The Vagus Nerve, Nervous System Dysregulation & Why Your Reactions Make Perfect Sense (A Dublin Somatic Therapist Explains)

Your dysregulation is not a malfunction. It is the vagus nerve, faithfully firing an alarm it learned when the danger was real. A Dublin somatic therapist on polyvagal theory, the vagus nerve, and the quiet clinical revolution that understanding IS regulating.

By Abi Beri  |  Integrative Therapist & Nervous System Specialist  ·  Dublin, Naas, Newbridge, Kildare & Online

TL;DR. The reactions you have been at war with — the spiral over one small thing, the sudden feeling of danger with no visible source, the overwhelm, the shutting down, the physical tension that appears out of nowhere — are not evidence that something is wrong with you. They are your nervous system, and specifically the vagus nerve (the primary parasympathetic nerve, the great regulator), doing exactly what it learned to do. Your body remembers experiences as PATTERNS, not stories. When something in the present resembles something from the past — even faintly, even in ways your conscious mind cannot detect — your vagus nerve can fire the old alarm. You are not overreacting to the present. You are having a proportionate reaction to the past, in the clothing of now. This is the core insight of Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory (via ‘neuroception’ — the below-conscious safety scan) and the wider somatic trauma field. This article walks through the vagus nerve, neuroception, why fighting your dysregulation pours petrol on it, and the clinical revolution at the centre of somatic work: understanding IS regulating. Self-compassion is a physiological safety signal (Kristin Neff’s research). For people in Ireland, integrative somatic therapy with polyvagal-informed nervous system work is available in Dublin, Naas, Newbridge and across Kildare in person, and online globally.

Key facts at a glance

• The vagus nerve is the primary parasympathetic nerve — the tenth cranial nerve — running between brainstem and gut, and the great physiological regulator of the ‘rest, digest and connect’ state.
• Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory identified two branches of the vagus (ventral and dorsal), each mediating a different physiological state — regulated engagement, or protective shutdown.
• ‘Neuroception’ (Porges’s term) is the below-conscious scanning of environment and body for cues of safety or threat — the vagus nerve’s ‘smoke alarm’.
• Nervous system dysregulation is not a malfunction. It is a system faithfully responding to old patterns as if they were current threats — because to a survival system, a possible danger recognised early beats a real one recognised late.
• Fighting your dysregulation (through shame, frustration, self-criticism) functions as an additional threat signal — it keeps the system in the very state you are trying to escape.
• Understanding your reactions is itself a physiological intervention — self-compassion is a safety signal, and safety signals engage the vagal brake.
• Stanley Rosenberg’s Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve (2017) is the accessible book on practical vagus nerve exercises for dysregulation.
• Available as a free 42-minute guided talk and as part of integrative somatic therapy with polyvagal-informed nervous system work in Dublin, Naas, Newbridge and Kildare (and online globally).

The reactions you have been at war with

Quick answer: Chronic dysregulation shows up as the spiral over small things, the feeling of danger without a visible source, the sudden overwhelm, the numbness / shutdown, or the physical symptoms (tension, gut, chronic pain). All are typically not character flaws — they are patterns the vagus nerve learned in an earlier context and continues to fire when the present resembles the past.

You know these reactions. The way you sometimes spiral — one small thing goes wrong and suddenly your whole system is flooded, catastrophising, spinning, far past anything the situation seems to warrant. The way certain situations make you feel unsafe for no reason you can point to — your heart racing, your body braced, a sense of danger with no visible source. The way you get overwhelmed, shut down, go numb, or fall apart at moments other people seem to handle fine. Maybe even the physical things — the tension, the stomach that knots, the pain that flares, the exhaustion that arrives out of nowhere.

You have probably spent a great deal of energy treating all of that as evidence of something wrong with you. As a flaw. A weakness. A brokenness. Why do I react like this? Why can’t I just be normal? What is wrong with me?

Nothing is wrong with you. Your dysregulation makes perfect sense. Every one of those reactions you have been fighting is a nervous system doing exactly what it learned to do, responding intelligently to something real.

What the vagus nerve actually is

Quick answer: The vagus nerve (Latin for ‘wandering’) is the tenth cranial nerve — the longest cranial nerve in the body, running from the brainstem down through the neck, chest, heart, lungs, and abdomen. It is the primary parasympathetic nerve — the great regulator of the ‘rest, digest and connect’ state — and it is bidirectional: most of its traffic actually flows FROM the body TO the brain, not the other way.

