When the World Feels Unsteady: How Therapy Helps Process Powerlessness During Times of National Unrest
When the World Feels Unsteady: How Therapy Helps Process Powerlessness During Times of National Unrest
Feeling anxious or powerless during national unrest is a nervous system response, not a personal failure. Learn how therapy supports emotional regulation, resilience, and grounded action during uncertain times.
When Fear and Powerlessness Take Hold
If you feel tense, distracted, or emotionally drained by what is happening in the world right now, you are not imagining it. Periods of national unrest often activate deep fear, uncertainty, and a sense of powerlessness that can seep into daily life. News cycles, political polarization, economic instability, and social conflict can leave many people feeling overwhelmed and unsafe.
You may notice racing thoughts, difficulty sleeping, irritability, or a constant sense of vigilance. You may feel frozen, hopeless, or emotionally numb. You might ask yourself questions like:
Why do I feel anxious even when I am physically safe?
Why does everything feel out of my control?
Why am I snapping at the people I love?
Why do I feel helpless or shut down instead of motivated?
These reactions are not signs of weakness. They are nervous system responses to prolonged exposure to threat, uncertainty, and collective stress.
Therapy offers a grounded, neuroscience-informed way to process these emotions, restore regulation, and reconnect with a sense of agency during times of national unrest.
Why National Unrest Triggers Feelings of Powerlessness
Powerlessness is one of the most distressing emotional states for the human nervous system. From a biological perspective, the brain is wired to seek predictability, safety, and some degree of control. When those conditions disappear, the nervous system moves into survival mode.
National unrest often includes:
— Unpredictable political or social events
— Exposure to distressing media
— Fear about the future
— Moral injury or loss of trust in institutions
— Economic insecurity
— Social division and conflict
These factors signal danger to the brain, even in the absence of an immediate physical threat. The result is chronic activation of the stress response.
The Neuroscience of Fear and Powerlessness
When the brain perceives threat, the amygdala activates and sends signals to the body to prepare for danger. Stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline increase. This is adaptive in short bursts, but during ongoing national unrest, the stress response does not shut off.
Over time, this can lead to:
— Heightened anxiety
— Difficulty concentrating
— Emotional reactivity
— Sleep disruption
— Somatic symptoms such as tension or fatigue
— Emotional shutdown or numbness
t the same time, the prefrontal cortex, which supports reasoning, perspective, and decision making, becomes less effective under chronic stress. This makes it harder to feel grounded, hopeful, or capable of action.
Powerlessness emerges when the nervous system perceives threat without a clear path to safety or resolution.
Why Powerlessness Often Feels Personal
Even though national unrest is collective, the nervous system experiences it individually. For many people, current events activate older experiences of vulnerability, injustice, or loss of control.
Those with a history of trauma, chronic stress, or attachment wounds may be especially sensitive to these triggers. The body remembers past moments when safety was compromised, and present-day unrest can reactivate those imprints.
This is why some people feel overwhelmed by news that others seem able to ignore. The response is not about logic. It is about nervous system memory.
Common Coping Strategies That Stop Working
During times of unrest, many people try to cope by:
— Over-consuming news
— Avoiding information entirely
— Staying constantly busy
— Numbing with substances or screens
— Intellectualizing or minimizing feelings
While understandable, these strategies often increase dysregulation over time. Avoidance can heighten anxiety. Overexposure to media can reinforce fear. Distraction without regulation leaves the nervous system stuck in survival mode.
Therapy offers a different approach, one that works with the body and brain rather than against them.
How Therapy Helps Process Powerlessness
Therapy does not aim to eliminate fear or force optimism. Instead, it helps clients process fear safely, restore regulation, and rebuild a sense of internal agency even when external circumstances feel unstable.
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we approach this work through a trauma-informed, neuroscience-based lens.
1. Nervous System Regulation
Therapy helps clients understand how their nervous system is responding to ongoing threat. Through somatic techniques, breathwork, and grounding practices, the body can learn to shift out of chronic survival mode.
