Why Everyone Is Talking About The Nervous System (In MECFS)

 The other day I got into an argument with a keyboard warrior, the likes of which I had never seen, and about something I never expected. I think at this point I have met them all; people who think nervous system work is pseudoscience, people who don’t believe in pacing and think you can climb a mountain if you "just believe", people who don’t believe in recovery at all, people who don’t even think ME/CFS is a real physical illness… but this was a first.

In a post I created about a single sentence around recovery and how it misses the mark,

"It's just the nervous system" — someone who recovered using this sentence said I was dismissing their experience and gaslighting them.

Le sigh. Le sigh. Leeeee sighhhhh.

From this I came to a conclusion:

1. There is absolutely no way to speak about ME/CFS recovery without offending someone.

and

2. There is still so much confusion around the role of the nervous system in recovery. Either it's downplayed as nothing, or elevated as the Holy Grail.

Yet in recovery spaces, it seems like everywhere you look these days, you DO hear people talking about the nervous system.

“It’s just the nervous system. You need to heal your nervous system. You need to regulate your nervous system.”

But why?

Today, I’d like to talk about it.

When I first stumbled into these recovery spaces while I had ME/CFS, the idea of healing the nervous system sounded like a whole lot of… baloney. I remember thinking—what are they talking about? Why would I need to heal my nervous system?

I had mitochondrial dysfunction, immune dysfunction, MCAS, POTS, circulation issues, hormone imbalances. I had over a dozen symptoms; many of them completely crippling. I didn’t understand how something like somatic practices or meditation could help, if I couldn’t directly fix the other issues with biomedical approaches. And it didn’t help that recovery coaches didn’t really seem to want to explain the physiology of crashes, but rather blanketed it under one umbrella phrase to “protect me from my fear.”

I was then and am still now a person who is deeply curious and isn’t going to “just believe” anything because someone tells me to. I need to understand. I need evidence. I wanted to know the science of ME/CFS, the physiology of crashes, the process of limbic kindling, and WHY nervous system work could help me.

So I went on my own quest for knowledge and understanding.

What I came to understand is that ME/CFS is not just a nervous system issue. It involves complex, multi-system dysfunction throughout the systems of the body that maintain homeostasis. Some recovery spaces—especially ones with a very low barrier to entry—can make it seem like it’s just the nervous system without explaining how deeply interconnected it is to everything else, and how all of that is connected to pacing and expansion. That’s where a lot of confusion comes in.

The nervous system is hard-wired to the immune system. So when the immune system is triggered, the glial cells in the brain are activated too. And when the nervous system is activated, the immune system is also activated by proxy. Hormonally, the neuroendocrine system is connected to both the immune and autonomic nervous system.

This is why during menses, many women crash as their dysregulated hormones create wider changes. Crashes can also happen from blood sugar issues or a myriad of other things. This is important to understand.

So for this reason, to say “it’s just the nervous system” is, to me, an oversimplification of the truth.

It’s also important to understand that ME/CFS is different from other chronic conditions. In some conditions, nervous system work alone can create complete recovery—like chronic pain or lingering symptoms after Lyme. These can be largely nervous system-driven, even when they present with a wide range of symptoms.

But ME/CFS has something very specific: post-exertional malaise (PEM). That changes everything, because it requires a delicate approach to activity.

Enter pacing. The missing component.

So why is everyone still talking about the nervous system?

It’s because the ANS is the system we can most directly work with through top-down and bottom-up tools.

That’s why it has become such a focus.

The nervous system is constantly interpreting and responding to stimuli—physical, emotional, environmental, and viral. And when that system becomes dysregulated, it affects everything downstream: immune function, energy production, hormonal balance, inflammation.

So when we regulate the nervous system, we can impact those downstream systems. And for some people, this is the goose that laid the golden egg. People stuck for years can suddenly see huge strides in recovery by discovering nervous system work—which makes them champions of it.

So why don’t I say “it’s just the nervous system” if it works?

Because in my lived experience—and in hundreds I’ve now coached—it’s not the entire puzzle.

A person doing brain retraining all day long but with serious trauma may need somatics first.

A person who has done somatics, but is stuck in stories and rumination all day may need brain retraining.

A person who is terrified of expanding but is stable may need to work with fear while pacing.

And for someone with zero fear who is always overdoing, brain retraining can actually be dangerous—giving them the green light to bypass their body’s signals.

Meanwhile, no amount of brain retraining can fix someone stuck in boom-and-bust, constantly exhausting ATP.

And no amount of pacing can overcome the conditioned stimulus-crash response without expansion and nervous system work.

The reason I haven’t jumped on this train as THE ONLY WAY OUT is because, like ALL THINGS IN RECOVERY, the answer is far more nuanced.

THAT. IS. WHY. WE. WORK. WITH. THE. FOUR. PILLARS. OF. RECOVERY. MY FRIEND!!!!

The reason the nervous system gets so much attention is because it’s an access point. It’s a system we can directly influence—and that influence extends into the rest of the body. Not because it is the only issue at hand. Chasing down treatments without regulating your nervous system is usually a dead end. But nervous system work without supporting your body and pacing is often not enough to cross the finish line, either. 

So it’s not nervous system or biology. It’s understanding how they’re connected—and working with both.