The vagus nerve is the tenth cranial nerve, the longest cranial nerve in the body, and the great regulator of the parasympathetic nervous system. It runs from the brainstem down through the neck, chest, heart, lungs, and abdomen — hence its name (‘vagus’ meaning wandering in Latin, because it wanders through so much of the body). It innervates most of the internal organs and is the primary vehicle by which the ‘rest, digest and connect’ state is maintained.

Two important facts most people never learn. First, the vagus nerve is BIDIRECTIONAL — and roughly 80% of its fibres carry information FROM the body TO the brain (afferent), not the other way. This is why ‘gut feeling’ is not folk wisdom — it is the vagus nerve delivering ongoing reports from the internal state of the body to the brain. Second, the vagus nerve is not one uniform thing. Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory identified two evolutionarily distinct branches — the ventral vagal (mediating social engagement, regulated safety) and the dorsal vagal (mediating shutdown, freeze, the oldest survival response). Different branches, different states, different signatures.

In dysregulation, the vagus nerve is not damaged. It is doing its job — the job it learned. If it learned that certain cues predicted danger, it fires the danger response when those cues appear now. The pattern is faithful, not faulty.

Neuroception: the below-conscious safety scan

Quick answer: ‘Neuroception’ is Porges’s term for the autonomic nervous system’s constant, below-conscious scanning of the environment and body for cues of safety or threat. It runs every second, faster than thought. When neuroception detects danger cues (real or old-echo), it fires the corresponding physiological response — regardless of whether the conscious mind agrees the situation is dangerous.

Your nervous system’s entire job is to keep you safe. To do that, it learns. It takes the experiences you have lived through — especially the frightening ones, the overwhelming ones, the ones where you genuinely were not safe — and it remembers them. Not as a story, not as a tidy memory with a date on it. It remembers them as STATES. As body-patterns. As implicit knowledge held beneath thought: this kind of situation, this feeling, this look on someone’s face, this tone of voice — this was dangerous once. Be ready.

Stephen Porges coined the term neuroception for this below-conscious scan. It runs, every second, faster than thought — like antivirus software that never closes. It reads tone of voice, facial micro-expressions, breathing patterns, muscle tension in others, ambient sound, the felt-sense of a room. It categorises: safe, dangerous, or life-threatening. And it sets the physiological state accordingly.

Here is the crucial part: your neuroception CANNOT ALWAYS TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEN AND NOW. It does not have a clock. When something in the present resembles something from the past — even faintly, even in a way your conscious mind does not notice — your vagus nerve can fire the old alarm. You are responding to the present as if it were the past, because to a survival system, a possible danger recognised early beats a real one recognised too late.

So when you spiral, when you feel suddenly unsafe, when you are flooded with overwhelm in a situation that ‘shouldn’t’ cause it — what is actually happening is this: something in the present has reminded your body of the past. Some resemblance, some echo, some familiar shape — and your vagus nerve, faithfully, has fired the response it learned back when the danger was real. You are not overreacting to the present. You are having a proportionate reaction — to the past.

Why the spiral, the numbness, the pain all make sense

Each specific reaction has its own logic:

• The spiral (catastrophising). A nervous system that learned things could go very wrong very fast, and that staying ahead of every possible disaster was survival. The spiral is old vigilance, still trying to protect you. Makes sense.
• Feeling unsafe for no visible reason. Neuroception picking up an echo of an old danger below conscious awareness. Your body is not lying to you. It is remembering. Makes sense.
• Numbing, shutdown, disconnection. Dorsal vagal activation — the system’s oldest, deepest protection. When something was too overwhelming to fight or flee, the body’s last resort was shutdown. If you numb out now, it is because that once kept you safe. Makes sense.
• Chronic tension, gut symptoms, unexplained pain, fatigue. The body holding what was never processed. The vagus nerve regulates digestion, immune function, inflammation — chronic dysregulation shows up somatically. Van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score is the popular name for this. Makes sense too.

None of it is random. None of it is brokenness. All of it is a nervous system carrying something unprocessed and responding to the present through the lens of a past that still feels, to your body, like it is happening.

Why fighting your dysregulation makes it worse

Quick answer: Shame and self-criticism function, physiologically, as additional threat signals to the nervous system. A system that is being attacked — even from the inside — cannot settle. Fighting your dysregulation is pouring petrol on it and wondering why it will not go out. Self-compassion, by contrast, is a physiological safety signal (Kristin Neff’s research), which engages the vagal brake and allows the system to stand down.

