Our Polyvagal World

Our nervous systems typically look to the presence of others as a way of co-regulating and healing. But during the pandemic, what was normally a source of healing was reframed as a potentially deadly threat. We were told to avoid socializing. Avoid hugging. Avoid sharing meals with others.

An obsession with death rates when attempting to quantify the impact of the pandemic meant that a lot of its nonfatal negative effects were ignored or dismissed.

To me (Stephen), this suggested that COVID is an autonomic disruptor, and a lot of the effects of “long COVID” came from the virus’s ability to do just this.

The likely reason for all this is simple: Individuals who have trauma histories or deal with the effects of pervasive stress are often locked out of, or at least have a harder time accessing, the healing and buffering properties of the Green state.

While the pandemic likely retuned nearly all of our nervous systems and impacted everybody’s mental health, those with a history of adversity and trauma felt it the worst—and were far more likely to catch the virus in the first place.

As is often the case, our bodies serve as intervening variables that partially determine how the virus impacts—or doesn’t impact—us. Each of us has a different innate resilience to stressors such as COVID. One person’s minor cold is another’s life-threatening ailment.

It seems obvious that this anger was exacerbated by the prescribed isolation. Without access to safe social interactions to offer us resilience and access to the Green state, our bodies fall into the defensive Yellow state.

Scientists and public health officials who were tasked with offering advice based on new research and understandings became the targets of death threats. We wanted things to be cut-and-dried. We wanted easy answers. And in their absence, people were angry.

Overflowing hospitals also made it difficult for anybody to schedule surgeries or seek treatment for non-COVID emergencies. Many COVID patients died in total isolation from their loved ones, unable to find comfort in a loving hand or accepting smile. Frontline health-care workers endured a prolonged period of stress and trauma that few of us can im