New Symptom Nerves

31 Mar New Symptom Nerves

Yesterday evening I ended up paying an unscheduled visit to the A&E (emergency hospital department) with a slightly swollen calf that had been unreasonably aching and feeling bruised for over a week, and I wanted to rule out DVT (thrombosis). It turned out that it probably isn’t, which was a relief but also left me asking, “well what is it then?”  You probably know these sorts of experiences as well as I do, and the rising surge of nervous energy that accompanies a potential physical issue. Those fluctuations in our nervous system are part of being connected to and emotionally present in your body and life, but there are so many emotional ups and downs, stresses, worries and especially if you have some level of past trauma living in you, how do we soften those peaks and troughs of stress so that they don’t feel so big?

Firstly its really helpful to understand what’s happening in your nervous system and why. Through one of our sensory systems, normally in combination, we perceive something “wrong”, different or threatening to our state of harmony or health. So for example we feel or notice an internal sensation, in my case an ache and pain in my calf, and then through observation of my leg I see it swollen, and my nervous system sends this information to my brain, which categorises this information as either a threat to my survival and wellness or not. If my brain recognises these signs as a threat, then it tells my nervous system to create all sorts of changes in my body to be responsive to the threat, eg. hormones that shift digestive ability, heart rate, circulation etc that allow me to respond to this information. In this case, it made me feel concern and slight fear and that makes me act to call the hospital and go there to get checked out. It also reduces my ability to be able to digest food in that moment – when there is a decent level of threat, eating is not a priority for our survival in that moment, and it stimulates and sends blood to my limbs to move, act, do!

All of this internal activity happens when we sense and feel stress, which feels unpleasant in the moment but it’s our brain and body working for our safety, survival and homeostasis (equilibrium). When we can track these nervous system shifts and understand that they are bodily responses, not us creating “unnecessary emotion” , and are to help us , it can assist us greatly in those moments to process what is happening and respond supportively.

Secondly, once we understand why we feel what we feel (the stress, the fear) we may need at this point some supportive actions before or whilst we work out which practical actions are fitting to the situation. tThese are the Somatic (body based) tools based in awareness that will support your nervous system and provide emotional support which feels so helpful in times of difficulty.  Supportive actions might be a variety of things, depending on whats needed on that occasion and what works best for you. For me, it was connecting with my loved ones – making eye contact, physical contact (a hand touch or sitting next to my partner), feeling my feet on the floor, slowing my practical actions down (we tend to rush in an higher arousal state due to stress/fear), noticing my breath and letting it gently slow, and slowly rubbing my hands together.

Then, with my supportive awareness and actions I can then make the best practical actions for myself and according to the situation. That meant working with my partner to contact the hospital, make an apppointment, get a couple of things to take with me – ID, medicine list, phone charger and tampons, and inform our children of the situation in a way that doesn’t deny that I feel a bit nervous, yet not in alarm mode level 5. (Just in case you were wondering, our children are older teenagers now, so no childcare arrangements needed).

So some key take aways for navigating a stressful/alarming situation, whether its new symptom nerves or something else, are:

1.) Recognise what is happening in your nervous system and why (through nervous system tracking and having some basic understanding of arousal states)

2.) Supportive somatic (body & sensation based) actions in response to our shift in nervous system state and emotions arising. It’s helpful to know that supportive doesn’t neccessarily translate to calming . It could be shaking out limbs or pushing against a wall to naturally discharge nervous energy rather than just trying to  calm down, or it could be that you just need to sit quietly for a minute or two to process what is happening.

3.) Once feeling a little more grounded and centered from supportive actions, take the most appropriate physical actions to respond to your situation. eg. it could be recognising that your fear causes you to misread the actual situation (maybe you have developmental or medical trauma), or it could be that you need to place a boundary or clearly state to your loved ones what you need in that moment or how they can assist you, or maybe you need to get to another place more suitable eg. home, hospital, quieter place etc.