Is It Anxiety or Nervous System Dysregulation? Here’s How to Tell the Difference.
Are you experiencing anxiety or something else? Here’s how to tell the difference between anxiety and nervous system dysregulation.
What Is Anxiety?
You might be wondering what anxiety is. Am I experiencing anxiety or something else? I like to start with a good definition so that we are all on the same page about what we are talking about.
How The DSM-5 Classifies Anxiety:
Excessive anxiety and worry:
Occurring more days than not for at least 6 months about a variety of activities or events.Difficulty controlling worry:
Individuals find it hard to control their worry. Sometimes, this can look like rumination, another word for having troublesome thoughts that aren’t easily stopped or ignored.Associated symptoms:
At least three of the following: restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, or sleep disturbance.Distress or impairment:
The anxiety and worry cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. This is a crucial part of anxiety. All people will have “anxiety” about one thing or another, and it is fleeting. It is important to note that this is persistent, pesky, and life-altering.
Why Not All Anxiety Is an Anxiety Disorder
This is the diagnostic criteria for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). It is important to note that there is a difference between having moments of anxiety and having Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Everybody has moments of anxiety; not everybody has Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
Sometimes, the feelings of anxiety can be better explained by specific phenomena that are happening within the nervous system. Furthermore, what could look like a typical anxious response to something could be due to trauma and not simply anxiety. Let’s talk about it.
If you are looking for therapy support in Kansas City, our team at Embodied Healing Collective offers body-based approaches like Somatic Therapy and EMDR to help you get to the root instead of only managing symptoms.
How Your Nervous System Influences Anxiety, Stress, and Emotions
When our nervous system detects perceived danger, it goes into self-protection mode, or fight, flight, or freeze. Learn more about fight, flight, and freeze here.
What Happens When the Body Detects Threat (Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn)
When our system detects danger in the environment (exteroception), it sends us into the threat response cycle. We orient, startle, and go into self-protection mode. In some instances where trauma is present, there can be a thwarted response which create difficulties within the nervous system.
Now, the term “dysregulation” is all the rage right now, but I want to be clear about something: having a body-based response to threat is not necessarily dysregulation. Having an appropriate fight, flight, freeze, appease, or submit response are all regulated if and when there is a threat. True nervous system dysregulation happens when there is no longer a true threat but the nervous system is acting as if there is one.
If you want a deeper explanation of what nervous system regulation means (and why it matters in trauma recovery), you can find more information at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the American Psychological Association (APA).
Symptoms of Chronic Nervous System Dysregulation
Common Signs Your Nervous System May Be Stuck in Survival Mode
Digestive issues
Unexplained pain
Frequent headaches or migraines
Unorganized heart rate variability
Chronic fatigue
In many ways, a Generalized Anxiety Disorder diagnosis can mimic the symptoms of nervous system dysregulation.
It is also important to note that when I talk about these possibly symptoms of chronic nervous system dysregulation, that we always want to make sure that there is no underlying medical cause that could better explain these symptoms. We never want to dismiss a health concern by assuming it has a non-medical, mental-health related etiology. It requires potential clients to be willing to seek medical attention when necessary in order to rule out a differential diagnosis.
When Anxiety Is Really a Trauma Response
If a person has chronic anxiety that isn’t reasonably resolved with interventions, I start to get curious about the real source of the anxiety. (In the case of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, some mental health interventions might be medications, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, or even exposure therapy.) If they have tried interventions such as CBT, medication, or mindfulness exercises, then there could be a good chance that anxiety is the trauma response.
This matters because treatment can look different when anxiety is rooted in unresolved trauma, chronic stress, or nervous system overwhelm. A trauma-informed approach can help you build safety first, then gently work with the body’s survival responses.
How Trauma Rewires the Stress Response (and Keep You on High Alert)
Post traumatic stress is the part of the trauma experience that can become the trauma itself. It is mentally, physically, and spiritually taxing to be constantly on guard, never feeling safe. It requires a lot of survival energy – our vitality – to keep going day to day. This means that the physiology is taking on a high allostatic load which impacts the whole person. This is when body-based, or somatic, forms of treatment can be quite helpful.
