Episode 103: Addiction & 6-Step Felt Sense Polyvagal Plan to Revolutionize Traditional Treatment with Janet Winhall

Listen to Episode 103 with Dr. Janet Winhall →

When Your Coffee Isn't Just Coffee

You reach for your third cup of coffee by midafternoon automatically. You binge watch TV shows to wind down each evening. You engage in behaviors you label as "bad habits" with shame. But you keep repeating them despite knowing they don't serve you long-term.

What if these behaviors are actually your nervous system's regulation strategies?

What does it mean that your behaviors serve as state propellers? Giving you exactly what you need in the moment neurologically. Whether energy when shutting down or numbing when overwhelmed.

Answering this question helps you understand yourself better without shame. Why you reach for that second or third cup of coffee. Why you binge watch TV shows mindlessly. It gives you new eyes to understand addictions and recovery differently. It's a window into your inner world revealing your felt sense. Your unconscious experience of safety or danger moment to moment.

Today we explore emotional regulation and nervous system states through an addiction lens. One reason I chose to become an addiction medicine physician involved learning about trauma. What I could learn about the nervous system from addiction patterns. How the body adapts to survive and function despite inner pain. That's why I'm bringing you this episode with my friend Dr. Janet Winhall. She's an author, teacher, and psychotherapist who wrote 'Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model.' A revolutionary integration for understanding and treating addiction through nervous system regulation.

Understanding State Propellers

What does it mean that behaviors serve as state propellers rather than symptoms? They're not just habits you need to break through willpower. They're nervous system regulation strategies your system developed for survival. Understanding this distinction changes everything about how you approach behavioral change.

Your behaviors—both conscious and unconscious—give you exactly what your nervous system needs. Energy when you're shutting down into dorsal collapse. Numbing when you're overwhelmed by sympathetic activation. This is biology responding to dysregulation, not weakness or moral failure. Your nervous system seeks regulation through whatever means it finds available.

Understanding your coffee habit through this lens reveals its regulatory function. That second or third cup of coffee isn't just caffeine addiction. It's regulating your nervous system state intentionally or unconsciously. Pushing you out of shutdown when dorsal activation pulls you down. Giving you the energy your dysregulated system can't generate internally. Coffee becomes a state propeller moving you toward activation.

Why you binge watch TV reflects similar nervous system regulation attempts. Numbing and disconnecting through TV isn't lazy or unmotivated behavior. It's your system actively seeking regulation through predictable passive engagement. Escape from overwhelm that feels unbearable otherwise. Relief from constant activation your nervous system can't turn off alone.

New Perspectives on Addiction

New eyes for addiction emerge when you understand behaviors as state propellers. Not moral failing requiring stronger character. Not lack of willpower needing more discipline. Nervous system survival strategy your system created to function. This reframe removes shame while adding essential information about what's happening.

A window into your inner world opens through observing behavioral patterns. Your behaviors reveal your felt sense of safety or danger. What you reach for shows what state your nervous system occupies. Coffee signals shutdown needing activation. Wine signals activation needing dampening. Behaviors become diagnostic information rather than just problems to eliminate.

Why I chose addiction medicine as a specialty reflects my recognition early on. I became an addiction medicine physician specifically to learn about trauma. To understand the nervous system through addiction's clear demonstrations. How the body adapts ingeniously to survive despite inner pain. Addiction taught me everything about nervous system dysregulation and adaptation. The lessons apply far beyond substance use to all dysregulation.

Understanding the Biology of Trauma® through an addiction lens reveals universal principles. Your nervous system will find ways to regulate itself. Whether through healthy practices or through substances and compulsive behaviors. The drive for regulation is biological imperative, not personal weakness. When healthy regulation isn't available, your system uses whatever works.

The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model

Dr. Janet Winhall's background as author, teacher, and psychotherapist informs her work. Her book integrates felt sense awareness with polyvagal theory for addiction. This revolutionary approach addresses what traditional treatment consistently misses. The nervous system dysregulation underneath addictive behaviors that must be addressed.

