Is Your Nervous System Running the Show? Signs You’re Living in Survival Mode

There was a time I thought I was just… wired this way. It was so normal for me to worry, ruminate, and move through life with intense urgency (even checking emails or making breakfast was urgent-paced, omg). My muscles were always tense. My jaw? Permanently tight. I could be on my couch, with lovely friends, and still feel like I was on edge.

But I didn’t call it trauma. Or nervous system dysregulation. I didn’t even call it stress. I called it me.

Maybe you relate.

Maybe you’ve spent years trying to figure out why your hormones feel like they’re at war with you. Why your chronic fatigue doesn’t match your labs. Why your digestion shuts down at random. Why your pain is real but hard to pin down. Why you feel like you’re doing everything right — but your body still won’t cooperate.

Maybe it’s not Stress… it’s Dysregulation

If you’ve been diagnosed with endometriosis or another chronic illness, chances are you’ve heard a lot about inflammation. Hormones. Immune dysregulation. Even epigenetics or environmental toxins. But what often gets missed — or mentioned as an afterthought — is the very system running the show behind the scenes: your nervous system.

Your nervous system isn’t just about how “stressed” you feel. It’s the master regulator of your body — the control tower that sends signals to your immune system, hormonal system, digestive system, and more. It determines whether your reproductive system feels safe enough to ovulate or conceive. Whether your immune system is in repair mode or attack mode. Whether your gut can break down and absorb nutrients. Whether inflammation can resolve… or loop endlessly. And most importantly? It decides if you’re safe enough to heal.

Let that sink in. Your healing isn’t just about what you do — it’s about whether your body believes it's safe enough to do it.

For example, if you had asked me 10 years ago if I was stressed — I would have said “Nope.” I had a low stress job, lots of free time, hobbies, friends, nothing to stress about. I didn’t feel like I should be stressed, so why would I be?

But that’s the fallacy right there, thinking what we’re doing is akin to our stress levels. The reality is, it’s how we think, process information/stimuli, and respond to life that creates our stress response. You can be doing a lot and be stressed, or be doing a lot and, well, not be stressed. On the flip you can be doing nothing but relaxing at the beach or under the starts and feel nervous, jittery, and wired and urgent.

The Red Zone: Survival Mode in Disguise

So many of us live in chronic fight, flight, or freeze without realizing it. We think we’re just tired. Or anxious. Or overworked. Or maybe even lazy (that’s a fun little story internalized from society). But beneath the surface, what’s often happening is this: your nervous system has gotten stuck in survival mode.

This isn’t your fault. And it’s not in your head. It’s in your wiring!

Sometimes it’s from old trauma, or childhood experiences where love and safety weren’t predictable. Sometimes it’s from relentless life stress — jobs, relationships, health issues — that never seem to let up. Sometimes it’s from physical triggers: poor sleep, blood sugar crashes, gut dysbiosis, nutrient depletion, or even chronic inflammation from endometriosis itself. But regardless of the cause, the result is the same: your body is no longer operating from a place of trust and restoration. It’s scanning for danger — all day long.

How Dysregulation Hides in Plain Sight

So what does it actually look like to live in a dysregulated state? Not just mentally — but physically, emotionally, hormonally?

You might find yourself in constant loops of fear, shame, or judgment. Maybe you feel urgency before you even open your inbox. Maybe your tolerance is paper-thin (and you find yourself reacting in a bad way rather than gently responding to life). Maybe you go from fiery to flatlined in minutes. Maybe your emotions rule the day — or maybe you feel numb to all of them.

On the physical side, the signs are just as clear — if you know how to read them. Chronic fatigue that rest doesn’t fix. Digestive symptoms that ebb and flow with no pattern. Hormonal shifts that feel erratic or extreme. Insomnia or shallow sleep. Random flares of pain. Sensitivity to sounds, smells, or stress. And a deep, nagging feeling that your body is always bracing for something… even when life is technically “fine.”

In the case of endometriosis, nervous system dysregulation can make the immune system hyperreactive, impair detoxification, and heighten inflammation — creating the perfect storm for pain, fatigue, gut issues, and hormone chaos to thrive.

Truly, it’s a BIG part of the picture for many of us.

