Window Of Tolerance: What It Is And How It Affects Us Emotionally
Some people can remember their experiences as people with uncontrollable emotional overflow. They are people who, due to a simple stimulus related to a traumatic experience, make all kinds of disturbing memories come to mind that can both paralyze them and provoke the most serious attacks of anger.
Each person has calm limits, a phenomenon called the window of tolerance. These are the levels of calm in which we can function optimally, without being overly excited but not paralyzed either. It is functional calm within certain parameters, different from person to person.
Next we are going to discover exactly what this tolerance window is about and what can make it look narrowed.
The tolerance window model was developed by Pat Ogden, Kekuni Minton and Claire Pain (2009), although based on a concept by psychologist Dr. Dan Siegel, with the intention of explaining in a simple way how the regulation of the Autonomous Nervous System and the response to certain stressful or emotionally disturbing stimuli occurs. Within the framework of the polyvagal theory, this system is made up of two branches: the Sympathetic Nervous System is related to alertness, while the Parasympathetic Nervous System is related to relaxation and calm.
When a person does not have the ability to prevent defensive responses to an emotionally disturbing stimulus, Your nervous system may be in a constant state of strategies focused on survival In this sense, you can resort to one of the following two: mobilization survival strategies (hyperarousal) or immobilization survival strategies (hypoarousal).
People who do not have sufficient capacity to regulate the activation of their autonomic system may experience different problems. Among these problems we would find psychosomatization, cognitive deficits and socially dysfunctional behaviors that would end in distressing relationships and a desperate search for security and relief. Mental disorders can appear and worsen because the person is hyper or hypoexcited
The tolerance window model presents three differentiated activation zones, two pathological and one optimal: the optimal activation zone, the hyperactivation zone and the hypoactivation zone.
1. Hyperarousal zone
The hyperarousal zone is the state in which the person experiences an increase in all kinds of organic and psychological sensations It happens when you are above the maximum tolerance level and corresponds to the increase in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.
When one is in this area, one exhibits greater emotional reactivity, hypervigilance, experiences intrusive images and memories, and all of their cognitive processing is disorganized. Hyperactivity also makes it difficult to sleep and eat.
2. Optimal activation zone
The optimal activation zone, also called the tolerance margin, It is the zone in which psychologically and biologically well-regulated people are found We would say that it is the zone of calm and, thanks to this, the individual is able to integrate the information they receive effectively, connecting with our emotions and being able to think about our physiological and mental states in a functional way.
3. Hypoactivation zone
The hypoactivation zone involves several symptoms, all of them associated with low energy and poor responsiveness Unlike hyperarousal, this is below the tolerance range.
Among its symptoms we have a relative absence of sensations, numbness of emotions, slowing of the cognitive process and slow movements. You would also experience fatigue, confusion, distraction or embarrassment
It would correspond to an excessive increase in the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system.
Trauma and emotional dysregulation
The autonomic nervous system and trauma are related. What makes a certain situation be experienced as a traumatic experience has to do with the individual’s perception, especially if they perceive it as potentially dangerous for their life If this is the case, the person puts into practice several survival responses, which can become chronic if not properly managed. If this happens, that would be when emotional dysregulation would occur, either due to hyperarousal or hypoarousal.
Stressors can be internal or external: internal ones can be intrusive memories, physical discomfort that causes health concerns, overwhelming feelings and sensations; while external ones are usually social situations, although they can also be stimuli such as smells, flavors, tones of voice or any element that is unpleasant for the person who receives it.
What does it mean to be outside the window of tolerance?
Sometimes emotions overwhelm us The reasons for this are many. It may be due to a lack of mistrust, a lack of strategies to manage emotions, difficulties in reflecting… The two limits of the tolerance window correspond to two extreme states of the ideal activation of the organism, the previously mentioned hyper and hypoexcitation.
Depending on each person’s life experiences, we develop a pattern of response to different stimuli As everyone has their own way of responding to certain experiences, there are some people who can be very reactive, suffering panic or anger attacks. Others, on the other hand, may find themselves disconnected from their body and mind when they are faced with a certain stimulus, their mind is blocked and they practically become depersonalized.
In dangerous or traumatic situations, our body acts to survive and sets in motion mechanisms that, sometimes, fail to return to their normal state. People who find themselves outside the window of tolerance often do so because their window is very narrow, making it difficult for them to find themselves in a basal state of security, calm and relaxation. At the slightest, these people are hyper or hypoactivated.
The narrowness of our window of tolerance depends on our life experiences, especially childhood ones Childhoods full of traumatic experiences usually give rise to adults whose hyper- and hypo-arousal in the face of stressful elements are easily activated. If one has not yet overcome their traumas, it is quite likely that they will very frequently manifest symptoms ranging from anger attacks to mental blockage.
We cannot change our past, but we can work on our present to have a better future. The traumatic events of the past will not cease to exist, but we can change the narrowness of our window of tolerance widen it so that there are fewer and fewer stimuli that induce psychological tension in us.
We can use several techniques to stay in our window of tolerance and, little by little, expand it. First, it is essential to recognize what this tolerance window is, to know what limits it has so that, working from there, we can make them increasingly wider. Among the techniques that can help us we have:
Be physically active: walk, run, go to the gym…
Recognize negative thoughts and reformulate them in a positive way.
Share our thoughts and concerns with a trusted person.
