they are two completely different things - and you can't treat yourself correctly if you don't actually know what health problem you're experiencing. This is especially true when one of these problems requires medical intervention and the other is only situationally dependant. 

One is a diagnosis, one is a descriptor, but which is which? What causes each? In this episode, we get to the bottom of it and I give advice on how to treat each one. Weehoo!

Win most, lose some 

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Transcript

If you think you’re experiencing nervous system exhaustion, you may be able to DIY your treatment a little bit more. Of course, I’ll never say don’t go to therapy—I’m the biggest supporter of therapy. I think if you have the slightest inkling that you should go, that means go. But that’s a controversial opinion that not everyone agrees with.

And nervous system exhaustion is more likely to be resolved through at-home adjustments like lifestyle changes, exercise, meditation, mindfulness… or probably just sleeping more. Sleeping more tends to cure a lot of things.

Almost dying taught me how to live. Being struck by a car left me in a three-and-a-half-week coma with 15 broken bones and 16 surgeries to complete, including brain surgery. However, I woke up from that coma in an even greater place than I ever foresaw for myself. How? The universe will guide you out of the darkness and into the light if you allow it.

Often, spirituality comes off as too highbrow. I’m not about that.

Welcome to the podcast that talks and teaches about it through the lens of humor. Together, we’ll harness positive energy and use it to work with the universe, all while giggling the entire time.

Welcome to Gabriella Rebranded: Win Most, Lose Some.

Half the internet thinks their nervous system is dysregulated, but really, it’s just exhausted. Nervous system dysregulation has become such a buzzword in the last few years that a lot of times people mix it up with exhaustion. Online—on TikTok—people use these terms interchangeably, but they’re actually very different problems with very different solutions.

One’s a descriptor, and the other can be part of several very real medical and psychological conditions.

So let’s get to the root of what’s fucking with your nervous system and find the actual best way to treat it.

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So please go ahead and do those things. Please and thank you very much.

Your nervous system is designed to constantly shift in between activation and recovery, depending on what’s going on around you.

So what does it actually mean when your nervous system is dysregulated?

Well, there are several different parts of your nervous system, but to keep this easy enough to understand without sounding like an AP Bio class, let’s stick to just a few.

We all have an autonomic nervous system—not to be confused with automatic nervous system, which I did for a while. It’s autonomic.

And within the autonomic nervous system, there is the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system.

Nervous system dysregulation isn’t being tired. It’s not being stressed. Nor is it being overwhelmed. Nervous system dysregulation is when you are having problems switching in between the two systems correctly and at the appropriate times.

For the common tongue: wrong place, wrong time.

The sympathetic nervous system is what makes you active, alert—fight-or-flight—controls all that jazz. But when the nervous system is dysregulated, that’s when we get panic attacks, constant debilitating anxiety, and intense reactions—what people would call an overreaction to minor triggers.

“That triggered me” translates to: my nervous system has been suddenly activated. And when people can’t regulate their nervous system, that’s when you get things like panic attacks or having a prolonged meltdown—not how I would describe it, but how people would describe it.

That’s nervous system dysregulation.

In fight, flight, or freeze: the sympathetic system is either the fight or the flight, and dysregulation is getting stuck in one of them.

The parasympathetic nervous system is generally the opposite of that. It’s what helps your body calm down and recover. Think of the parasympathetic nervous system as decompressing, relaxing, just chillin’.

But in fight, flight, or freeze, we can’t forget the freeze. And within the parasympathetic nervous system, there’s this thing called the dorsal vagal nerve.

Freeze is what happens when the nervous system gets overwhelmed and drops into dorsal vagal shutdown. Dorsal vagal shutdown is when we get things like dissociation, emotional numbness, and in extreme cases, passing out. Or like—stage fright is a great example of dorsal vagal shutdown.

Common causes of nervous system dysregulation are physical trauma, emotional trauma, PTSD, hormonal issues, sleep deprivation for a prolonged period of time, chronic stress—not temporary stress.

And the big one is… you guessed it: a brain injury. Because it kind of sends all of the above at once, you know?

Brain injuries bring the physical trauma, the emotional trauma, the PTSD. A brain injury really fucks with your hormones. And yeah—sleep issues are definitely a big part of a brain injury. And the anxiety is just as chronic as it is debilitating after a brain injury.

When I was comatose, I would do this thing called sympathetic storming, where out of nowhere my temperature would spike and I would start violently thrashing around and kicking my legs. The nurses and my mom would call me a Rockette.

That’s sympathetic storming. So that was my nervous system trying to reboot and get its shit together.

So when you’re trying to think about the sympathetic nervous system, think of that visceral reaction.

Nervous system exhaustion is what happens when your nervous system is—well—exhausted. It’s a descriptor, and it comes from being forced to live in the sympathetic state for far too long.

It can also happen when you’re forced to live in the parasympathetic system for far too long, but that’s less common. Usually it’s the sympathetic state.

It’s not that your nervous system has lost the ability to regulate itself. It’s that it hasn’t had the time or space to do so.

For example: pulling consecutive all-nighters or getting very little sleep for several days will force the sympathetic system to be on for way too long. This will leave you feeling drained, tired but wired, overwhelmed, overstimulated, and irritable.

You could have brain fog, trouble concentrating, or be emotionally flat—something that I think all people who went to college experienced during finals week.

But if, as soon as the stressful or exhausting stimuli stop—like the test you were cramming for is over, or your busiest season at work is done—and you’re able to rest, recharge, and get back down to baseline, then that means it’s nervous system exhaustion, not nervous system dysregulation.

