The Emotional Root of Chronic Illness
How Emotional Trauma Can Affect your Nervous System
We often think of emotional trauma as something that affects our mind, but did you know it can profoundly impact your physical health? When you're dealing with past trauma, your nervous system can get stuck in a survival mode, and this chronic stress can dramatically change how your immune system responds and how you feel every day. Importantly, chronic stress can lead to chronic illness and chronic pain by keeping the body in a state of high alert and resource depletion.
The Body's Emergency System: Fight, Flight, or Freeze
Your body has a brilliant, built-in system to keep you safe: the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). This system operates mostly below your conscious awareness, constantly scanning the environment for safety or danger.
The ANS has three main pathways, which we can think of as gears for survival:
1. The Ventral Vagal State (Safety and Connection) 🧘♀️
This is your resting, relating, and recovering state, part of the PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM. When this system is active, you feel:
Curiosity - Openness
Joy
In the Present
Connection - Security
In this state, your body is in optimal shape for health:
Increases: Digestion, intestinal motility, resistance to infections, and immune response.
Decreases: Defensive responses.
2. The Sympathetic State (Fight or Flight) 🏃♀️
This is your gas pedal, the "ACTIVATION INCREASES" state. When you perceive danger, this system rapidly prepares you to either fight or flee. This is where your stress response gets stuck in trauma:
Emotions include: Panic , Anxiety , Fear , Worry and Anguish.
If you choose to Fight (To Approach): You feel anger , annoyance , or frustration.
What happens physically when you're stuck in Fight or Flight? Your body prioritizes survival over everything else:
Increases: Heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline, and circulation of oxygen towards vital organs.
Decreases: Digestion, ability to relate, and immune response.
If you feel constantly Trapped or overwhelmed , your Sympathetic Nervous System may be working overtime, diverting energy away from important daily functions like digestion and immunity.
3. The Dorsal Vagal State (Freeze/Collapse) 🥶
If fight or flight isn't possible, your body slams on the brakes. This is the DORSAL VAGAL - STATE OF EMERGENCY , a deep "ENERGY CONSERVATION" response that leads to freezing or collapsing(Paralysis/Immobility).
Emotions include: Shame , Hopelessness , Despair , Overwhelm , and Helplessness.
Physical effects include: Disconnection (Dissociation) , Numbness , and a decrease in heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature.
Crucially, this system releases Endorphins that help to numb and elevate the pain threshold , which explains why some people feel emotionally and physically "Closure" or "shut down" when severely stressed.
🛡️ The Chronic Impact: Immunity, Illness, and Pain
Staying perpetually in the Sympathetic (Fight or Flight) or Dorsal Vagal (Freeze/Collapse) state means your body is constantly diverting resources.
Chronic Fight/Flight decreases your immune response. This leaves your body less equipped to handle everyday pathogens and chronic inflammation.
In the Dorsal Vagal (Freeze) state, your immune response is also negatively affected, as your body is in a shutdown mode, conserving energy to survive.
This persistent activation is a significant drain on your overall health and can contribute directly to the development of chronic illness and chronic pain.
🌿 How Prescribing Life Can Help You Find Relief
At Prescribing Life, we understand that true healing means shifting your nervous system out of chronic survival mode and back into the state of connection and safety.
Our Emotional Restoration Program
Our program is specifically designed to undercover the root cause of emotional trauma. Our coaches will help you gently transition from the activated states of Fight, Flight, and Freezeback to the restorative Ventral Vagal state where healing and well-being occur.
We use counseling with neuro-psychology to specialize in deactivating and changing the meaning of painful memories. The best part? All of our sessions are conducted conveniently from your home.
We focus on helping you achieve Deactivation and find Rootedness (Grounding) by:
Regulating the Sympathetic Response: We provide tools to calm the increase in activation so you can move from feeling "I Can't" to confidently saying "I Can". This helps reduce the chronic stress that is decreasing your immune response.
Addressing the Dorsal Vagal Response: We work to alleviate the feelings of overwhelm and hopelessness that lead to collapse and numbness. By supporting your system, we reduce the need for it to conserve energy through paralysis or dissociation.
Cultivating the Ventral Vagal State: Our techniques are rooted in promoting the state of Consciousness and Connection - Security. By encouraging Social Interaction and Compassion, we help your system increase its capacity for relationship and boost the natural processes of rest, recovery, and immune resistance.
We guide you to experience feeling safe, present, and open again, giving your body the signal that it's finally time to rest, recover, and thrive.
Learn more about our program
