Beatha Coaching

In my last two posts I introduced burnout as a collection of common symptoms rooted in nervous system exhaustion, a result of enduring high stress levels for too long. The conditions of chronic unrelieved stress and mild to moderate burnout are endemic in academia because of fundamental systemic problems. But there is also a lack of understanding about what stress is, and how much is a healthy amount, that remains embedded in normalised academic culture. For this reason, in this post I am going to introduce the polyvagal theory of stress response. Understanding what is happening in our brains and bodies when we experience chronic stress and burnout can give us much greater control over our responses and help us to find more effective relief.

The polyvagal stress response

The vagus nerve is one of the longest in our body, running all the way from our brain, through our heart and lungs, and into our stomach, guts, and reproductive system. It has a major role to play in how our autonomic nervous system, which governs our body’s instinctive responses to external stimuli, functions. We have two corresponding and complementary nervous systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic, or rest and digest, nervous system. When we experience a state of arousal, whether for exercise, mental exertion, evading danger, or sexual connection, our sympathetic nervous system has been activated. Our heart rate and respiration go up, and we enter into a more alert, mobilised state. By contrast, our parasympathetic nervous system activates for relaxation, sleep, and in response to nurturing or being nurtured by another. In healthy functioning we move smoothly between the two states with ease of regulation, able to react quickly to threats or challenges, and then calm down and restore our energy through rest.

Our vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, and it has two branches, the dorsal and the ventral. The dorsal branch is common to all animals, including fish. It runs down the spine and has a prominent role in controlling our heartbeat and respiration, as well as aiding digestion and sleep. The role of the dorsal vagus nerve is to help regulate the arousal of our sympathetic nervous system, ensuring we don’t stay in a state of alertness or stress for too long. The ventral vagus nerve is primarily responsible for our social engagement response. Common to mammals that raise young, this branch of the vagus nerve runs directly through the muscles of the face and helps to generate attachment behaviours in others. According to polyvagal theory, the ventral branch of the vagus nerve is activated by, and generates, feelings of safety, as well as warmth and connection.

When we encounter stress at work, our body reacts in the same way that it would to any other threat or challenge. We experience a spike in adrenaline designed to speed up our instinctive reactions and keep us safe. This is the sympathetic nervous system being activated, and is often termed the fight/flight response. If the stressor continues to be present past the immediate activation of the sympathetic nervous system, the brain instructs the adrenal gland to produce cortisol, which keeps the stress response going for as long as is needed. Once the threat appears to have subsided, either by getting away from it (flight) or successfully overcoming it (fight), the parasympathetic nervous system acts like a break to dampen the stress response, and cortisol levels gradually fall. Whilst the immediate response to a stressor can happen very quickly, the release and reduction of the stress response is a much slower process taking 20-30 minutes.

If, however, we are unable to successfully relieve our stress, we have a failsafe. At times of sympathetic arousal which go on for too long, the parasympathetic nervous system spikes, effectively taking over, and sends us into a state of freeze. The freeze mechanism is a function of our dorsal vagus nerve and one of our most basic threat responses. Designed to keep us physically safe from the risks of sustained hyperarousal, such as rapid heart rate and high blood pressure, freeze is commonly seen in trauma victims and in those who experience chronic shame. In other words, freeze is activated to keep us safe in situations where we feel we lack control and agency, or where we cannot reduce and relieve our stress.

The polyvagal stress response and academia

In my last post I introduced the stress-burnout spectrum, showing how chronic stress develops and, if unrelieved, can lead to burnout. Chronic stress, the ‘amber’ on my traffic light system, is a state in which we are consistently and repeatedly operating from our sympathetic nervous system. Stressors in our environment trigger the activation of our threat response, and we are regularly on high-alert ready to respond. The difference from healthy stress, the ‘green’ on the spectrum, is the frequency and duration of activation, with reduced time in rest and digest. At a biological level this means the regular release of cortisol to keep our activation level high, so that we can stay alert and energised for longer. Over time, the repeated dependence of our nervous system on sympathetic activation starts to generate the physical and emotional symptoms we associate with chronic stress, such as fatigue, palpitations, headaches, and lowered immune function. If the situation goes on for an extended period of time, we move toward the ‘red’ on the spectrum, which is burnout. Here, the dorsal vagus nerve triggers us to move into a freeze state. We start to dissociate, feel numb and depressed, experience severe fatigue, gut problems, and achy fluey sensations. As we have seen, burnout is in fact our failsafe, designed to keep us safe. However, it has distressing and debilitating effects on our body, cognitive functions, and emotions.