Regulation restores access to clarity, emotional flexibility, and choice.
2. Making Meaning of Fear
Fear becomes overwhelming when it feels chaotic or unnamed. Therapy provides space to articulate what feels frightening, what feels out of control, and what values feel threatened.
Naming these experiences engages the prefrontal cortex and reduces limbic overwhelm.
3. Processing Collective Trauma
National unrest can function as a form of collective trauma. Therapy helps differentiate between what is happening now and what belongs to past experiences. This reduces emotional flooding and reactivity.
Approaches such as EMDR can help reprocess distressing images, memories, or beliefs that become activated by current events.
4. Restoring a Sense of Agency
Powerlessness decreases when clients reconnect with what is still within their control. Therapy supports clients in identifying boundaries, values, and meaningful actions that align with their nervous system capacity.
Agency does not require fixing everything. It begins with choice, presence, and alignment.
5. Strengthening Relational Safety
Periods of unrest often strain relationships. Therapy helps clients communicate needs, manage conflict, and seek connection rather than isolation.
Safe relationships are one of the most substantial buffers against fear and despair.
Why This Work Is Especially Important Now
Chronic exposure to national unrest without support can lead to burnout, despair, and emotional exhaustion. Over time, this can impact mental health, physical health, intimacy, and parenting.
Therapy provides a consistent, stabilizing space where the nervous system can settle and integrate what it has been carrying.
This work is not about disengaging from the world. It is about engaging from a regulated, grounded place rather than from fear.
Signs Therapy Is Helping
Clients often notice:
— Reduced anxiety and hypervigilance
— Improved sleep and concentration
— Greater emotional clarity
— Less reactivity to news or social conflict
— Improved communication in relationships
— A stronger sense of internal steadiness
— Renewed access to hope and meaning
These shifts reflect nervous system regulation rather than avoidance.
Reclaiming Groundedness in an Uncertain World
It is possible to care deeply about what is happening in the world without sacrificing your mental health. Therapy helps clients hold awareness and compassion while protecting nervous system capacity.
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we help individuals process fear, grief, and powerlessness with respect for the body, the brain, and the complexity of this moment in history.
When the world feels unsteady, tending to your nervous system is not indulgent. It is foundational.
Moving towards Greater Resilience
Feelings of fear, anxiety, and powerlessness during times of national unrest are not signs that something is wrong with you. They are signs that your nervous system is responding to real and ongoing uncertainty.
Therapy offers a path toward regulation, integration, and grounded engagement. Through nervous system support, trauma-informed care, and relational safety, it is possible to move through this moment with greater steadiness and resilience.
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we specialize in helping individuals process collective stress and personal trauma so they can remain present, connected, and emotionally resourced during challenging times.
Reach out to schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation with our team of therapists, trauma specialists, somatic practitioners, or relationship experts, and start working towards integrative, embodied healing today.
📞 Call us at (310) 651-8458
📱 Text us at (310) 210-7934
📩 Email us at admin@embodiedwellnessandrecovery.com
🔗 Visit us at www.embodiedwellnessandrecovery.com
👉 Check us out on Instagram @embodied_wellness_and_recovery
🌍 Explore our offerings at Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/laurendummit
References
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books.
McEwen, B. S., & Akil, H. (2020). Revisiting the stress concept: Implications for affective disorders. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(1), 12–21.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton.
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
The Mule Years: Understanding Established Adulthood and How to Care for Your Nervous System During Life’s Most Demanding Decade
The Mule Years: Understanding Established Adulthood and How to Care for Your Nervous System During Life’s Most Demanding Decade
Established adulthood, often called the Mule Years, refers to the ages 30 to 45, when career pressure, parenting, and relationships collide. Learn how neuroscience-informed therapy supports resilience, balance, and well-being during this intense life stage.
Why So Many Adults Feel Exhausted Right Now
If you are in your thirties or early forties and feel constantly tired, emotionally stretched, or quietly overwhelmed, you may not be failing at adulthood. You may be living squarely in what psychologists now call “established adulthood.”
