Why So Many People Feel Numb (And What Your Nervous System Is Doing)

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Have you ever thought, “I don’t feel like myself anymore”?
Maybe you feel foggy. Disconnected. Like you’re just going through the motions.

In this episode of Healing Beyond the Symptoms, Dr. Leah Hahn D.C., explains why emotional numbness is not a personal failure — it’s a protective nervous system response.

Drawing on polyvagal theory, Dr. Leah Hahn D.C., walks through the three major nervous system states:

• Ventral Vagal (Safety + Connection)
• Sympathetic (Fight-or-Flight Stress Mode)
• Dorsal Vagal (Shutdown + Numbness)

You’ll learn why chronic stress, trauma, burnout, high-achiever performance culture, and long-term caretaking can push the nervous system into a dorsal vagal state — where numbness becomes a survival strategy.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why numbness is not depression — it’s nervous system conservation
• How chronic stress shifts the body from mobilization to shutdown
• The “ladder of the nervous system” explained simply
• Why numbness feels like fog, emptiness, or emotional flatness
• How unresolved trauma keeps stress physiology active
• What ventral vagal regulation actually looks like in the body
• Why the spine is the interface for nervous system states
• How Network Spinal supports nervous system reorganization

If you’ve felt disconnected from joy, relationships, or even your own emotions — this episode will help you understand what’s happening physiologically.

And more importantly:
It will give you hope.

You are not broken.
You are patterned.
And patterns can change.

Timestamps:

00:00 Feeling Numb Again

00:38 Why Numbness Happens

01:49 Signs of Shutdown

02:53 Stress Trauma Burnout

04:26 Pushing Through Costs

06:16 Numbness in Healing

07:06 Polyvagal Ladder Explained

07:45 Ventral Vagal Safety

12:07 Sponsor Break

12:47 Sympathetic Fight Flight

15:48 Dorsal Vagal Numbness

18:00 Coming Out of Numbness

18:40 Wrap Up and Invitation