Your Nervous System Isn’t Broken, It’s Overprotective (And That’s Good News)
If you’ve ever felt like you’re too anxious, too shut down, or too sensitive, you’ve probably asked yourself: “What’s wrong with me?”
Here’s the truth: nothing is wrong with you.
Your nervous system isn’t broken. It’s overprotective.
Every shutdown, panic spiral, or emotional outburst is your body saying: “I remember danger. I won’t let it happen again.” That’s not weakness — that’s your body doing its job. And the best part?
Overprotection can be retrained.
Protection vs. Brokenness
Think about a smoke alarm that goes off every time you make toast. Annoying? Yes. Broken? No. It’s just hypersensitive.
The same goes for your nervous system.
Deb Dana, therapist and author of Anchored, puts it this way: “The nervous system’s job is to protect us — but it doesn’t always know when the danger has passed.” When you feel stuck in old patterns, it’s not failure — it’s your biology doing what it was designed to do.
What Overprotection Looks Like
Chances are, you’ve experienced some of these:
Shutdown — zoning out, going numb, losing energy.
Fight mode — snapping, irritability, rage that feels out of proportion.
Flight mode — constant busyness, inability to rest.
Fawn response — people-pleasing, saying “yes” when you mean “no.”
None of these mean you’re broken. They mean your system is running survival strategies on repeat — even when the danger isn’t there anymore.
Stress Isn’t the Enemy
We’ve been taught to see stress as a threat. But neuroscience tells a different story.
According to Dr. Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist at Stanford and host of the Huberman Lab podcast, stress itself isn’t harmful. In fact, short bursts of stress sharpen focus and fuel resilience. The real problem is chronic stress without recovery. Your system doesn’t need erasing — it needs retraining to shift between stress and recovery more smoothly.
This is where nervous system training comes in: building the capacity to experience intensity and come back to baseline.
Your Body’s Wisdom
Dr. Gabor Maté, in When the Body Says No, reminds us: “The body doesn’t betray us. It expresses what the mind has suppressed.”
That tight chest, racing heart, or numbness you feel? It’s not malfunction. It’s your body trying to communicate. It’s saying: “Pay attention. I’m protecting you the only way I know how.”
When you start listening instead of fighting, you can teach your system new options.
Training, Not Fixing
Here’s the reframe: you don’t need fixing. You need training.
Repetition builds resilience.
Load (stressors) become fuel when paired with recovery.
Recovery rewires your system to bounce back faster.
Over time, you teach your nervous system that it doesn’t have to slam on the emergency brakes every time life gets intense.
Try This Practice
Next time your body spikes into stress, instead of saying, “What’s wrong with me?”, try:
“Thank you for protecting me. I’m safe right now.”
Put a hand on your chest. Exhale slowly. Even if the shift is tiny, that’s training. That’s a rep.
You’re Not Broken — You’re Ready
When you see your nervous system as overprotective, not broken, you stop fighting yourself. You stop shaming your reactions. And you start collaborating with your body to build resilience, strength, and freedom.
This is the work I guide people through inside The Wild Method — retraining your nervous system so it becomes your ally, not your enemy.
If this resonated and you want to keep building nervous system strength, read this next:
→ Break the Cycle of Stress: Train Your Nervous System Like a Muscle
Want more tools like this? Join The Wild Dispatch and get bold nervous system training notes straight to your inbox.
References
Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory
Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab Podcast / Stanford University research on stress and neuroplasticity
Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection