If you look up the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) in Trauma Glossary 3 (section 2), you will see it has two major nerves. They are the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nerve. We can think of them as the gas and the brakes, because that’s their common analogy anyway. The sympathetic nerve is the “gas” and it’s in charge of our stress response. The parasympathetic nerve is our “brakes” and it’s in charge of calming our system. Many have trouble remembering which is which. One way that helps me is playing on word analogy. We can think of the sympathetic nerve as “feeling sorry for us” (sympathy) and therefore, it wants to fight or flight for us. So, that leaves us with the parasympathetic nerve, which sees no problem and is therefore, calm.
So, how do these two ANS nerves work? Well, each breath we take activates one and then the other. When we inhale, we activate the sympathetic nerve. When we exhale, we activate the parasympathetic nerve. One way to remember which is which is using the popular analogy of the gas (sympathetic) and the brakes (parasympathetic). If we inhale gas it will naturally put stress on our bodies. Therefore, our inhales can be remembered as activating the stressful, or sympathetic nerve. So, our exhales are the brakes or, “break” from the stress.
The ANS and the Vagus Nerve
If you’re new to this, you’re likely scratching your head in disbelief and asking a perfectly logical question. It probably goes something like, If this is true, then why aren’t we completely stressed out one second (when we inhale) and then perfectly calm the next (when we exhale)? That’s because the ANS relies on the vagus nerve to stimulate its sympathetic nerve into action. (The vagus nerve is also in section 2 of Trauma Glossary 3.)
The vagus nerve is busy and complex. It impacts 80% of the body and it’s considered a cranial nerve. Meaning, it’s the one that alerts both the brain and our vital organs to threats and stimulates the ANS. Put it all together, when the vegas nerve spots a threat, it tells the brain, the vital organs, and the ANS, “Look! A threat!” Our heart pounds, the blood starts pumping, and we gasp, or take a sharp intake of breath. In other words, we take a big inhale that stimulates the sympathetic nerve. Conversely, when the stressful moment is over, we take a big sigh of relief. In other words, we exhale.
So, in summary, the vagus nerve has both a psychological (being a messenger to the brain) and somatic (our bodies, by being a messenger to the vital organs) effect. But more on that later. The third thing it does is stimulate the ANS, which is our breathing. Now that we know the basics, let’s explore the power of our breathing, because certain ways that we breathe have a significant impact on trauma.
Paradoxical Breathing
Breathing pop quiz time. Sit down somewhere comfortable and place both hands on your stomach. It should be expanding and going back down as you breathe. Now notice which one your stomach is doing as you inhale and exhale.
When you inhale, is your stomach:
A. Congratulations! You’re breathing correctly and your ANS is regulated. This does not necessarily mean that you’re free from trauma or stress. It does mean that you’re better equipped for responding to stress and processing trauma.
B. You’re breathing backwards, in other words, paradoxical breathing (Trauma Glossary 2). Breathing this way over-activates the sympathetic nerve. This makes you more vulnerable to life’s stressors, as an overactivated sympathetic nerve tends to create a hair-triggered fight or flight response – one of the major symptoms of Complex-PTSD.
Paradoxical breathing is alarmingly common in survivors of adverse homes. Once you understand how this developed, it will make perfect sense. It’s also further proof that trauma really is stored in the body.
The Balloon Analogy vs. The Big Scare
Compare belly breathing to a balloon. When we blow air into a balloon, it expands. When we release the air from it, it returns to its airless form. So it is when we inhale, the stomach expands because we are letting air in. If this is how it’s supposed to work, then how does it get reversed in survivors of adverse homes?
Think of how the body responds when startled. We take that huge gasp and…what is our stomach doing? It goes inward instead of expanding! One scary incident won’t cause paradoxical breathing, at least, not permanently. However, surviving an adverse home literally means experiencing multiple traumas over an extended period of time. So, living on edge, living in fear, and anticipating the next abuse caused the body to start breathing as though it’s on guard for the next threat.
Survivors of adverse homes can create a safe new environment and be fully aware (mentally) that the traumatic past is over and that they are safe now. Unfortunately, logic doesn’t live in the body, but our emotions and our past certainly do. So, it’s up to us to teach it new emotional language, and that way, it finally understands the past is over and it’s safe now. Until we do, the body, more so than the brain, will continue to dictate our emotional response to life’s stressors and keep us stuck.
The good news is, where regulating the ANS is concerned, (correcting our paradoxical breathing) it’s a surprisingly quick and easy fix. But first, let’s explore a little known fact in history that created a major misogynist misunderstanding for centuries, and it had everything to do with breathing.
Dysregulated ANS: Corsets and the So-Called “Hysteria” in Women
Did you know that in the days of corsets, physicians actually believed that men and women breathed differently? In their science journals (when scientific journals actually became a thing, which wasn’t until the 17th/18th century) it was postulated that the man’s ribcage expands and contracts, while by comparison, the woman’s ribcage moves up and down vertically. That’s because no “respectable” doctor would even think of asking a lady to remove her corset in an examination. So, this misconception stuck around for a while.