When you treat your dysregulation as an enemy — when you are ashamed of it, frustrated by it, at war with it, demanding it stop — think about what message that sends to your nervous system. You are adding threat. You are telling a frightened system that it is also wrong, also bad, also failing.

A system that is being attacked — even by you, even from the inside — cannot settle. Shame is a threat signal. Self-criticism keeps you in the very state you are trying to escape. Fighting your dysregulation is pouring petrol on it and wondering why it will not go out.

Kristin Neff’s decades of research on self-compassion has demonstrated the opposite. Self-compassion functions as a physiological safety signal — it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, engages the vagal brake, and reduces cortisol. Not because it is nice. Because at the level the vagus nerve reads, being warm to yourself is neurobiologically indistinguishable from being warmed by a trusted other. It is co-regulation applied inward.

The quiet revolution: understanding IS regulating

When you meet your reaction with recognition instead of war — when you can say, ah, of course, this makes sense, my body is remembering something, no wonder I feel this way — something shifts at the physiological level. Recognition tells the nervous system: you are not in trouble. You are not being attacked. I understand you. I am on your side. And a system that receives that signal can begin, at last, to stand down.

This is the quiet clinical revolution at the centre of somatic and polyvagal-informed work. Understanding is regulating. The very act of seeing that your reaction makes sense — really seeing it, in your body, not just agreeing with it in your head — is itself part of how the reaction softens. You do not soften your dysregulation by defeating it. You soften it by understanding it. By turning to the frightened, faithful, hardworking system inside you and saying: I get it now. Of course you reacted that way. You were trying to protect me. Thank you.

Fighting vs Understanding — a comparison

Fighting your dysregulation	Understanding your dysregulation
Shame / self-criticism.	Recognition / self-compassion.
Adds threat signal to a threat state.	Adds safety signal to a threat state.
Keeps the system revved.	Engages the vagal brake.
The reaction gets worse.	The reaction softens.
Reinforces ‘something is wrong with me’.	Reveals ‘something happened, and my body is remembering’.
Loop with no exit.	Doorway to regulation.
Pours petrol on the fire.	Signals safety to a frightened system.

A small somatic practice (safe to try alone)

• 1. Settle. Feel the ground holding you. Weight of your body, supported. Let yourself be held by it. I am here. I am supported.
• 2. Bring one reaction lightly to mind. The spiral, the overwhelm, the shutting down, the sudden unsafe feeling. Do not summon the worst. Just let it be at the edge of your awareness.
• 3. Notice how you usually relate to it. The frustration, the shame, the ‘what is wrong with me’. Notice you have been at war with it. That war has been running a long time.
• 4. Offer it recognition instead. Inwardly, slowly: ‘Of course. Of course you react this way. It makes sense. Something happened once that my body found overwhelming, and it never got fully processed. This reaction is my body remembering — trying to protect me from a danger it never learned was over.’
• 5. Notice what softens. There may be a loosening somewhere. A small easing. Some part of you that has been braced against its own responses finally hearing: I understand you now. You make sense. I am not going to fight you anymore.
• 6. Place a hand where the reaction lives. Chest, belly, throat. Not to fix. Just to let it know you are here, and you understand.

Frequently asked questions

What is nervous system dysregulation? A pattern in which the autonomic nervous system fires threat responses (sympathetic activation or dorsal shutdown) in situations that are not, in the present, dangerous. Usually the result of the system having learned danger patterns in earlier contexts and continuing to fire them now.

What is the vagus nerve? The tenth cranial nerve — the longest cranial nerve in the body — running from the brainstem down through the neck, chest, and abdomen. The primary parasympathetic nerve; the great regulator of the ‘rest, digest and connect’ state. Approximately 80% of its fibres carry information from body to brain.

What is neuroception? A term coined by Stephen Porges for the below-conscious scanning of environment and body for cues of safety or threat. Runs every second, faster than thought, and sets the physiological state accordingly.

Why do I overreact to small things? Almost always: your vagus nerve is faithfully firing a pattern it learned when a similar situation actually was dangerous. You are not overreacting to the present — you are proportionately reacting to the past, in the clothing of now.

Why do I feel unsafe for no reason? Your neuroception is detecting a cue of old danger below your conscious awareness. Your body is not lying. It is remembering something the situation reminds it of.

