Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism

by Stanley D. Rosenberg

The third neural pathway is the dorsal branch of the vagus nerve. This pathway is activated when we face an overwhelming force and imminent destruction. When there is no point in fighting or running away, we con-serve what resources we have—we immobilize. Activation of this pathway fosters feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and apathy, manifesting in withdrawal and shutdown. This state can be described as “immobiliza-tion with fear.”

However, if the slowdown is too sudden or too extreme, it can result in the mouse being literally scared to death. About 10 percent of mice die from shutting down as a response to danger from a bird of prey or a snake.

The way to move people out of both states—stress with accompanying fight-or-flight behaviors (mobilization with fear) and depressive feelings behaviors with shutdown (immobilization with fear)—is to activate the ventral branch of their vagus nerve.

immobilization with fear. Activity of the ventral branch of the vagus nerve inhibits the two lower levels. Activation of the ventral vagal circuit, supporting activities that are productive in terms of personal survival as well as social activities, lifts us out of chronic activation of the spinal sympathetic system, and it also takes us out of dorsal states of shutdown.

Sensing our own bodies and staying grounded helps us to remain in a ventral vagal state. Awareness of our body can help us avoid getting carried away by emotions that can lead to faulty neuroception.