Some Mental Notes

-Amplitude of physiological rhythms (indicated by RSA indexes) reveals ANS stress activity. If amplitude is great, the organism experiences homeostasis. If amplitude is small and restricted, organism is having trouble experiencing homeostasis and is chronically stressed

- Ways to Combat Stress: Seek to experience i.e. emotionally integrate positive external events. Such stimuli heal the body. Physiological dysregulation is marked by low amplitude in physiological rhythms. This means poor responsivity to outside events. Any SNS activation is healing; it takes the body out of its shock/dissociation by releasing undischarged energy. SNS activation subserves homeostasis. Following emotional arousal, PNS tone is normalized.

Quotes from The Polyvagal Theory:

 pg. 115

"The two tiered model is hierarchical with priority given to the demands of the second tier. However, without the first tier functioning adequately and regulating homeostasis to maximize life support processes such as digestion, oxygenation, thermoregulation, and perfusion, there would be no "energy" resources available for second tier functions."

pg. 115-116

"Behavior is metabolically costly. For example, behaviors such as fight or flight responses often require massive and instantaneous increases in metabolic output.To successfully accomplish tasks of engagement and disengagement with the environment, the nervous system must divert energy resources from visceral homeostasis (e.g. smooth muscle) to observable behaviors (e.g striate muscle) that deal directly with the environment. The regulation of the vagal brake provides an index of this shift in resources. By instantaneously releasing the vagal brake, cardiac output increases to support the metabolic demands required by the behavior. Thus, the priority of the two tiered system subjugates the homeostatic needs in favor of the immediate environmental demands."

pg. 149

"Excessive sympathetic activity reflects a deviation from normal homeostatic autonomic function, which then elicits vagal activity to self-regulate and return the autonomic state to homeostasis. In individuals with high vagal tone and appropriate vagal regulation capacities, the autonomic nervous system has the capacity to react (i.e appropriate reactivity and expressivity) and to return rapidly to homeostasis (i.e. self regulation and self soothing)"

pg. 171

"Thus cortical regulation of the VVC [ventral vagal complex] requires the setting to be perceived as safe. The perception of safety, or at least, the lack of fight or flight responses, would provide a neurophysiological state in which cortical regulation of medullary nuclei could promote proximity and increase the probability of reproductive behaviors."

pg. 244

"It has been speculated that PTSD may be a consequence of triggering the unmyelinated vagus as a primitive defense system, often in inescapable contexts, when mobilization defensive strategies cannot be employed. In this state a lower brainstem system, more frequently employed by reptiles, is regulated peripheral physiology. This system reduces oxygenated blood flow to the brain and leads to fainting and experiences of dissociation. It is possible that a lower threshold to mobilize and a hypervigilance for danger might have potential survival consequences in this situation. Thus, from an adaptive perspective, the lower threshold to mobilize would protect the individual from recruiting this primitive shutdown circuit."

pg. 260

"In contrast, in a physiological state characterized by an engaged myelinated vagus, sympathetic and hypthalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity are dampened, and that physiological state is experienced as calm. Intrusive stimuli that previously would have triggered aggressive behaviors when the vagal activity is  withdrawn will now result in a dampened reaction. Accompanying this change in physiological state are options to further dampen reactivity through social interactions."

pg. 267

"For example, pro-social behaviors cue others that the environment is safe. Safe environments signal the individual to dispense with the hyper-vigilance required to detect danger and allows this precautionary strategy to be replaced with social interactions that further calm and lead to close proximity and physical contact."

Quotes from "The Healing power of Emotion"

 pg. 116

"The developmental achievement of a sense of self that is simultaneously fluid and robust depends on how well the capacity for affect regulation and affect competency hs been achieved. When these early patterns of interpersonal interaction are relatively successful, they create a stable foundation for relational affect regulation that is intonalized as nonverbal and unconscious. Thus, successful negotiation of interpersonal transactions at increasingly higher levels of self development and interpersonal maturity is made possible. (Bromberg, 2006, pg. 32)

pg.127

"In terms of regulation theory, defense mechanisms are forms of emotional regulation strategies for avoiding, minimizing, or converting affects that are too difficult to tolerate. treatment, especially of early forming secure psychopathologies, must attend not only to conscious dysregulated affects but also to the early forming defense that protects patients from consciously experiencing overwhelming painful negative affects - dissociation. This bottom-line defense thus represents the major counter-force to the emotional - motivational aspects of the change process in psychotherapy."