The Nervous System’s Role in Chronic Stress (and How to Regulate It)
When Stress Stops Feeling Temporary
You wake up already tense. Your jaw is tight, your chest buzzing, your to-do list rolling before you’ve even gotten out of bed. Maybe your stomach’s unsettled. Maybe you’ve been snapping at people you care about. Or maybe you’re just… flat. Tired. Disconnected.
When this becomes your new normal, it’s more than mental. It’s physiological.
Chronic stress changes how your nervous system operates. It can rewire your brain-body connection so that you’re constantly bracing, even when nothing’s happening.
The good news? You’re not broken. Your system has adapted brilliantly to survive. And with the right support, it can also learn how to soften, settle, and trust again.
What Chronic Stress Does to the Nervous System
Your nervous system is designed to detect safety and danger. It constantly scans your environment and adjusts your internal state accordingly, preparing you to act, rest, connect, or shut down.
But when stress becomes prolonged or overwhelming, your system can get stuck in survival mode. Instead of bouncing between activation and rest, it begins to operate in extremes.
That might look like:
Living in a state of hypervigilance or anxiety
Feeling emotionally numb or checked out
Experiencing chronic tension, pain, or digestive issues
Having trouble sleeping or feeling rested
Overreacting to small things, or not reacting at all
This isn’t about willpower. It’s your autonomic nervous system, specifically the sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (freeze/shutdown) branches doing what it can to keep you safe in the absence of safety.
Why You Might Struggle to “Calm Down”
It’s incredibly frustrating to know you should feel okay and still not feel okay.
You might try deep breathing, journalling, or meditation… and still find yourself wired, foggy, or emotionally reactive. That’s because true regulation doesn’t come from trying to relax, it comes from your body actually believing it’s safe.
Chronic stress can impair your vagal tone, the flexibility of your vagus nerve, which governs your ability to move between stress and calm. When vagal tone is low, your system has a harder time resetting. It either gets stuck in activation or crashes into shutdown.
This is why “just take a deep breath” often doesn’t cut it.
You need more than techniques. You need a context where your nervous system can begin to trust again.
How Therapy Can Help Rebuild Regulation
Nervous system healing is relational. It often begins not with tools, but with someone else, someone who can meet you with presence, attunement, and steadiness.
At Tidal Trauma Centre, we use a range of trauma-informed modalities that support regulation on both emotional and physiological levels:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): Helps process unhealed experiences that keep your nervous system on high alert.
IFS (Internal Family Systems): A compassionate approach that helps you build inner safety by understanding the different protective and wounded parts within you.
AEDP & Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT): Both are relational therapies that support emotional processing through secure, present-moment connection. They help your body feel the shift, not just think about it.
Somatic Therapy: Brings the body into the process, using sensation, movement, breath, and posture to support shifts in your nervous system patterns.
These modalities don’t offer quick fixes but they create the kind of environment where deep, lasting change becomes possible.
Everyday Practices That Support Nervous System Regulation
You don’t have to wait for a therapy session to begin supporting your nervous system. Below are small, body-based practices that gently invite regulation. Start with one or two that feel accessible:
Grounding: Notice where your feet or back meet the surface beneath you. Let yourself feel held by gravity. This helps orient your system to the here and now.
Orienting: Slowly look around your space, side to side, up and down. This helps signal to your brain that you’re not in immediate danger.
Breath with Sound: Sigh audibly. Hum gently. Long exhalations with sound stimulate the vagus nerve and support down-regulation.
Temperature Shifts: Splash cold water on your face or place a warm compress on your chest. These shifts can support recalibration.
Rhythm and Movement: Gentle rocking, walking, dancing, or shaking helps discharge stress and restores fluidity to your system.
A short reset might look like this: Take 30 seconds to sigh, feel your feet, and slowly scan your space with your eyes. That’s enough to offer your body a new experience of safety, and over time, those moments add up.
Healing a Dysregulated Nervous System Takes Time, But It’s Possible
When you’ve lived in survival mode, it’s easy to forget what calm feels like.
Regulation doesn’t mean “being relaxed all the time.” It means your system can respond appropriately to what’s happening — and return to baseline when it’s over. It means flexibility, not perfection.
Whether you’ve been stuck in a stress response for months or years, it’s never too late for your body to learn new rhythms. And you don’t have to do it alone.
You’re Not Meant to Do This Alone
If you’re living in a state of tension, overwhelm, or emotional numbness, there’s nothing wrong with you. Your nervous system adapted for survival, and now, it may need support to remember what ease can feel like.
Contact us or fill out a New Client Form to be matched with one or more of our therapists. If you’re ready, book a free consult or appointment.
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Your nervous system doesn’t only respond to what’s happening now, it responds to what it has learned over time. If you’ve had to be in high alert or shutdown to survive, your body might keep defaulting to those states even when your environment has changed.
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Regulation means being able to shift between different nervous system states, from alertness to calm, from activation to connection, without getting stuck. It’s less about staying calm and more about being able to come back to calm.
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Yes. While therapy can’t erase the past, it can offer your system new experiences, especially experiences of safety, connection, and being met. Over time, this helps rewire your patterns and restore flexibility.
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Disclaimer: The content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, psychological, or mental health advice. It is not a substitute for professional care. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment.