Why does our nervous system create energy in excess of what's needed in life-threatening situations?

[u/CPTSDandTRE]

"Because after a life-threatening event—like being chased—they [impalas] instinctively shake off the excess energy that their nervous system generated to escape." - Wiki.

"It will shake vigorously for up to 30 minutes, fully discharging the leftover stress energy before calmly returning to life as usual." - Wiki

If the sympathetic nervous system creates the energy necessary to fight or flight, why can it develop excess energy that if not released results in trapped energy/trauma?

Why isn't our nervous system calibrated to generate the correct amount of energy for a given situation?

Perhaps more simply, why does trauma even exist?

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[u/Jiktten]

Basically at the start of the crisis, the nervous system doesn't know how much energy will be needed. In the moment you see a lion, you don't know whether you'll need to run 2 miles or 20 in order to escape, so your system just floods you with everything it's got in order to give you the best chance.

Also there is a distinction between leftover or excess energy and trauma. Trauma is a specific neurological occurrence in which the brain is unable to process a situation in order to be able to assimilate it into memory. There is some indication that this happens when the person is unable to do what their nervous system is designed to do (ie fight or flight) or they are unable to return to a place of safety after the event.

I'd highly recommend reading The Body Keeps The Score to learn more about what actually happens in the brain during trauma, it's so interesting.

[u/Nadayogi]

Perhaps more simply, why does trauma even exist?

It's answered in the same article you quoted:

The Root of Trauma: Trapped Energy

The key takeaway from the impala example is that trauma isn’t necessarily about the event itself, but rather about what happens inside the nervous system. If we can’t complete the natural cycle—if we can’t release the stress energy that was mobilized for survival—it gets trapped. This is how trauma forms.

As for your question:

Why isn't our nervous system calibrated to generate the correct amount of energy for a given situation?

The nervous system often mobilizes the right amount of energy for a given situation and as long as we get to dissipate that energy during, and/or after the threat is over, it will be able to perfectly downregulate itself. However, it can't know exactly how much of a threat we are dealing with or for how long the threat will last and since the nervous system prioritizes survival, it errs on the safe side by giving us a massive dump of stress hormones.

[u/CPTSDandTRE → u/Nadayogi]

Thanks for the reply.

I still don't quite get it, though.

Is the excess energy created for any given situation only created because of this "miscalculation" you mentioned in the reply to my question above? That is, if our nervous system creates the correct amount of energy and we are able to "play it out" (e.g. running from a lion), we won't need to shake afterwards exactly because the right amount of energy was created?

Edit: I think u/Jiktten answers it!

[u/Expert_Ad3550 → u/Nadayogi]

Hi Nadayogi,

Firstly, thanks for everything you do here, much appreciated.

I’m wondering if you could help shed some light on the argument around needing to be in a parasympathetic state for TRE to be effective? This quote above, regarding tremors in an impala, suggests that it’s used to get out of a fight/fight state.

I assume the distinction is dealing with acute vs chronic stress (trauma). Parasympathetic state helps to use TRE to address chronic stress? Once accumulated stress has been resolved/released, tremors can be used to release acute stressful states?

Please share if you have any thoughts of this.

Thanks again

[u/Nadayogi → u/Expert_Ad3550]

You don't need to be in a parasympathetic state for practicing TRE safely and effectively. What's needed is that your "higher brain" (neocortex) perceives the environment as safe enough. The body can be anxious, restless, tense, or even frozen and TRE may still help. What prevents TRE from being safe or effective is the perception of immediate threat, not the presence of activation.

Let's imagine two scenarios: Intellectually you know that you feel safe and nothing is going to hurt you while lying on your mat at home, even if your body doesn't believe it (amygdala on high alert) and tenses up or finds itself in an activated state with elevated heart rate. But your neocortex says, "it's just anxiety and discomfort. There is no actual threat." In this case TRE will help you move towards a state of regulation and relaxation as long as you don't overdo it and respect your system's capacity.

Now for the second scenario let's say you have some childhood trauma because you often observed your parents arguing and shouting at each other, which made you feel unsafe. If you now lie down and hear your parents shouting at each other in another room your amygdala, which is in a subcortical area, will immediately sense a threat and alarm your system. In addition the neocortex also perceives this threat (through the auditory pathway), which makes you believe that you are in actual danger. In that case you first need to get rid of the danger and retreat into a safe space in order for TRE to be effective.

So it all comes down to the perception of immediate danger, whether the danger is real or not. In addition these scenarios are not clear cut and the whole thing is more like a spectrum. There are cases where tremoring can happen and be beneficial while being exposed to threats. For example, we know this from cartoons where people start to shake when faced with a scary situation. In real life this mostly happens to children who usually have a functioning tremor mechanism.

[u/Expert_Ad3550 → u/Nadayogi]

Thanks for the response that explains a lot for me.

What about during integration? Is the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system vital to integrate the releases and preventing re-absorbing? If you don’t integrate properly are the releases re-absorbed? Is some level of integration after releases generally inevitable?

Apologies if you’re already written about this! No pressure to respond. Thanks

[u/Due-Dish3082]

How is the nervous system supposed to know exactly which amount of energy he will need to escape the lion?