When we experience a dangerous situation, our nervous system is designed to protect us in what we define as fight, flight, and freeze our fawn. After the event has passed, our system will often return to a more neutral state.
However, if we are exposed to chronic stress, chronic unpredictable stress or traumatic stress. Our danger switch may not turn off, leading to a vicious cycle of hyper-arousal and hypo-arousal with little capacity to work within the window of distress tolerance.
Hyper-arousal- Emotional overwhelm, panic, impulsivity, hyper-vigilance, defensiveness, feeling unsafe, reactivity, anger, racing thoughts.
Within your window- Content and focus. When experiencing strong or difficult feelings you can think and feel simultaneously and your reactions adapt to the situation.
Hypo-arousal- Feeling numb, passive, no feelings, no energy, unable to think, disconnected, shut down, not present, ashamed.
When in a constant cycle of Hyper and Hypo-arousal, counselling can be helpful to dim this cycle and increase one's ability to operate within one's window of distress tolerance. This is done by providing clients with grounding techniques and therapeutic interventions such as; Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
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