Sometimes anxious, sometimes depressed during the COVID-19 outbreak? Get to know your nervous system and regain control of your body

In the past, we thought that when the human body is under stress, there are only two states, stress response and relaxation, stress response means that we will be very anxious and rush to solve things, and relaxation means that we will be completely relaxed, but this is actually not entirely correct. Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed that the human nervous system has three levels of response when faced with the threat of stress.

1. When stress is manageable, activate social links to seek help

When the stress is not so great, such as a small conflict with a colleague one day, you will still feel uncomfortable, but this discomfort is within your ability to cope, your body is still led by the ventral vagus nerve, it will guide you to use the social connection to help you relieve stress, such as sending messages to friends to complain, go home and tell your family about the bad things that happened today, after talking about it, you feel comforted and encouraged, the feeling of stress will be dissipated.

2. Activate fight or flight response when the pressure is a bit too much

When stress is a threat to you, such as when your supervisor is upset with you, is trying to make things difficult for you at work, or when you have a big presentation to the company's senior management in three days, your body will start to be led by the sympathetic nerves, activating the fight or flight response, and you will do everything you can to deal with the threat, staying up for three days to make the presentation perfect, or trying to avoid the threat - trying not to meet the supervisor.

3. When the stress has become so intense for you that you are in danger → paralysis or shutdown response

Sometimes, the intensity of transient stress is too high, such as a car accident, rape, robbery, or high intensity stress continues for too long, such as long-term physical or mental abuse, bullying, your body will begin to be dominated by the dorsal vagus nerve, your body will be like a white rabbit encountering a lion, feel unable to fight and escape, can only play dead, then you will feel your brain blank, the whole body freeze, can not do anything to react, or a strong sense of depression and despair.

The level of response your nervous system activates is based on the level of threat your body perceives, not entirely based on rational judgment, so sometimes your brain doesn't feel so "stressed" but your body is actually in a constant state of flight or freeze. This is why we see some people get very nervous and anxious about the epidemic right away and lock themselves up at home, while others feel fine and go out to the grocery store as usual.

Interestingly, these three neurological responses are actually like a ladder that we can move up and down between. During this prolonged Level 3 alert, you will find that you are not anxious all the time. The real situation is more like: you wake up in the morning feeling relaxed and able to cope with life, but in the afternoon, after listening to the press conference, you get more and more nervous and your worries about the epidemic start to take over again (fight or flight response). You may even start to feel hopeless (paralysis/shutdown reaction). But at night, if you happen to be having a good time talking with your friends, your body can go back to a socially connected state, or even a stress-free state.

Therefore, in order to cope with the anxiety and depression of the epidemic, it is important to be aware of what state we are in: am I in a fight or flight stress response, or am I in a paralysis/shutdown stress response? When you know which state you are in, you can use the appropriate approach to soothe your mind and body.

If you are in a fight or flight response, your body is actually in a state of full of energy and wants to fight off the enemy, but because the virus is an invisible enemy, you will feel like you can only be anxious, but there is nothing you can do. What you need to do at this time is to find ways to release your body's energy, for example, doing 30 minutes of free hand muscle exercise at home, when your body's energy is released, the anxiety will also decrease.

If you are paralyzed/shutting down, what you need to do at this time is to allow yourself to feel safe enough to slowly restart again. So what you need to do is get yourself in a more comfortable environment, go to the kitchen and pour yourself a glass of warm water, do a few deep breaths and muscle stretches, or hug someone you can trust for a minute and let your body feel safe again.

Finally, don't forget that the most effective way to relieve stress in the human body is to connect with people at first. Therefore, during this period of time, you are encouraged to spend more time with people you can trust and who are in a calm mood, as their calmness will also make your body relax. On the contrary, you will be more anxious when you are around anxious people!