Nervous System Dysregulation: Why Being Calm Isn’t the Goal

“Nervous system regulation” is everywhere right now.

Scroll through Instagram or TikTok and you’ll find breathwork exercises, cold plunges,
meditation techniques, somatic exercises, vagus nerve stimulation, and countless other
strategies promising to help you “get out of fight-or-flight.”

And many of these practices can be helpful.

But there’s one important distinction that often gets missed:

A healthy nervous system is not supposed to be calm all the time.

In fact, being able to activate your nervous system is essential to being human.
The real goal is adaptability.

Your Nervous System Needs a Gas Pedal and a Brake Pedal

One of the easiest ways to understand the autonomic nervous system is to think about
driving a car.

You have a gas pedal and a brake pedal.

Your sympathetic nervous system acts somewhat like the gas pedal. It helps prepare your
body to take action.

You need that system when you wake up in the morning.

You need it when you exercise.

You need it when you have to concentrate, compete, perform, react quickly, or handle a challenge.

Fight-or-flight isn’t inherently bad.

The problem can occur when the nervous system has difficulty coming back down once
the challenge has passed.

That’s where the brake pedal becomes important.

Your parasympathetic nervous system supports recovery, digestion, restoration, and many
of the processes associated with slowing back down.

A well-functioning nervous system should be able to move between these states based on
what your body needs.

Activate when necessary. Recover when appropriate. Then be ready for whatever comes next.

That ability to shift is what I mean when I talk about adaptability.

What Does Nervous System Dysregulation Actually Look Like?

People often hear the term “dysregulated” and immediately associate it with anxiety
or feeling stressed.

It can be more complicated than that.

Someone may notice that they feel constantly wired yet exhausted.

They may have difficulty settling down at night.

Stress may seem to affect their digestion.

They may carry constant physical tension.

A child might have difficulty transitioning between activities, become overwhelmed by
relatively small amounts of stimulation, or experience large meltdowns after holding
everything together throughout the school day.

None of these things alone prove that someone has a neurological problem.

But they raise a useful question:

How efficiently is the nervous system responding and adapting to what is being asked of it?

That is a very different question than simply asking whether someone feels calm.

Why “Calming the Vagus Nerve” May Not Be the Whole Story

Breathing exercises, meditation, exercise, sunlight, cold exposure, and other
nervous-system strategies can provide useful input.

I’m not against them.

The deeper question is:

Why is the nervous system having difficulty regulating itself in the first place?

You can continually try to press the brake pedal, but if the nervous system isn’t
efficiently processing the information coming into it, we may need to look deeper.

That brings us to the brain.

The nervous system constantly receives information from your environment and your body.

Your eyes are sending information.

Your vestibular system—your internal system for balance, spatial awareness, and
orientation—is sending information.

Your muscles and joints are providing sensory input.

Your breathing patterns, movement, gut, environment, and other sensory systems are
constantly feeding information into the nervous system.

The brain has to receive that information, organize it, interpret it, and decide what
response is appropriate.

That is why nervous system health is about much more than simply feeling relaxed.

The Brainstem and Sensory Processing Matter

One neurological area we look closely at is the brainstem.

The brainstem plays an important role in processing and integrating enormous amounts
of information coming into the nervous system.

Think about the questions your brain is constantly trying to answer:

• Where am I?
• What is happening around me?
• What does my body need to do next?

When information is being processed efficiently, the nervous system can respond appropriately.

When the system is overwhelmed or certain types of sensory information aren’t being
handled efficiently, adaptability may become more difficult.

That’s one reason movement and proprioception—the sensory information coming from
muscles and joints—are so important.

It is also why things such as balance, coordination, sleep, exercise, breathing, and
sensory input all matter when looking at neurological function.

How We Measure Nervous System Function at The Wellness Path

One of my biggest beliefs is that we shouldn’t simply tell someone that their nervous
system is “dysregulated.”

We should look at function.

At The Wellness Path, our neurological evaluation examines seven neurological centers:

• Brainstem
• Vestibular system
• Autonomic nervous system
• Right cortex
• Left cortex
• Right cerebellum
• Left cerebellum

Through our functional neurological examination, we look at how different systems
respond to specific challenges.

Depending on the individual, this can include things such as balance, coordination,
sensory integration, autonomic responses, and other neurological functions.

We bring this information together through what we call the
NeuroSync Efficiency Index, or NEI.

The NEI is not intended to diagnose conditions such as ADHD, anxiety, or dysautonomia.

Instead, it gives us another way of looking at an important question:

How efficiently are different parts of the nervous system functioning, communicating, and adapting?

That helps us determine where neurological inefficiencies may exist and where we may
want to focus our care.

Chiropractic Is About More Than Pain

Most people still associate chiropractic with neck pain, back pain, and headaches.

Those are often the reasons someone initially walks through a chiropractor’s door.

But the nervous system is much bigger than pain.

From our perspective, chiropractic care provides neurological and sensory input
through the spine and joints.

Our goal isn’t simply to chase symptoms.

The bigger goal is to help improve how the nervous system receives and processes
information so the body has a better opportunity to adapt.

That is why I frequently say:

An optimized brain equals an optimized life.

Instead of continually asking:

“How can I calm my nervous system?”

Try asking:

“How well is my nervous system adapting?”

That may lead you to a completely different conversation about your health.

Want to Learn More?

🎙️ Listen to the Full Podcast Episode

I go much deeper into nervous system dysregulation, fight-or-flight, the vagus nerve,
sensory processing, chiropractic, and adaptability in this episode of
The Wellness Path Podcast.

Listen to the Full Episode →

🧠 Take Our Free Parent Nervous System Quiz

Wondering whether your child’s nervous system may be spending too much time in a
survival-based state?

Take our free quiz and get a starting point for understanding what you may be seeing.

Take the Free Nervous System Quiz →

📅 Have Your Nervous System Evaluated

If you’ve never actually had your nervous system function measured, your next step
can be a Discovery Day at The Wellness Path.

We’ll look deeper at how your nervous system is functioning and help you understand
what we find.

Book Your Discovery Day →

An optimized brain equals an optimized life.