Most academics I know exist in a near permanent state of low-level chronic stress, that spikes at certain points of the year when workloads dramatically increase. However, I have also seen a lot of academics cycling between fight-flight and freeze on a regular basis. In my observations, this is particularly the case with PhD students and more junior colleagues such as staff on temporary contracts. Here, high work loads and individualised pressures combine with uncertain outcomes and lack of support to create the ideal environment for burnout. More widely, shifting pressures are endemic across the sector, seen for example in heightened stress approaching the REF, and regular drop-offs in energy and motivation after each semester and funding cycle. From this pattern we can see how easily our nervous system becomes habitualised to sympathetic activation, drops less easily into rest and digest, and is more likely to trigger freeze, or burnout, as a safety measure.

Starting points…

Polyvagal theory gives us essential insights into the operation of our nervous system, and therefore the beginning of a roadmap to better stress relief measures. At the most basic level, if we want to care for our emotional and mental health in term-time, and invest in our long-term physical wellbeing, we need to be aware of our nervous system and work with it to reduce our stress activation to healthy levels. This means consciously activating our parasympathetic nervous system when we become aware of heightened stress levels, or of being too frequently and severely triggered to hyperalertness. In my next post I am going to introduce some simple ways to use our parasympathetic nervous system to care for ourselves in stressful seasons.

However, I want to add two brief caveats before I end this post. The first relates to habitualised sympathetic arousal. As many trauma counsellors will acknowledge, when working with clients with a history of hyperarousal it can be hard for them to adjust to a well-regulated nervous system. In my experience, both personal and professional, this can often be case with academics. The buzz of energy that being on high alert gives us can be addictive, it makes us feel more productive and focused, and it carries us through fatigue with an illusionary idea that exhaustion won’t affect us. In addition, after a while operating habitually from high alert, we can lose perspective on what regulation actually feels like. In other words, consciously calming our nervous system and bringing our energy and motivation levels down in order to protect ourselves from chronic stress and burnout might initially feel very risky, or even boring and unpleasant, especially when the systemic issues we were grappling with have not actually changed or gone away.

Secondly, once we enter into burnout, as we have seen, we are shifting from fight/flight into freeze. Burnout therefore requires a different, more nuanced, approach to nervous system care than chronic stress. Indeed, numerous therapists advocate initially triggering a fight/flight response in order to break out of freeze, before beginning to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system for rest and digest. For example, if you are experiencing high levels of stress and uncomfortable physical symptoms like agitation and rapid heartbeats, slow deep breathing is the quickest most effective way to activate the dorsal branch of the vagus nerve and start to regulate. However, if you feel numb or dissociative, and are having trouble concentrating, movement and getting your heartbeat up are the best ways to break the freeze and move back into a state of alertness. Therapists often advocate shaking, jumping on the spot, and dancing as ideal ways to move your body out of a freeze state. From there, you can start to practice breathing and focus on relaxation.

This has been a fairly long but I think important post. In my next blog I will give some simple suggestions and techniques for nervous system care for both stress and burnout. To get that post, and everything else I write on this blog, delivered directly to your email inbox, please click like and follow below. You can also follow and contact me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

I provide specialist coaching for academics that focuses on stress, burnout prevention and recovery, as well as other workplace issues such a marginalisation and career planning. You can find out more by following the links above or by emailing me an enquiry at francesca@beathacoaching.org. I offer financial arrangements and half-price packages for anyone in precarious employment. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.