Coined in 2020 by developmental psychology professor Clare M. Mehta, established adulthood refers to the period between approximately ages 30 and 45. This stage captures a reality many people recognize instantly. These are the years when individuals are deeply invested in career development, sustaining long-term romantic partnerships, raising children, caring for aging parents, managing finances, and holding the emotional center of their families.
It is not young adulthood, which can stretch from 18 to 45 and lacks specificity. It is not middle adulthood, which often extends to age 65, and does not reflect the intensity of responsibility concentrated in this earlier window. Established adulthood is narrower, heavier, and more demanding.
Many people have started calling this phase “the mule years.” The image fits. A mule carries a heavy load, steadily and reliably, often without complaint. But even the strongest nervous system has limits.
What Is Established Adulthood and Why Does It Feel So Hard?
Established adulthood is often described as the most intense, demanding, and rewarding period of life. It is also one of the most physiologically stressful.
During this stage, many people are simultaneously:
— Building or maintaining career momentum
— Managing financial pressure and long-term planning
— Parenting young or school-age children
— Supporting a partner’s emotional and professional needs
— Navigating changes in identity, body, and sexuality
— Carrying unresolved trauma or attachment wounds
— Managing chronic stress with little downtime
You may find yourself asking:
Why am I so exhausted even when things are going well?
Why do I feel like I am always behind, no matter how hard I work?
Why does my nervous system feel fried by the end of the day?
Why do my relationships feel strained even though I care deeply?
These questions are not signs of weakness. They are signals from a nervous system under sustained load.
The Neuroscience of the Mule Years
From a neuroscience perspective, established adulthood places prolonged demands on the brain and body without adequate opportunities for recovery.
Chronic stress during this phase activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, increasing cortisol and adrenaline over the long term. While these stress hormones are helpful in short bursts, sustained activation can impair sleep, emotional regulation, memory, immune function, and mood.
The prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning, decision making, and impulse control, becomes overtaxed when demands outpace rest. Meanwhile, the amygdala, the brain’s threat detection center, becomes more reactive, increasing anxiety, irritability, and emotional overwhelm.
Over time, the nervous system may adapt by staying in a state of low-grade hyperarousal or emotional shutdown. This can look like:
— Feeling constantly “on.”
— Difficulty relaxing even during downtime
— Emotional numbness or irritability
— Loss of pleasure or desire
— Increased conflict in relationships
— Physical symptoms like tension, headaches, or fatigue
In other words, the Mule Years are not just psychologically demanding. They are biologically taxing.
Why Established Adulthood Often Triggers Old Wounds
This life stage also has a way of activating unresolved trauma and attachment patterns.
Caring for children can stir up memories of how you were cared for. Career pressure can trigger old beliefs about worth and success. Relationship strain can activate fears of abandonment, inadequacy, or disconnection.
Many adults find that symptoms they thought they had outgrown resurface during this phase. Anxiety, perfectionism, people pleasing, emotional shutdown, or compulsive coping behaviors may intensify.
This is not regression. It is exposure. The nervous system is being asked to do more with fewer reserves.
Why Self-Care Advice Often Falls Flat During the Mule Years
Many people in established adulthood are told to practice better self-care. Take a bath. Meditate. Exercise more. While these practices can be helpful, they often fail to address the core issue.
The problem is not a lack of effort. It is a lack of nervous system support.
When stress is chronic and relational, it requires interventions that work with the body, not just the mind. This is where neuroscience-informed therapy becomes essential.
How Therapy Supports the Nervous System During Established Adulthood
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we specialize in helping adults navigate the Mule Years with greater regulation, resilience, and self-understanding.
Therapy during this phase is not about adding more to your to-do list. It is about helping your nervous system recover its capacity.
Key approaches include:
Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy helps clients notice and regulate physical stress responses. Learning to track bodily sensations allows the nervous system to release stored tension and return to a state of balance.
