Part Two: Nervous System Dysregulation and the Impact on Athlete Health and Performance
If you missed Part 1 of my Blog Series I break down what the Autonomic Nervous system is as well as why working with it is so important for athlete health, well being and performance enhancement.
Lets talk about whats often keeping athletes from overall health and enhancing their performance. Chronic and pervasive nervous system (NS) dysregulation.
Chronic NS Dysregulation might look like...
Mentally and emotionally
- Chronic Anxiety (that seems to just always be there)
- Chronic Stress / overwhelm (with little to no relief)
- Loud inner critic and perfectionism (really hard on themselves, never feel like they're good enough, can’t acknowledge success or wins, Struggle to let go of mistakes / failure)
- Inability to control or work with self talk (spiral , ruminate, cant stop worrying, 0-100, down the rabbit hole)
- Drastic Mood swings, irritability, hypervigilence
- More specific performance related anxiety that is pervasive and really impacts daily life and performance
- Low confidence, self esteem, self worth
- Frequent dissociation or zoning out
- Challenges with cognitive functioning (processing information, learning)
Physically
- Struggle with sleep - falling asleep, staying asleep, sleeping well
- Challenges with gut and digestion
- Chronic sickness or illness
- Nagging injuries and longer recovery time or never feel recovered
- Increase inflammation
- Cycles of burnout (physical, mental and emotional exhaustion and depletion)
- Struggle with slowing down, stillness, rest (actually have an aversion to it, its uncomfortable)
- Chronically feeling restless and hypervigilant
These can all be signs of chronic NS dysregulation. (Always making space for the fact that humans are complex and rarely just 1 thing contributes to NS dysergulation OR these symptoms).
Definitions...
Let's go over some definitions that build on Part 1 to make this easy to understand. These are my own definitions that have come from/adapted from learnings, education and training mentioned in (references)…
- We experience Dysregulation = Our NS detects a threat (real or perceived). We shift into a protective state (protective states operate in a hierarchy, the first state we shift into is our fight/flight or stress response).
- Nervous System Dysregulation = The NS’s response or shift into protective states due to real or perceived threat.
- We experience Regulation = Our NS detects safety. We can be in a safety state and can experience all positive and good things (joy, fun, play, flow, connection, rest, digest).
- Nervous System Regulation = The NS process of shifting into a safety or optimal state . This includes navigating dysregulation and returning back to a more optimal state.
- A Dysregulated Nervous System = A NS that gets “stuck”. There's an imbalance due to chronic, prolonged, or repeated dysregulation. The nervous system is experiencing more dysregulation than regulation and we struggle to return back to a more optimal place.
- A Flexible Nervous System (or NS flexibility) = A NS that is balanced. We experience dysregulation but return back to our more optimal place. We can shift back and forth between regulation and dysregulation with balance and more ease. Many people simply refer to this as a “regulated” nervous system but I prefer the word flexible and first heard this from Jessica Shaffer (Nervous System Reset).
(On social media in particular, when you read “regulate our nervous system” this often means take action to support the NS in coming into a more optimal state or regulated state.)
In an ideal world (as you read in Blog 1) every athlete has a flexible nervous system that can adapt, shift and move to help us function and stay alive. This is a NS that can move or fluctuate through regulation and dysregulation.
Too many athletes are experiencing chronic NS dysregulation. This means they're experiencing repetitive dysregulation with limited regulation. One of the reasons for this is because most athletes don't KNOW about their ANS so they don't know HOW to regulate.
We’re not designed to constantly be in a regulated state as humans. The reality is our life includes stress, overwhelm, difficult things or even actual danger at times. We don’t need to villainize these or “dysregulation” as a whole. Dysregulation serves a purpose and ultimately keeps us alive when actual danger exists. The goal is to return to regulation. When dysregulation is prolonged or chronic and we’re unable to return back to regulation it starts to impact health and performance.
Why are so many athletes living in Dysregulation?
Over the last 6 years in my work with athletes I find the majority of them are walking around and attempting to reach and sustain peak performance with a dysregulated nervous system. Their ANS is stuck in dysregulation and more often than not dysregulation is actually at the root cause of many of their daily struggles.
Why is that the case? It's complicated and never just one thing. Here are a variety of reasons that can contribute to chronic dysregulation…
- Genetics, biology or underlying medical conditions
- How an athlete identifies
- Social determinants of health
- Sport culture (Increased pressure to perform, social media, relationship with coaches, unsafe or prejudice environment, pay to play system, sport injury)
- Navigating life load which often leads to chronic stress (school, family dynamic, social, extracurricular sport)
- Chronic poor sleep (which is also a result of dysregulation)
- Overtraining and inadequate recovery
- Home life, family dynamic and parent attachment
- Overarching systems of oppression
- Trauma (individual, systemic, collective)
Although we tend to focus on the individual when it comes to mental health, performance enhancement and NS regulation, it's important to recognize dysregulation is never just an individual experience. Athletes' dysregulation is often caused by things outside of their control and they’re a part of a larger system that feeds dysregulation. The main system being sport culture.
Yet, NS dysregulation plays a critical role in health, well being and an athletes ability to perform and there are things within our control that can help! We need to help athletes understand their NS, build awareness of their NS and then take steps to build NS flexibility. To me, this is what empowering athletes to own their health and performance journey is all about.
If you’re an athlete interested in building nervous system flexibility stay tuned. My athlete specific Nervous System Program is coming soon. This program is about helping athletes build total resilience by addressing nervous system flexibility. Athletes, parent or coach interested in this programming use my CONTACT FORM.
Part 3 of this Blog Series...
We know we need to build our NS flexibility for optimal health and performance but how do we do that? We will dive in to this in Part 3!
