Sort of a new take on just the idea of us having "fight or flight" feelings when activated by a stimulus. The Vagal Theory is the up and coming approach to stress reactions. Well, not really an approach, more of a reason why we have different reactions. Have you ever gone to a haunted house with someone and the moment something scary pops up, you and your companion have two different reactions? Like one of you might go screaming/running away and the other might freeze and just stop moving altogether. That's because the former of you is a mobilizer and the other an immobilizer, your bodies follow different pathways to prepare you for the best way to handle the stressor.
Going off of that, there is another pathway - a myelinated nerve which has evolved over time due to our reliance on social interactions. So, while one of you might be running, the other freezing, there might be a third person that decides to just chat up the axe murderer-clown (bit of an exaggerated example, but hopefully you get the point). This third reaction and pathway reorients the body so that you are still capable of processing the situation and engaging with the stimulus.
Engagement is key. This myelinated vagal pathway changes the stressed reaction and can help improve your health.
We can't stay in an activated, sympathetic state, all of the time - we'll end up crashing. You also can't play dead forever or you're really going to be dead. Our body is supposed to regulate to responses in the environment then go back to the homeostatic base. Furthermore, even though the engagement state is beneficial - it's not something you should be in all the time either.
It's fascinating though to think that we are all wired differently and respond differently to stimuli. Our reactions to the world shape our world, and the events of the world shape our reactions. It's a cycle of call-and-response where we're continuously orienting.
Each of these states are beneficial and also harmful. A happy medium is best.
For some more examples and application of this theory, let's turn to the main characters in Island Whispers:
Adam is flight of freeze depending on the situation.
Grant is definitely fight, so is Monica.
Angelica is probably the fun, social category of interaction more than anything.
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