Now, think about vertical breathing in the age of the corset. What usually prompts us, in our modern age to vertically breathe? Gasping for breath, wracking sobs, hyperventilating, and panic attacks, just to name a few. Each time they breathed inside their corset, they were over-activating the sympathetic nerve and training the ANS to be on guard for these specific types of threats. Interesting how the patterns emerge, from how society viewed women, to how women (generally speaking, of course) were responding to stress. They were far more vulnerable to fainting from shock, panicking, or flying into “hysterics.”
It really makes you wonder, just how much of the centuries’-long misconception of women being the “weaker” gender was due to the corset?
How to Correct Paradoxical Breathing
Paradoxical Breathing:
Master Toolbox 1
- Easy fix: Lie on the floor with one or two books on your stomach. The pressure on your stomach combined with your back against the floor forces the stomach to breathe correctly. Slowly inhale and exhale ten times. Each time, notice how your stomach expands on each inhale and goes in each time you exhale. Repeat this daily until your stomach starts doing this on its own.
Believe it or not, this is all we have to do, and it corrects itself in just a matter of weeks. But it does require making a daily commitment if you want the results to work that quickly. Just ten breaths a day with a couple of books on your stomach while lying down should accommodate even the busiest schedule. Once this has corrected, you can start practicing other breathing techniques that will increase activation of the parasympathetic nerve.
Anxiety 1: (for calming nervous system)
Master Toolbox 1
- Breathing Techniques: Whatever breathing technique you try, there are three golden rules here: 1) Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth and 2) stomach should expand as you inhale and go in as you exhale…Finally, golden rule 3) Unless your inhales and exhales are equal in duration, you want a longer exhale than inhale. The reason is because our inhales are linked to the sympathetic nerve (fight/flight), while our exhales are linked to the parasympathetic nerve (relaxing and calming down).
Now that I’ve saved you the trouble of visiting Master Toolbox 1 for the needed tools and techniques, there are just a couple more things you need to know. First, correcting paradoxical breathing is both easy and permanent. However, bear in mind that just like certain situations can cause us to (temporarily) breathe vertically, some high stress situations will also cause us to breathe paradoxically. This does not mean that your ANS has reverted back and that you have to start your training all over again with the books on your stomach. (You didn’t think you’d have to breathe ten times a day on the floor for the rest of your life, did you? Nope! Once the ANS corrects itself, you never have to do that exercise again.)
When that does happen, just be mindful of what your belly is doing while you breathe. Focus on getting the belly to expand and go in the same way the balloon does when it’s filled with air and then released. This won’t make the stress go away, but you will be better equipped for responding to the problem.
Breathing, Somatic Work, and the Nervous System
Sadly, awareness of our breathing and using the techniques for correcting it is no cure for our stress response. But it is the basic first step towards somatic work that calms the nervous system and makes us better prepared for processing our trauma and working through it. Breathing costs us nothing and it is the one part of our system where we are in total control.
If you’ve gauged from the featured image of this article, you know that there is more to the ANS than mere breathing. When we inhale, the sympathetic nerve activates one set of vitals and when we exhale, the parasympathetic nerve activates the other. And the vagus nerve stimulates the ANS when it senses a threat. That’s why I’m recommending you visit Master Toolbox 2, especially section 2, which is a list of somatic work, and tools for working the vagus nerve.
I cannot reiterate enough. Somatic work (working with the body, because that’s where our trauma is stored) should be step one of every treatment plan for Complex-PTSD. While it’s true that EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and IFS (Internal Family Systems) are highly effective. What most people don’t know until they go through the therapies is that they are very intense. Take it from someone who did EMDR before I did somatic work. Believe me, I wish I had done it in reverse order. I wrote an article on more somatic work (outside Master Toolbox 2) here, which is how we can use exercise therapy to make a huge difference on our painful past.
That article is one of 14 chapters in my e-book, available on Amazon: Complex-PTSD’s Handbook for Recovery and Flashback Mastery.
Starting Next Week: Body Chemicals as they correspond to the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nerves
Now that we have an understanding of our ANS, and the basic steps we can start implementing right now to regulate it, we will start exploring the neurotransmitters. (Though, thanks to Endorphins – the only one on our short list of ten most relevant, which is not a neurotransmitter – we have to call them body chemicals, or hormones, instead.) Neurotransmitters, body chemicals, hormones, whatever we choose to call them, they are the messengers between our nervous system, brain, and vital organs.
So, in this upcoming series, you will not only learn more about them. There will also be visual aid charts that will show you the signs from low (deficient) to ideal, to high. That way, you will have at-a-glance reference points for gauging how high or low your hormones might be functioning in your body. If you’re curious what the ten most relevant hormones are, section 3 of Trauma Glossary 3 has you covered.