Attachment Focused Work
Exploring attachment patterns helps adults understand why certain relationships feel especially draining or triggering during this stage. Strengthening secure attachment supports emotional resilience.
Trauma-Informed EMDR
EMDR helps reprocess past experiences that continue to drive stress responses in the present. This is particularly helpful for adults whose early trauma resurfaces during parenting or partnership challenges.
Nervous System Education
Understanding how stress affects the brain reduces shame and increases self-compassion. When clients understand their biology, they stop blaming themselves for symptoms that have a physiological basis.
Redefining Strength During the Mule Years
One of the most damaging myths of established adulthood is that strength means endurance without rest.
Neuroscience tells a different story. Resilience is not about pushing harder. It is about creating enough safety for the nervous system to recover.
True strength during this phase looks like:
— Recognizing limits without shame
— Building rhythms of rest and effort
— Asking for support rather than carrying everything alone
— Prioritizing regulation over productivity
— Allowing identity to evolve rather than clinging to outdated expectations
A New Way to Think About the Mule Years
Rather than viewing established adulthood as something to survive, it can be reframed as a period of profound integration.
These years ask us to integrate ambition with care, responsibility with pleasure, and effort with rest. They invite us to examine what we are carrying and whether it is sustainable.
With the proper support, this stage can become a time of deep growth, emotional maturity, and embodied wisdom.
You Are Carrying a Lot, and Your Body Knows It
If you are in your thirties or forties and feel like life is relentless, there is nothing wrong with you. You are living in a developmentally intense phase that places real demands on the nervous system.
Therapy offers a place to set the load down, even temporarily. It provides tools to help your brain and body recover, regulate, and reconnect.
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we help adults navigate established adulthood with compassion, neuroscience-informed care, and deep respect for the weight they are carrying.
You do not have to become lighter to survive the Mule Years. You need support that helps you carry the load differently.
Reach out to schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation with our team of therapists, trauma specialists, somatic practitioners, or relationship experts, and start working towards integrative, embodied healing today.
📞 Call us at (310) 651-8458
📱 Text us at (310) 210-7934
📩 Email us at admin@embodiedwellnessandrecovery.com
🔗 Visit us at www.embodiedwellnessandrecovery.com
👉 Check us out on Instagram @embodied_wellness_and_recovery
🌍 Explore our offerings at Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/laurendummit
References (APA Format)
Mehta, C. M., Arnett, J. J., Palmer, C. G., & Nelson, L. J. (2020). Established adulthood: A new conception of ages 30 to 45. American Psychologist, 75(4), 431–444.
McEwen, B. S., & Akil, H. (2020). Revisiting the stress concept: Implications for affective disorders. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(1), 12–21.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self regulation. W. W. Norton.
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
Depression and the Brain: What New Neuroscience Reveals About Wiring, Connectivity, and Real Paths to Relief
Depression and the Brain: What New Neuroscience Reveals About Wiring, Connectivity, and Real Paths to Relief
Learn how new neuroscience is reshaping our understanding of depression. Research from Weill Cornell Medicine and McGill University shows that depression is linked to changes in brain wiring, enlarged salience networks, inflammation, and altered cellular activity. Discover how somatic therapy, trauma-informed care, EMDR, and nervous system repair at Embodied Wellness and Recovery can support long-term healing.
Depression Is Not Just a Chemical Imbalance. Neuroscience Shows a Much Deeper Story.
For decades, many people have been told that depression is caused by a simple serotonin deficiency or a chemical imbalance in the brain. While medication has helped countless people, the idea that one or two neurotransmitters explain the full complexity of depression has consistently fallen short of what many individuals actually experience.
Have you ever wondered why depression can persist even when you take your medication?
Or why are depressive symptoms often triggered by relational stress, trauma, chronic nervous system activation, or unresolved emotional pain?
Or why your mind and body seem to shut down even when you logically know you are safe?
