Regulating Your Nervous System as an HSP During Authoritarian Times
How to Stay Centered in Chaos and Build Small Systems That Protect Life
When a fascist movement is rising—or when a society is in visible breakdown—Highly Sensitive People (HSPs) often feel it first and feel it hardest. Your nervous system is designed to detect subtle shifts: danger, threat, emotional undercurrents, injustice. This sensitivity is not a weakness. It is an early-warning system.
But without regulation, that same sensitivity can lead to chronic overwhelm, dissociation, panic, or burnout—especially during times of political violence, repression, or revolution.
This piece is about how to stay present, clear, and ethically grounded during chaos. Not by bypassing reality—but by stabilizing your nervous system so you can act wisely, protect others, and help build humane alternatives on a small, sustainable scale.
1. First Principle: You Cannot Think Your Way Out of Nervous System Overload
Authoritarian movements thrive on dysregulation: fear, urgency, rage, helplessness. These states narrow perception and make people easier to control.
As an HSP, your work is not to consume more information—it is to stay regulated enough to perceive truth clearly.
When your nervous system is overwhelmed:
You lose nuance
You become reactive or frozen
Your empathy turns into exhaustion
Your values get hijacked by fear
Regulation is not disengagement. It is strategic clarity.
2. Regulating in Real Time: Practices That Actually Work for HSPs
A. Orient to Safety Before You Orient to the World
Several times a day, pause and ask:
What in my immediate environment is not threatening right now?
What do I see, hear, or feel that signals safety—even slightly?
This tells your nervous system: I am here, and I am not currently being attacked.
You cannot sustainably resist oppression from a body that believes it is constantly dying.
B. Create a “Containment Window” for Information
HSPs are especially vulnerable to doom-scrolling and emotional contagion.
Try:
One or two intentional check-in times per day for news
No consuming political content right before sleep
Balance every intake of threat-based information with sensory grounding (walking, water, touch, music)
Staying informed does not require staying flooded.
C. Use the Body to Discharge, Not the Mind
Your nervous system processes fear physically, not intellectually.
Helpful tools:
Slow shaking or tremoring (like animals do after danger)
Long exhalations (twice as long as the inhale)
Weight and pressure (blankets, leaning against walls, hugging pillows)
Rhythmic movement (walking, rocking, drumming)
These are not luxuries. They are survival skills.
3. Emotional Boundaries Are Political Resistance
Fascist systems feed on emotional extraction: outrage, despair, constant reaction.
As an HSP:
You are not required to witness everything
You are not obligated to be available to every crisis
You do not need to justify rest or joy
Rest is not apathy. Regulation is not compliance.
A regulated nervous system cannot be easily manipulated.
4. Staying Calm Does Not Mean Staying Passive
Calm is what allows ethical action.
When you are regulated, you can:
Assess risk more accurately
Protect vulnerable people without reckless exposure
Say no when something is unsafe
Act in alignment with your values rather than fear
Revolutionary change does not only happen in the streets. It happens in relationships, resource-sharing, and care systems.
5. Creating New Systems on a Small Scale That Protect Others
You do not need to overthrow a government to build alternatives. In fact, large-scale change often fails without small, resilient structures underneath it.
Here are examples of nervous-system-aware micro-systems:
A. Mutual Aid, Not Martyrdom
Small, sustainable exchanges:
Food sharing networks
Childcare swaps
Rides to appointments
Emergency check-in lists
Design them so no one is indispensable. Burnout helps no one.
B. Skill-Sharing Circles
Teach each other:
First aid
Conflict de-escalation
Digital safety
Emotional regulation skills
Knowledge reduces panic. Shared competence builds collective calm.
C. Quiet Protection Networks
Protection doesn’t have to look dramatic.
It can look like:
Walking someone home
Being a witness
Offering a safe place to rest
Helping someone navigate bureaucracy or access resources
These actions preserve dignity and reduce harm without escalating danger.
D. Culture as Resistance
Create spaces where:
People can grieve safely
Art, humor, and beauty still exist
Children and sensitive people are protected from constant fear
Authoritarian systems fear joy, connection, and imagination because these make people harder to dominate.
6. For HSPs Especially: You Are Not Meant to Be on the Front Line All the Time
Your role may be:
Sensing when something is off
Naming emotional truth
Creating spaces of regulation
Translating chaos into meaning
Holding long-term vision when others are reactive
This is not lesser work. It is foundational.
7. A Final Reminder
You are allowed to:
Be scared and steady
Care deeply without self-destruction
Resist injustice without losing your humanity
History is not only shaped by loud moments of collapse—but by quiet networks of people who stayed regulated enough to protect life, tell the truth, and imagine something better.
Your nervous system is not separate from the revolution.
It is part of it.
More Sources
Nervous System & Trauma
The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk (trauma and body regulation)
Waking the Tiger and Healing Trauma — Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing)
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy — Pat Ogden (body-based therapy)
Mutual Aid & Community Action
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution — Peter Kropotkin
Mutual Aid Groups, Vulnerable and Resilient Populations and the Life Cycle — Edited volume on organized mutual support.
