It's common to feel sluggish, foggy, or lethargic, but distinguishing whether these feelings are due to your nervous system being stuck in a dorsal vagal freeze response or simply because you need rest can be tricky!
Let's explore the differences between these states, how to tell them apart & how to respond.
First up...
The Dorsal Vagal Freeze Response
The dorsal vagal (or freeze) response is a state controlled by the dorsal vagal branch of the parasympathetic nervous system.
This response is often associated with a "freeze" state and can occur during overwhelming stress or trauma. Here's how it works:
Activation: When faced with extreme stress, your body may engage the dorsal vagal response, leading to shutdown behaviours to conserve energy.
Symptoms: This can manifest as extreme lethargy, disconnection, dissociation, and a sense of numbness or detachment from your environment.
Biological Purpose: This response is an ancient survival mechanism, helping to protect you by reducing metabolic demand during perceived threats.
So, what about...
Fatigue
Fatigue, or just plain tiredness and exhaustion - is a state of tiredness resulting from physical exertion, lack of sleep, or overall depletion of energy reserves. Here's how it works:
Causes: fatigue can result from activities like exercise, inadequate sleep, poor nutrition, or prolonged periods of activity (physical or mental) without rest.
Symptoms: This can include muscle tiredness, sleepiness, reduced physical performance, and a general feeling of needing to rest.
Biological Purpose: Fatigue signals the body to slow down and recover, ensuring that energy stores are topped back up, and repair processes can occur.
Clear as mud? Or feeling more confused than ever?
Lets explore further...
Key Differences Between Dorsal Vagal Freeze and Fatigue
To work out whether you're experiencing dorsal vagal freeze or fatigue, consider the following:
Context and Trigger:
Dorsal Vagal Freeze: Often triggered by stress, trauma, or overwhelming emotional situations. If you notice these feelings after a particularly stressful event or period, it may indicate a freeze response
Fatigue: Typically follows physical exertion, lack of sleep, or extended periods of activity. If you feel tired after a long day or poor night's sleep, it's likely physical fatigue. Or if you've been working hard (emotionally or pshycially) lately - it could just be that you need a good rest!
Emotional and Mental State:
Dorsal Vagal Freeze: The key difference here is the emotional association - is the fatigue accompanied by feelings of numbness, disconnection, and a lack of emotional engagement. You might feel mentally foggy, numb, apathetic, or detached from your surroundings. Have you noticed you're dissociated or feeling things like depression, shame, stuck-ness, low mood, hopelessness or helplessness? This indicates more of a freeze state.
Physical Fatigue: While you may feel mentally tired, your emotional state remains fairly stable. Of course we can be more emotionally 'fragile' when tired - but it isn't usually accompanied by any feelings of hopelessness, stuck-ness etc. You might feel tired but still emotionally engaged and responsive.
Physical Sensations:
Dorsal Vagal Freeze: Includes a sense of heaviness or being stuck, alongside physical lethargy. Movements may feel slow and difficult, and you might experience a sense of physical shutdown. Your heart rate may even be lower.
Physical Fatigue: Generally includes muscle tiredness and a desire to rest and recover. You might feel a natural pull towards sleep or relaxation.
Duration and Recovery:
Dorsal Vagal Freeze: Can persist for extended periods, especially if the underlying stressor is not addressed. Recovery may require intentional up-regulation techniques and addressing the root cause of stress. You may also notice a pattern around this of stress-freeze-stress-freeze.
Physical Fatigue: Typically resolves with adequate rest and recovery. A good night's sleep, proper nutrition, and relaxation usually restore energy levels.
It can be super tricky to tell the difference between a threat response and the body calling for rest - especially if you have spent years pushing aside your bodies needs. If you are someone who has been prone to a freeze response, the very nature of the disconnection from self that comes with a freeze response can leave us feeling totally disconnected from our intuition. (We work on this in The Trauma Toolbox by the way - so make sure you're a member to get involved in that program!)
Strategies to Differentiate and Respond
Okay so lets look at how you might assess your state - Ask yourself:
Reflect on Recent Activities:
Have you been through a particularly stressful or traumatic event recently? Have you been running on sympathetic energy for a while? Stress/irritation/anxiety? A freeze state can happen after a period of high stress or as unprocessed trauma bubbles to the surface.
Evaluate your physical activity levels, sleep patterns, and overall lifestyle; have you been exerting yourself? Not sleeping well? Working hard? This might indicate fatigue over freeze.
Check for Emotional Engagement:
Do you feel emotionally connected or detached? Engagement indicates fatigue, while detachment points towards dorsal vagal response.
Assess for other feelings like shame, depression/low mood, helplessness, hopelessness or a lack of motivation that has extended for a while - this could all indicate freeze/dorsal
Monitor Physical Sensations:
Note whether your body feels naturally tired or if there's a sense of being stuck and heavy. (freeze)
Responding
Either way - it can be useful to first just allow your body to go into the freeze or tiredness!
If it is wanting to rest, curl up, sleep or shut down - it could be that you need to allow this to happen - at least for a little while.
So often, with tiredness OR freeze, we resist it - push ourselves too hard, force ourselves to carry on.
Many of us hold unhelpful narratives about needing to be productive, keep working, get on with it etc...
So, listening to your bodies need to slow down is going to be helpful either way.
And you can do this is super healthy ways:
take a guilt-free nap
have a hot bath
read a book in bed
get an early night
come into a child's pose on the floor
put your legs up the wall for 10 minutes
give yourself a massage (or book one in with a pro!)
listen to a guided meditation from our meditation library
give our 'somatic slumber' Release class a go - or another of our somatic classes for sleepy time in the sleep library
Then...
For Dorsal Vagal Freeze:
Up-Regulation Techniques: Engage in gentle physical activity like walking or stretching to stimulate the nervous system. These up-regulation techniques should be gentle - swaying, tapping, gentle movement... the KEY for coming out of freeze is to create safety in the body. Try this free somatic practice:
There are more somatic practices in the our freeze to freedom course, the freeze library or soma & soul - all included in our membership
Mindfulness and Grounding: Practices like deep breathing, meditation, and grounding exercises can help re-engage your senses. Our Get Grounded course is lovely
A KEY in regulating a freeze response in creating a sense of safety in the body - and so working on nervous system regulation practices and then moving into mindset is helpful.
For Physical Fatigue:
Rest and Sleep: Ensure you're getting adequate rest and sleep to allow your body to recover.
Nutrition and Hydration: Maintain a balanced diet and stay hydrated to support overall energy levels.
Gentle Activity: Light activities like stretching or yoga can aid in recovery without overexerting your body.
Understanding the difference between dorsal vagal freeze and physical fatigue is useful for responding appropriately to your body's needs.
By assessing your recent activities, emotional state, and physical sensations, you can better determine whether you need to up-regulate and get moving or simply rest and recover.
Listening to your body and addressing the underlying causes of these states can help you maintain balance and well-being.
At the end of the day - it's a bit of trial and error too - keep a log of symptoms/thoughts/emotions/triggers, interventions you try out and the outcome of this and unpack your findings.
You got this 💪🏼
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