Tag: crisis

A healthy, regulated nervous system is vital for good mental health. The nervous system is responsible for discerning our general wellbeing and it warns us when we’re no longer safe. For example, we may be experiencing fear or heightened anxiety in the face of a confrontational conversation with someone we love. We may feel that by our hearts racing, having trouble thinking clearly, shortness of breath, or wanting to run away as we’re having that conversation. Other times, we may shut down, disconnect or ghost people in order to avoid a challenging situation. In any of those scenarios, our nervous system is experiencing some sort of dysregulation through overstimulation or shut down. We do not feel safe and our nervous system is working properly by letting us know and moving us into the primal, protective part of our brain. 

Maybe we face that fear and address the challenging conversation a ...

You feel your heart beating harder and faster in your chest. A lump forms in your throat. The sound of the person talking to you fades into the background as your own thoughts and concerns become all-consuming. Maybe you feel a turning in your stomach or no longer feel content to stand still. You feel like you are losing your mind!

Well, there’s a little bit of truth to that. Dan Siegal, an author and professor of psychiatry, uses a fun analogy to break down the brain and how it works in situations like these. At the risk of oversimplifying, we’ll name two main characters in our brain: the guard dog (aka our brain’s limbic regions) and the wise owl (aka our brain’s cerebrum). The main role of the guard dog is to protect us from danger, and to do it fast! The main role of the wise owl is to help us think through things, using logic and reason.

In these moments when we feel like we are losing our mind, our guard dog has sensed danger ...

Although crisis is often unpredictable, there are predictable phases that we experience. Knowing these might allow a struggle to be normalized.

Phases of a crisis: Impact stage - learning new information that is overwhelming. This may include being stunned, numb, immediate grief, anger etc. This lasts up to 2-3 days but can be experienced in as little as moments.

Withdrawal/Confusion - this stage is where we recoil, go inward, and try to process what this new development means. Depression can be a part of this stage as well. This might be cycled through in a few days or it might take weeks or even months to process through, depending on the magnitude of what is being experienced.

Adjustment stage - This is where change is happening with or without our permission and the crisis experience starts to become familiar. We might begin to understand our choices with moving forward. New normals and patterns begin to ...