Emerging neuroscience is offering powerful new answers. The most cutting-edge research suggests that depression is not just about brain chemicals, but about how certain brain networks are wired, how they communicate, and how chronic stress and trauma reshape neural circuits over time.
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we take this science to heart. Understanding depression as a condition of brain wiring and nervous system dysregulation expands treatment possibilities. It allows for a truly holistic and integrative approach that addresses root causes rather than just symptoms.
Let us explore what the latest studies reveal.
New Brain Imaging Research Shows Depression Is Linked to Structural and Network Changes
A groundbreaking study from Weill Cornell Medicine used advanced 7 Tesla MRI imaging to examine the brains of individuals with depression. What they found significantly shifts the long-held view of depression as a purely chemical problem (Morris et al., 2019).
The Salience Network Is Significantly Enlarged in People with Depression.
The salience network is the brain region responsible for detecting what matters. It helps the brain decide which experiences deserve attention. When the salience network grows larger or becomes hyperactive, it can heighten sensitivity to emotional cues, perceived threats, and negative internal states. This means the depressed brain may become wired to detect danger, disappointment, or distress even in neutral situations.
This enlargement suggests:
— Altered neural circuitry
— Chronic stress exposure
— Persistent activation of survival pathways
— Changes in brain connectivity rather than simply chemical levels
This changes the conversation. Depression is not a character flaw or a failure to think positively. It may be rooted in how the brain has adapted in response to overwhelming stress or trauma.
2025 McGill University Study: Depression Involves Cellular and Inflammatory Changes
Another significant discovery came in 2025 from a McGill University team that studied the brains of people with severe depression (McDougall et al., 2025). Their analysis identified:
1. Neurons with altered gene activity
Certain neural circuits involved in mood regulation, emotional learning, reward processing, and cognitive control behaved differently in depressed individuals.
2. Microglia activation
Microglia are the brain’s immune cells. When they shift into an activated state, they release inflammatory molecules. This inflammation interferes with neuronal communication, disrupts synaptic connections, and impairs mood stability.
3. Cellular-level changes that disrupt communication between brain regions
This research suggests that depression is associated with physical changes in:
— Inflammation pathways
— Synaptic plasticity
— Gene expression
— Neural communication
— Brain immune responses
In other words, depression is not simply a matter of serotonin being low. It includes real, measurable structural and cellular changes.
What This Means for You: Depression Is a Whole Brain, Whole Body Condition
If you have struggled with depression, these findings may help explain your experience.
Do you feel overwhelmed even when nothing seems wrong?
Do you find it hard to shift out of negative thought patterns?
Does your body feel heavy, sluggish, or shut down?
Do relationships, conflict, or past trauma intensify your symptoms?
These reactions may be tied to how your salience network, limbic system, and prefrontal cortex are communicating. Trauma, chronic stress, emotional abandonment, attachment wounds, and nervous system dysregulation can all shape brain pathways in ways that make depressive states more likely. Understanding depression as a wiring and network condition opens the door to new kinds of treatment.
New Treatment Approaches Target Wiring, Connectivity, and Nervous System Repair
Because depression involves the nervous system and structural brain changes, treatments that reshape neural pathways may offer more profound and lasting relief.
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we integrate depression treatment across four essential levels:
1. Somatic Therapy for Depression and Nervous System Regulation
Somatic therapy helps shift the autonomic nervous system out of shutdown or chronic survival mode. When the nervous system feels safer, brain circuits involved in mood and emotional regulation can reorganize.
Somatic practices that support depression include:
— Interoceptive awareness
— Breath-based vagal toning
— Grounding and anchoring exercises
— Co-regulation therapy
— Somatic tracking
— Trauma-informed movement
These help retrain the salience network to stop over-detecting threats.
2. EMDR Therapy to Reprocess the Root of Negative Neural Patterns
Traumatic memories, attachment wounds, and experiences of emotional neglect can shape the depressed brain. EMDR helps reprocess these memories so they no longer trigger the same neural and physiological responses.
