Understanding Dorsal Vagal Shutdown: Numbness and Trauma (SNB192)

My counselor was talking to me about this yesterday. I fall into the dorsal state and have a hard time coming out because I don't feel the world or life is safe. I have a bipolar2 child who I worked to keep alive until he passed by suicide last year at 16. There were 3 years before he passed that were extra hard. I was in constant fight or flight for him. the whole world is scary. Getting out of bed is scary.

This is the best way I've ever heard of describing my trauma due to a childhood of sexual abuse by an uncle that started at birth and went on with daily death threats until I was 13. He admitted to it but I received no help, mother fell apart and threw me out. At 13. I am now 50 and just was my mother's main nurse while she died of lung cancer for two years and all the childhood trauma has been reactivated physically. Constant disassociation. I thought helping her through her cancer and death would help me find closure yet I've been left with more unanswered questions then ever. This description has helped me quite a bit thank you

I’ve never heard of this before I just happened upon it Would explain my dreamlike existence…slow mo ,cut off from everyone,no appetite,closed curtains,need to sleep,sleep and sleep some more.can’t be bothered to speak anymore….no desire or energy to do anything,just float through the day if not sleeping,feeling physically unwell and weak …..I’m glad people are leaving me alone.

I've been in shutdown for almost four years, barely coming out of it now, it is so bizarre. Don't fully understand how I'm still alive, but our bodies are incredible that's for sure

This happened to me after being repeatedly discarded by an emotionally terroristic covert narcissist. It took a long time to feel anything close to normal. Years later I'm still not right but I can recognize how far I've come. Remember to keep breathing and that you're worth loving. No love will ever compare to the love you can provide and offer yourself.

As I sit here in shutdown for many hours I finally understand what has been heppening for most of my life………. And it has a name. Thank you

I was shunned by my community after realizing I no longer believed in Jehovah’s Witness teachings-especially disfellowshipping and shunning. My friends and spouse viewed me as an apostate and a threat to their spirituality. I changed my mind because both of my parents had committed suicide and I felt that shunning and disfellowshipping played a major role in their situation as well. Losing all of my friends at once and my marriage has been so debilitating. I have major abandonment issues and I can barely function

I’m in this state constantly, if not having meltdowns from reactions, and now I’m scared of triggers happening or any more stress/bad news, life events. I try to function, very limited, can’t hardly sleep, and it’s a horrible existence. I’m forever doing vagus nerve exercises. I’m healing from prescription medication damage and it’s so hard and traumatic. Yes being around others, even family is too much, so alone all the time. Not who I am. Thank you for talking about this and offering advice

this comment section is so validating and at the same time makes me feel a lot less alone with my years long struggles. sending love to everyone here ❤

After my wife's multiple affairs, I couldn't figure out why my body kept shutting down. This explains so much. Thank you!

I would also call it a catatonic state, where you are staring into space but not seeing. You are moving through a fog. Like automatically one foot in front of the other, like putting on pants one leg at a time. I have been in this state in the past.

If I'm about to be eaten, a shutdown state is less traumatic than being witness to being devoured. This state can be correlated with being predated upon by a pathological parent, where shutdown is useful.

This really helps me understand why i stayed with a man who raped me 6 months into our relationship when we had just moved in together. I froze in the midst of it, but then i ended up in a shutdown state that made it impossible to get out. Growing up in an abusive home laid the groundwork. I am finally preparing to leave after years of repressing my trauma and enduring repeated sexual coercion for way too long. I am trying to get therapy. On a 3 month wait list. But i am going to get to a place where i feel safe. I will not give up.

Yep that’s where I’m at right now 😢 At first I cried and cried and cried when my truck broke down as I am already homeless and can’t afford to fix it and then the other day when my caravan home was badly damaged while being towed by the tow truck, I couldn’t even process the grief anymore and have no more energy to even cry anymore and just feel nothing anymore, completely numb and just want to sleep constantly.

Thank you!!! My doctors called this" psychosis" as they proceeded to lock me up on a psych ward for a week... multiple times! 👀 I was disociated for valid causes, survival mode....NOT crazy but now I think I am. Systematically and insidiously ABUSED!!! Where was/IS the real help for people like us?#IAMASurvivor

At 5 years old I experienced a supernatural trauma, something not of this world, realm, I was so terrified my soul left my body, i could see myself from above in the tree line. Then my soul shot back down inro my body, and I found myself fighting for my life. Terrified, fozen, untill i got up enough courage to run, and hide from it. I never recovered. No one till this day can seem to help me.

I was in dorsal vagal shutdown earlier this year. I couldnt figure out why or what the heck was wrong with me. It wasnt until a good friend told me that what i was experiencing was abuse from my family. I couldnt recognise it, as i had been raised in an abusive family dynamic. Soon enough, i left and cut all ties. Im out of dorsal vagal shutdown, but currently stuck in mostly freeze/fawn mode

I made a foolish mistake and retired from my career job I really loved. I couldn't handle what i did. Stress was SO bad, i got insomnia!, anxiety... and depression. I don't do or go anywhere. I fear this condition now,.. im stuck with no interests.

I can’t even begin to thank you and your patients for helping elaborate my life experience. I’m 58..in this last 5 months I have had multiple acute episodes of grief, on top of chronic emotional stress. I feel like I’m drowning right now…I can’t get to the surface and get a breath. I’m exhausted.

One safety environment f.i. is a clean room.