The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model combines body awareness with nervous system understanding. Felt sense means your internal awareness of body sensations and states. Polyvagal theory explains how your autonomic nervous system creates those states. This integration changes addiction treatment completely by addressing regulation rather than behavior.

Why current addiction treatment models fail reflects their focus on symptoms. The pathologizing model for treating trauma and addiction isn't working long-term. It focuses on symptoms like substance use, not states creating need. On behavior change through willpower, not nervous system regulation through biology. This misses the actual problem driving addiction fundamentally.

Neuroception versus interoception represents an important distinction Dr. Winhall makes clearly. Neuroception is your nervous system's unconscious detection of safety or danger. Interoception is your conscious awareness of internal body sensations currently. Both matter critically for recovery because you need both awareness and regulation.

Understanding the Real Problem

Behaviors as state regulation strategies rather than primary problems changes treatment direction. Substances and compulsive behaviors aren't the actual problem fundamentally. They're the solution your nervous system found to regulate impossible states. To regulate states it couldn't manage otherwise with available resources. Removing the solution without addressing dysregulation underneath guarantees relapse eventually.

The body-mind connection in recovery must be included for effectiveness. Including this connection in addiction treatment isn't optional but essential. You can't recover by addressing mind or behavior alone. Your body holds the dysregulation that drives seeking regulation through substances. Working only cognitively misses where the problem actually lives biologically.

Learning to feel without numbing or dissociating represents the core work. Connecting with your body when you've been disconnected for years or decades. This is terrifying initially because your nervous system learned feelings signal danger. Most people in addiction have been disconnected from body sensations since trauma. Reconnection requires safety your system hasn't experienced before now.

Why feeling is difficult after years of numbing makes biological sense. When you've used substances or behaviors to avoid feeling anything uncomfortable. Actually feeling becomes terrifying to your protective nervous system. Your nervous system learned through experience that feelings are dangerous or unbearable. It will resist feeling until new safety gets established consistently.

Application and Recovery

The 6-step plan Dr. Winhall developed provides structured progression through recovery. Each step builds carefully on the previous one's foundation. Creating a path from chronic dysregulation to sustainable regulation without substances. The steps address nervous system healing rather than just behavioral control. This creates lasting change instead of white-knuckling sobriety indefinitely.

Practical felt sense strategies apply in everyday life beyond therapy sessions. How to apply felt sense practice moment-to-moment throughout your day. Not just during appointments with practitioners. Ongoing body awareness of your current state. State recognition before dysregulation becomes overwhelming. Regulation tools you can access independently for self-care.

Understanding state propellers removes shame while adding valuable information about yourself. Your morning coffee propels you toward one nervous system state. Your evening wine propels you toward an opposite state. Understanding this removes moral judgment while adding biological information. You're not weak or failing but rather regulating with available tools.

Shifting from pathology to adaptation changes your entire self-perception fundamentally. Moving from "you're broken and need fixing" to "your system adapted." This reframe changes everything about recovery trajectory and self-compassion. About how you perceive yourself during healing. About your relationship with the adaptation strategies you developed for survival.

Building real safety in your nervous system represents recovery's actual goal. Not artificial safety that substances provided temporarily. Actual felt sense of safety living in your body consistently. This real safety allows your nervous system to stop seeking regulation. Through external substances or behaviors because internal regulation finally becomes possible.

This Episode Is For:

✓ People struggling with addictions or compulsive behaviors 

✓ Anyone who reaches for substances or activities to regulate 

✓ Practitioners treating addiction needing nervous system-informed approaches 

✓ Those whose chronic conditions involve nervous system dysregulation 

✓ Anyone wanting to understand their regulation strategies without shame 

✓ People ready to build real safety instead of artificial regulation

What You'll Learn

Listen to understand how your behaviors serve as state propellers for regulation. Learn Dr. Janet Winhall's 6-step Felt Sense Polyvagal Model revolutionizing addiction treatment. Discover why traditional treatment fails by focusing on behavior instead of states. Understand the difference between artificial safety from substances and real safety.

Your addictive behaviors might be your nervous system's best available regulation strategy.

Listen to Episode 103 with Dr. Janet Winhall →

Disclaimer

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.

Join the Conversation

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?

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