If you want to explore therapy options, start here: Somatic Therapy in Kansas City
How Somatic Therapy Helps With Nervous System Healing
Unlike other therapies that might be emotionally-focused or cognitively focused, somatic therapy helps to address how the whole body is responding. Somatic therapy, especially Somatic Experiencing, helps people move through the survival responses in order to help reduce trauma symptoms and heal your trauma.
The Role of the Sympathetic Nervous System in Anxiety
With anxiety, the sympathetic nervous system becomes easily triggered and goes into overdrive. It becomes a well-worn pathway in the brain that gets activated any time there is a stressor. More than reframing thoughts, somatic therapy helps people to get out of this cycle where the nervous system is dysregulated, helping people to feel better.
This is done by helping the person (mind and body) to understand that what they are perceiving as a threat isn’t, and that they can feel safe in the face of what has previously activated them. This is done by identifying patterns of discomfort (emotionally and physically) and following them, allowing self-protective responses to emerge and safety to be felt once again. It is essentially teaching the nervous system to go “oh hey, that is a stick over there, not a snake.”
Simple Nervous System Regulation Tools You Can Use Today
You can reduce your anxiety and regulate your nervous system by using simple techniques like orientation, environment scanning, and grounding practices.
Here are a few tips to help target anxiety reduction by regulating your nervous system:
Orientation and Environment Scanning
Regulate your nervous system by moving your head, neck, chest, and eyes around your space to take in more information which can signal safety to the brain.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation Techniques
Gargle water, do the deep voo, use ice on your neck and chest. You can also explore simple breathing and grounding practices through the NCCIH (NIH) mindfulness overview.
Physical Movement as a Release Mechanism
Instead of your head telling you what to do, notice what your body wants to do. Does it have excess energy? If you’re anxious, then most likely so. Get curious about how your body would want to release the energy. Jumping? Push Ups? Shaking it out? Go for it.
You’re Not Broken—Your Body Just Needs Support
Anxiety is not a personal failure. A common thought trap that I see my clients falling into is that because they can do something about the anxiety, it means that they are at fault for having it. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We can’t control how our unique systems are predisposed to have certain tendencies, nor the environment in which our systems develop. However, we can pull the lever of getting help in order to create more coherence with the mind, body, and spirit.
If you’re in Kansas City and you want support that includes the nervous system (not just the story), explore Somatic Therapy or EMDR Therapy at Embodied Healing Collective.
Related reading from Embodied Healing Collective
Nervous system support: Regulating Your Nervous System: What It Means and How to Do It
Fight/flight/freeze: Understanding Fight, Flight, and Freeze: A Somatic Therapist’s Guide
Trauma in the body: How Trauma is Stored in the Body and Why Talk Therapy Might Not Be Enough
Happy healing.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Anxiety and Nervous System Dysregulation
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Anxiety typically involves emotional and cognitive symptoms like worry or fear, while nervous system dysregulation relates more to physical and physiological symptoms such as fatigue, digestive issues, and muscle tension—even in the absence of clear emotional stress.
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Yes, dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system can mimic anxiety symptoms like racing thoughts, restlessness, and rapid heartbeat—even when no clear source of worry exists.
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If you've tried traditional anxiety interventions (e.g. CBT, medication) with little relief, and especially if your anxiety began after a stressful life event, it may be rooted in unresolved trauma.
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Somatic Experiencing is ideal for addressing nervous system issues because they focus on physiological regulation, not just thoughts or behaviors.
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Absolutely. Somatic therapy helps calm the overactive sympathetic nervous system and retrains your body’s threat response, often leading to significant anxiety reduction over time.
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Try vagus nerve stimulation (like humming or cold water), orienting exercises (visually scanning your environment), or gentle movement (like shaking, stretching, or walking).
Stevie Olson-Spiegel is a Licensed Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner located in Kansas City. She uses Somatic Experiencing as her main body-based trauma healing modality, as well as EMDR. As an Intuitive Eating Counselor, she uses these principles to help her clients challenge their relationship with their cultural misconceptions about their body and food.