This isn’t to say that nervous system exhaustion can’t put you out for a long period of time. It’s very common to be in forced interactions or situations that are so stressful or exhausting, you need several days of shut-in or alone time to get back down to baseline.

But if your nervous system is still basically functioning as it’s supposed to, then all is well.

All right, guys—we’ve got a brief pause, because I want to tell you about something that’s very on brand for this podcast: helping your nervous system chill the fuck out.

If you’ve listened to even one episode of this podcast, you know I’m always talking about brain health: trauma, stress, brain injury, burnout, exhaustion—all the things that make our nervous system wig out.

Well, I recently discovered this thing called the Apollo Neuro wearable. It’s this small device that you wear on your wrist or ankle that sends vibrations to your body and brain to say, “Hey. You’re safe. You can calm down now. Chill the fuck out.”

The cool thing is it’s actually backed by neuroscience and neuroscientists. I mean, guys, you know me—would I recommend something that isn’t?

The vibrations stimulate your vagus nerve pathways and help your body calm down and get out of that fight-or-flight mode—which, yeah, my frontal lobe injury has given me a little bit of trouble with, but I know we all have trouble with that.

The Apollo Neuro wearable helps with a lot of things like sleep, stress, focus, anxiety, recovery.

And the best part is you don’t have to wear it all day. You know, a lot of things like the Oura Ring or the Apple Watch—you have to wear them for an extended period of time for them to work.

Uh-uh. Not the Apollo Neuro wearable. You only have to wear it one to three hours during the day or while you sleep.

So if your brain has been doing the absolute most lately and it’s stressed, it’s tired, it’s burnt out, it’s exhausted—or it just won’t turn off—this is probably something very worth checking out.

You can head over to their website, apolloneuro.com, and use my code GREBRANDED—that’s G + Rebranded—for $99 off your wearable.

Not quite 100, almost there: 99.

G Rebranded—$99 off your Apollo Neuro wearable. The link to Apollo Neuro will be in the show notes.

And yeah—now let’s get back into the episode before my nervous system spirals again.

You know how “processing,” or “I need time to process,” has also become a little bit of a buzzword in the past few years?

Well, what that’s actually saying is: my nervous system needs to settle so that I can think clearly.

Which is why, when someone says “I need time to process,” give them that time to process. Because you can’t truly think clearly without a settled nervous system.

If you’re experiencing panic or stress in a safe situation—that’s dysregulation. But if you’re experiencing overwhelm in an overstimulating situation… well, checks out. Even if it goes on for way too long.

That’s not a problem with your body’s response. That’s a problem with the environmental stimuli.

Nervous system dysregulation means your mind and body’s response doesn’t match the environment.

Nervous system exhaustion means your mind and body’s response does match the environment. The environment just fucking sucks—and it’s draining your system.

Now, your nervous system just being exhausted doesn’t mean it’s not a serious problem.

There can be several unhealthy and dangerous situations—like a toxic workplace, a toxic household, relationship friends—that exhaust your nervous system. And that can be just as dangerous.

Nervous system exhaustion can also come from things like eating disorders, illness, overexercising, physical recovery, undereating.

The descriptor words—separating nervous system exhaustion versus nervous system dysregulation—are just important for knowing how to treat it.

If you think you’re experiencing nervous system dysregulation, it’s best to get a professional opinion, because nervous system dysregulation can come from things like autonomic disorders, PTSD, CPTSD, other trauma responses.

Visits with a psychologist, psychiatrist, trauma-informed therapist, or a support group may be recommended. And of course, with all of that, there is the possibility for medication.

If you think you’re experiencing nervous system exhaustion, you may be able to DIY your treatment a little bit more.

Of course, I’ll never say don’t go to therapy. I’m the biggest supporter of therapy. I think if you have the slightest inkling that you should go, that means go. But that’s a controversial opinion that not everyone agrees with.

And nervous system exhaustion is more likely to be resolved through at-home adjustments like lifestyle changes, exercise, meditation, mindfulness… or probably just sleeping more. Sleeping more tends to cure a lot of things.

However, if you think you’ve been experiencing nervous system exhaustion for an extended period of time—like several weeks or months—then it’s best to get a professional opinion as well, because that probably means something else is going on and your self-diagnosis isn’t correct.

Nervous system exhaustion should start to improve once the stressful stimuli is removed. And if it doesn’t—well—go check that ish out and get a professional medical opinion, not a TikTok medical opinion.

It could be things like burnout, depression, hormonal or endocrine issues, or other things. In which case, sorry babe—you can’t DIY yourself out of that one.

It’s important that while you’re trying to figure out what’s going on with your nervous system, you avoid stimulants and depressants—even legal ones like coffee and alcohol.

Like, if you haven’t been sleeping for an extended period of time and you want to medically figure out why, don’t try to sustain yourself by drinking a venti Starbucks black iced coffee twice daily, and then having alcohol or weed or oxy to put yourself to sleep at night.

Your TikTok medical degree is going to interfere with the professionals who are trying to diagnose the problem.

Not speaking from personal experience or anything. I’ve always drank the 100% right amount of coffee and always had the correct caffeine intake. So that doesn’t apply to me. Not my cross to bear.

My doctor father just wanted me to include that last part, but not speaking from experience at all. It’s not like I’ve already had three cups of coffee today and it’s not even 1 p.m. yet. Not like that at all.

I hope you guys like this mini-sode. I tried to keep it as quick, fun, and flirty as possible.

To do a good job, you can let me know by emailing support at GabriellaRebranded.com or hitting me up on social media or in the reviews. Support at GabriellaRebranded.com— I don’t think I’ve ever dropped that email. I’m dropping it now.

Thank you, guys. This has been Gabriella Rebranded: Win Most, Lose Some. See you guys next time.