Why Does It Feel Like Everyday is a Fire Drill Day?
Roots and Truth
Around four years ago, during my postpartum period with Mae, I started feeling so overwhelmed with all the tasks I had invited into my life. This overwhelm came to the tipping point of full-blown anxiety, when baby Mae started crawling and moving proficiently.
This full-speed part of mommy-hood was totally overwhelming!
I was now a mother of three. I had already been on a holistic healing journey prior to my third baby. Because of the nature of my health conditions, I was trying not to use prescription medication. Because of my anxiety, I decided that I was going to try another treatment for my over-stimulated brain. 1
This treatment was called Neurofeedback. It has been proven to help conditions like ADHD and depression. Through the use of a computer and probes (that are connected to the person’s head), it helps reprogram the brain to use different pathways of communication.
During my two months of treatment, I ended up discontinuing the treatment. The treatment wasn’t effective on me. (Or it was done incorrectly.) Either way I ended up with my brain completely disassociating from my body.
It was the worst depression that I have experienced in my life.
It was a period of time where with sheer willpower I had to peel myself off of my bed in the morning. I walked around like a zombie, as if I were dragging my feet behind the rest of my body.
A couple times a week I remember walking on the sidewalk of my suburbian neighborhood, tears streaming down my cheeks telling my husband how checked out of my body I felt.
But I didn’t feel depressed all of the time.
Sometimes I felt just fine. And I was enjoying being a mommy. These internal feelings created curiosity and quickly led me to a teacher that could explain what was happening inside of my body.
It was during this period of time where I began to really immerse my self in the study and experimentation of the vagus nerve.
Fire Drills
I have continued to observe my state of being. If I am present and feeling well, I can name that I am “regulated today”. But the majority of the days in the past four years I would say that I am in a “dysregulated state”. At least I understand and have a name for the state of my nervous system now. All the education I have received has helped me gain a sense of awareness around the internal feelings of my body.
As the years have gone by, I have experiences so many sensations that feel like the fire drills that I participated in elementary school, all the way to high school. I remember that shrill pitch of the fire alarm—just the screech of it forced you from your seat to move outside. That consistent-terrible sound!!
Every time that I heard those tones, I knew in my mind that I was still in a safe place. These were practice drills! But the stimulus of the sound alone made the feet move and the stomach churn.
That is how I feel about stimulus in my current life. I have done my best to create a safe environment for me to have a relationship with my spouse and raise my children. I can see the security of the walls of my home. I can feel the warmth of the heater in my home. I have the experience of a hot meal, nourishing me and taking care of my body.
But the stimulus my body receives feedback from is varied, but present daily!
It comes in the form of watching my children attempting to keep them safe, but always being “on gaurd”!
This stimulus comes from hearing my kids cry for help, or their screaming when they get hurt.
Stimulus comes from near-misses on the freeway when someone didn’t check their blind spot.
These are valid sights and noises. But they also feel exaggerated and overwhelming to me in my human experience.
Working With Medical Professionals
During my postpartum experience with Mae, I was also working with a chiropractor who would use an electrical pulse to stimulate the vagus nerve directly.
I tried this treatment for months, and although the chiropractor meant well, I think his treatment was a way of stimulating something that was supposed to be in hibernation.
As I discontinued this treatment, I recognized that his way was another “forceful” way of using technology to change something that needed gentle care.
Not a “FIX IT MODE” mentality.
There was a familiar feeling that I had after I stopped going to Neurofeedback. That gentle coaxing from inside inviting me to learn more. It was an invitation to understand that my body wasn’t failing me. Maybe these experiences were exactly what I needed to continue learning about the true essence of healing.
Grace And Understanding As a Path of Healing
My chiropractor has extra training in neurology, and has an integrated approach to healing. And even with his Doctorate from Chiropractic school, and his additional training, I don’t think he has had the depth of the experience with understanding the vagus nerve as I’ve learned from others. The vagus nerve connects the body with beauty and complexity.
This is why I am so grateful to introduce you to the work of Sarah Baldwin. She educates seekers, like myself, on the nervous system.
She has worked closely with the pioneers in the vagus nerve research. Her gift is to communicate why understanding the nervous system is critical to each seeker. She believes that is on a pathway to understand their unique body, and to eventually heal. She is a resource that I found through Instagram. I recommend her own personal podcast titled: You Make Sense
In the last four years I have learned from additional teachers and have observed my own personal nervous system. I have read books that have brought this beautiful piece of the nervous system more clarity to me.
If you have been seeking understanding symptoms like I have experienced in the last four years please join me in a beginner’s class I have prepared this weekend on Saturday November 8, 2025.
Basic definitions and specific examples will be given at this time. If you haven’t even heard of the vagus nerve, that’s ok!
Who is This Class For?
This class is for someone that has had a hard time getting our of bed. (The literal peeling yourself off the mattress feeling.)
This is for someone that has felt like little things, feel like “FIRE DRILLS”—totally overwhelming!
This class is also for those who are seeking for feel more love for themselves in their current situation.
This last point is a beautiful invitation to understand your body so you can turn towards it through love and understanding. I believe that self love is the essential element of healing. The study of the vagus nerve is scientific proof that you are not broken. Instead, I invite you to view healing and health with a more understanding view.
The view that your body is a creation of intricate beauty and deep understanding.
Join ME! Love,
Hi, I’m Cami
After thirteen years of my own investigative-healing journey I have uncovered so much of my “health mystery” through reviewing the stories of my past.
Because I believe our stories are so important, I started writing my story here after the birth of my third baby in 2021.
Now I offer one on one coaching to someone who is feeling stuck in their own healing journey. You can access the link to take a survey and work with me here:
On this blog I also share resources and point a seeker to the right resource, or the specialist that they may have been looking for!
- A typical afternoon in the kitchen, trying to prepare a meal for the other two kids would end up with a mama in tears on her bed—almost daily.
It would begin with me pulling out ingredients for dinner, then stepping on bowls that the baby had pulled out of the kitchen drawer. Then I would be concious and trying to remember if the baby gate had been closed by the stair well, so Mae wouldn’t fall down the stairs. In the middle of that thought, I would be met by her pulling at my ankles asking to be held. She was calling for me and wanting food as well.
Stimulus comes in the form of feedback from our senses. There are the senses that we learned about when we were young, which are
- Sight
- Sound
- Taste
- Touch
- and Smell
But there is another sensation that also gives feedback called interoception. It is feedback from inside our body as well. This feedback could come in the form of thoughts or reminders. It could be a growling tummy, indicating hunger. A full bladder is also an example of interoception feedback.[↩]