This Doesn’t Mean You’re Broken — It Means You’ve Adapted

And here's the hard truth: many of us don’t even realize we’re dysregulated. Because it doesn’t always feel like panic or trauma. It just feels like being on high alert. Like never fully landing in your body. Like thinking two steps ahead at all times. It becomes your normal.

In fact, your dysregulation might be so familiar — so baked into your identity — that you assume this is just your personality. “I’m just a worrier.” “I’ve always been a little high-strung.” “I’m just sensitive.” Even worse, we can be diagnosed with dysregulation and make it part of our identity! Yup, chronic anxiety or depression? Living in dysregulation at its finest.

But, none of that is actually you. Your nervous system is actually epic — and it’s doing its best to protect you from a world it perceives as dangerous.

Here’s the good news: regulation is possible. It’s not a personality shift. It’s a physiological recalibration. And it’s absolutely something you can learn, no matter how long you’ve lived in survival mode.

What Regulation Actually Feels Like

But first, you need to know what regulation actually feels like.

Regulation isn’t just “calm.” It’s the ability to move through life with more adaptability. It means you can handle stressors — even big ones — without spiraling. It means your hormones regulate more easily. Your digestion works. Your sleep is deeper. Your pain lessens. Your focus sharpens. Your energy rises. Your reactions slow down. You feel less like you’re surviving your day… and more like you’re actually living it.

You stop micromanaging. You stop people-pleasing. You stop obsessively googling every symptom and chasing every new protocol. You begin to trust your body again.

How to Shift from Survival to Safety

If you’re wondering how to get there — what to do — I get it. And I want to be clear: this isn’t about one tool! It certainly isn’t about more supplements (so please don’t Google “adrenal fatigue supplements”). It’s not about forcing your body into a meditative state, or faking positivity, or biohacking your way to bliss.

Healing your nervous system starts with small, repeated cues of safety. Breathing that drops into your belly. Movement that shakes off adrenaline. Food that stabilizes your blood sugar. Relationships that feel safe and true. Boundaries that give your system space to recover. Sunlight in the morning. Screens off before bed. Slowness that isn’t performative, but real.

If you have deeper muscular issues, it could be addressing those. For me, correcting my tongue tie was huge! Deep fascia work, activating the deep core, reactivating proper breathing muscles, etc.

Removing chemical overload is key, as they provoke “danger” cues in your body as much as work stress.

Balancing blood sugar, lowering inflammation, increasing anti oxidants, increasing belly laughs, hugs and safe touching… all of these are safety cues for a body under siege.

The lifestyle “levers” are real — and powerful. But the deeper work is in the noticing. What pulls you into red zone? What helps you return to green? What does safety actually feel like in your body? If you don’t know, that’s okay. Most of us don’t. Not at first.

But it’s worth learning.

The Nervous System: The Missing Link in Endometriosis Healing

Because here’s the thing: if you’ve had endometriosis (or another chronic condition) for a while, your body may have adapted to a high-alert baseline. Your immune system may be primed for threat. Your hormones may be cycling through chaos. Your gut may be sluggish, leaky, or inflamed. Your cells may be holding memories of stress you don’t even consciously recall.

And if all you do is treat the downstream symptoms — without addressing the upstream stress load — you’ll likely feel like you’re running in circles.

This is why the nervous system isn’t a luxury add-on to your healing journey. It’s the foundation.

When your nervous system softens, everything else becomes more possible. Fertility improves. Inflammation lessens. Hormones stabilize. Gut health improves. The body stops fighting its own healing.

And perhaps most importantly, you come back.

You Are Not Your Diagnosis — You Are Your Healing

Not the version of you who’s been bracing and pushing and performing wellness for years. But the version of you who feels at home. The version of you who can be soft and strong at once. Who can rest and play and laugh and focus and feel — without fear.

Because here’s the truth most people don’t say: you are not broken. That voice in your head? That shutdown in your body? That flare of urgency, that exhaustion that won’t budge, that hormonal storm you can’t seem to stabilize?

That’s not failure.

That’s adaptation.

Your body has always been trying to protect you. But protection is not the same as peace.

And you, dear one, are allowed to outgrow survival.