Cincinnati Therapist Discusses How Horror Movies Impact your Nervous System
If you know one thing about me, it’s that I love, and I mean LOVE scary movies. I love the range and versatility of the genre. From searing dramas, tense psychological thrillers, farcical comedies, niche artistic slow burns, to the goofy, gruesome, and ghoulish.
As I was watching a spooky movie this past week, I was struck with the inspiration for this blog: using scary movies to practice attending to our shifting nervous system states!
Learning to attend to your nervous system is helpful if you know some common characteristics of the three nervous system states and how stress and fear affect your nervous system.
First, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for speeding up our body, accelerating aspects of our physiology to fight off the threat or flee from it. In a fight response, we may have more anger, rage, or irritation. In a flee response, we may have more anxiety, fear, or panic. Physiologically, our blood pressure, heart rate, perspiration, and adrenaline all spike.
Second, unlike the acceleration seen in the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) does its best imitation of Halloween villain Michael Myers. In this state, our brain and body, much like his walking speed, slows way down. We can be in a state of social engagement or shutdown. In the former, we are relaxed and capable of connecting with others or ourselves. In the latter, in an immobilized state, you're shut down and unable to respond, possibly even dissociative.
When something scary, stressful, or otherwise threatening happens, the various branches of the autonomic nervous system are affected in a specific order. First, our social engagement goes offline. Next, much like Leatherface’s chainsaw, our body revs up and the sympathetic nervous system is in control resulting in fight or flight. If that fails, our body takes extreme measures by going into physical or mental collapse.
Next time you are watching a scary movie try out this exercise from Deb Dana’s Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection to attend to your nervous system states. It is called Attending over Time.
Decide on an increment of time that you will be checking with yourself. Use the following series of prompts to check in over that span of time.
At this moment my autonomic state is…
In this moment my autonomic state is sympathetic
And I am feeling…
And I am feeling frightened.
Now my autonomic state is…
Now my autonomic state is leaning towards shutdown or collapse.
And I am feeling…
And I am feeling terrified.
And now my autonomic state is…
And now my autonomic state is inching closer toward feeling safe and mindful.
And I am feeling…
And I am feeling a sense of hope.
If you are interested in exploring the power of counseling, Brandon Mueller, LPC, has immediate openings!
The Rooted Compassion team is made up of a group of counselors who have a variety of specialties in order to best serve our clients. We recognize that every person has his/her own personal and unique life experiences and that one modality will not work for every client. Listed below is a summary of our counselors’ specialties at Rooted Compassion:
Polyvagal Theory/Nervous System Focused Therapy
Trauma Responsive Care Techniques
Grief Counseling
Somatic Focused Counseling
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, EMDR
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Mindfulness-Based Practices
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Drama Therapy/Expressive Arts
If you are interested in learning more about what Rooted Compassion is all about, please contact us today, look through our website, or find us on Instagram and Facebook.
Rooted Compassion Counseling is Ohio’s leading practice for trauma therapy through the lens of the nervous system. Our focus is to walk alongside clients as they heal from depression, anxiety, trauma, grief and/or loss. If you or someone you know are seeking to explore and build an inner sense of calm and safety, please contact us today. We would love to help you to find a counselor and counseling techniques that will guide you on your mental health journey to healing.