How do I regulate my vagus nerve? Stanley Rosenberg’s Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve (2017) is the accessible book on practical exercises. Broadly: slow long exhales (the vagal brake), warm connection with safe others (co-regulation), somatic body practices, humming and singing (which stimulate the vagus through the throat), and — the piece this article makes — turning to your own reactions with understanding rather than war.

Is dysregulation curable? ‘Cure’ is not quite the right frame — the vagus nerve does not need curing. The pattern can be re-learned. In somatic and polyvagal-informed therapy, chronic dysregulation reliably reduces over time as the system learns, in the presence of safety, that the old danger is not the current one.

Do you offer polyvagal / somatic therapy in Dublin? Yes — integrative somatic therapy with polyvagal-informed nervous system work in Dublin city, Naas, Newbridge and across Kildare in person, and online globally. Free 20-minute intro at somatictherapyireland.com.

Working with Chronic Dysregulation — Somatic & Polyvagal-Informed Therapy in Dublin, Naas, Newbridge & Kildare

If something in this article has landed, you are welcome to bring the work deeper. I am an Integrative Therapist trained in somatic methods, family constellations, polyvagal-informed practice and inner child work. I see clients one-to-one in Dublin city, Naas, Newbridge and across Kildare in person, and online globally. Chronic dysregulation typically softens most reliably in relationship — the same principle that makes an infant’s nervous system co-regulate with a caregiver applies to adults. A regulated nervous system co-regulating with yours signals safety to your vagus nerve at a level willpower cannot reach.

About the author

Abi Beri is an Integrative Therapist, Family Constellation Facilitator and Nervous System Specialist based in Dublin, Ireland. He is trained in somatic methods, family constellations, polyvagal-informed practice and inner child work. He is IPHM-accredited. He sees clients in person from a practice base across Dublin, Naas, Newbridge and the wider Kildare area, and online globally. More at somatictherapyireland.com and blissfulevolution.com.

Further reading & cited authorities

• Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. Norton.
• Porges, S. W. (2017). The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory. Norton.
• Rosenberg, S. (2017). Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve. North Atlantic Books.
• Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy. Norton.
• Dana, D. (2021). Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory. Sounds True.
• Levine, P. A. (2010). In an Unspoken Voice. North Atlantic Books.
• van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score. Viking.
• Neff, K. (2011). Self-Compassion. William Morrow.
• Germer, C. & Neff, K. (2018). The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook. Guilford.
• Ogden, P., Minton, K. & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the Body. Norton.

Authoritative resources (external links)

• Polyvagal Institute (Stephen Porges) — polyvagalinstitute.org · Porges’s polyvagal theory is the clinical spine of this piece — neuroception, the vagus nerve, and the physiology of safety.
• Stanley Rosenberg — Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve — stanleyrosenbergassociates.com · the leading accessible teacher of vagus nerve exercises and polyvagal-informed practice for dysregulation.
• Somatic Experiencing International (Peter Levine) — traumahealing.org · the global home of Somatic Experiencing — the body-based approach to processing what talk cannot reach.
• Trauma Research Foundation (Bessel van der Kolk) — traumaresearchfoundation.org · The Body Keeps the Score research lineage — the body-remembers frame.
• Deb Dana — Rhythm of Regulation — rhythmofregulation.com · Deb Dana’s clinical polyvagal work — the practical application of Porges’s theory.
• Mindful Self-Compassion (Kristin Neff & Christopher Germer) — self-compassion.org · Neff’s research showing self-compassion as a physiological safety signal — the ‘understanding replaces war’ mechanism.
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute (Pat Ogden) — sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org · Pat Ogden’s trauma-informed somatic method — kindred lineage.
• Wikipedia — Vagus nerve — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagus_nerve · plain-English explainer of the primary parasympathetic nerve.
• Wikipedia — Polyvagal theory (neuroception) — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvagal_theory · the theoretical frame underneath ‘the body remembers’.
• IICP College Dublin — iicp.ie · the integrative counselling and psychotherapy college in Dublin where I trained.
• IPHM (International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine) — iphm.co.uk · my accrediting body.

If what surfaces feels overwhelming — Irish mental health resources

• Samaritans Ireland — samaritans.org/ireland · free, 24/7 emotional support · call 116 123 (referenced in the talk).
• Pieta House (Ireland) — pieta.ie · free crisis support · call 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444.
• Aware Ireland — aware.ie · depression and anxiety support · call 1800 80 48 48.
• HSE Mental Health (Ireland) — hse.ie/mental-health · the Irish national health service mental health gateway.