EMDR supports:
— Decreased limbic activation
— Increases in prefrontal regulation
— Improved emotional integration
— Changes in neural networks
This directly targets the wiring differences implicated in depression.
3. Trauma-Informed Therapy That Addresses Brain-Based Causes of Depression
Trauma is one of the most well-documented contributors to structural brain change.
Chronic emotional stress can:
— Shrink the hippocampus
— Enlarge the amygdala
— Weaken the prefrontal cortex
— Activate inflammatory microglia
— Alter neural connectivity
Therapy that addresses trauma and relational wounds helps restore balance in these systems.
4. Lifestyle, Attachment, and Relationship Patterns That Affect the Brain
The way we relate to one another profoundly affects the nervous system. Chronic conflict, feeling unappreciated, loneliness, and attachment ruptures all activate the salience network and limbic system.
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we address:
— Dating challenges
— Trauma bonds
— Emotional shutdown
— Loss of pleasure
— Nervous system compatibility
— Sexuality and connection
Healing in relationships also helps heal the brain.
Why This Matters: Depression Can Change the Brain, and the Brain Can Change Back
The most hopeful part of this new research is neuroplasticity.
The brain can rewire.
The salience network can downshift.
Microglia can return to a healthy state.
Inflammation can calm.
Neural networks can reorganize.
The nervous system can learn safety again.
Medication can still play an important role, but these findings encourage a more comprehensive approach. The most effective depression treatment now often includes a combination of:
— EMDR
— Trauma-informed psychotherapy
— Mindfulness-based interventions
— Integrative lifestyle practices
At Embodied Wellness and Recovery, we specialize in blending neuroscience, somatic psychology, attachment theory, polyvagal principles, and trauma-informed care to support multidimensional healing.
A Compassionate Invitation to Begin Repairing Your Brain and Nervous System
If depression has made you feel disconnected from yourself or your relationships, or if you feel stuck in patterns you cannot think your way out of, you deserve support that matches the depth of what you are experiencing.
Depression is not a personal failure.
It is not a lack of trying hard enough.
It is an imprint on your brain, your nervous system, and your body.
And with the proper support, those systems can change.
Embodied Wellness and Recovery offers trauma-informed therapy, somatic treatment for depression, EMDR, parts work, nervous system repair, relationship and intimacy counseling, and integrative care that honors the full complexity of your experience.
Your brain is adaptable. Your body is intelligent. Your story is worthy of care.
Reach out to schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation with our team of therapists, trauma specialists, somatic practitioners, or relationship experts, and start working towards integrative, embodied healing today.
📞 Call us at (310) 651-8458
📱 Text us at (310) 210-7934
📩 Email us at admin@embodiedwellnessandrecovery.com
🔗 Visit us at www.embodiedwellnessandrecovery.com
👉 Check us out on Instagram @embodied_wellness_and_recovery
🌍 Explore our offerings at Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/laurendummit
References
1) McDougall, J. J., Kubyshkin, A., Pouliot, M., Zakharyan, E., & Kovalenko, E. (2025). Inflammation in health and disease: a balancing act (information about the 16th World Congress on Inflammation (WCI2024)). Inflammation Research, 74(1), 8.
2) McEwen, B. S. (2017). Neurobiological and systemic effects of chronic stress. Annual Review of Medicine, 68, 441 to 454.
3) Menon, V. (2011). Large-scale brain networks and psychopathology. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(10), 483 to 506.
4) Morris, L. S., Kundu, P., Costi, S., Collins, A., Schneider, M., Verma, G., ... & Murrough, J. W. (2019). Ultra-high field MRI reveals mood-related circuit disturbances in depression: a comparison between 3-Tesla and 7-Tesla. Translational Psychiatry, 9(1), 94.
5) Setiawan, E., Attwells, S., Wilson, A. A., et al. (2015). Association of translocator protein total distribution volume with severity of major depressive episodes. JAMA Psychiatry, 72(9), 879 to 886.