Strong emotional reactions in teenagers are a normal part of growing up. The brain is still developing, and hormones are driving all kinds of changes in the body. But while teens’ reactions can be confusing, a lot of it comes down to these changes.
But if your teen’s emotional reactions have stayed this strong for a long time, growing up may not be the only explanation.
Researchers have paid close attention to the vagus nerve and the role it may play in how the body manages stress and emotion. While the research is still developing, what has been found so far offers a useful way to think about why some teens struggle with emotional regulation more than others.
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The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body. It runs from the brainstem down through the neck and abdomen, connecting the brain to the heart, lungs, and most of the digestive tract.
The vagus nerve is the primary nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system. To understand what that means and why it’s important for your teen, it helps to know how the autonomic nervous system works and the two systems within it.
The autonomic nervous system is the body’s automatic control system. It manages the functions we don’t consciously think about, like heart rate and breathing.[1] The ANS has two main branches that work in opposition to each other: the sympathetic branch and the parasympathetic branch.
The sympathetic branch can be seen as the accelerator. It drives the fight-or-flight response, speeds up the heart rate, quickens breathing, and mobilizes energy, all when the body detects a possible threat.[1]
If the sympathetic branch is the accelerator, then the parasympathetic branch is the brake. Its job is to slow things down once the threat has passed, and it helps the body return to a calm, baseline state.[1]
Picture a car with brakes that aren’t working well. When the driver needs to slow down, the car keeps going. A poorly functioning parasympathetic branch works the same way.
It struggles to slow the body down. Stress responses stay elevated for longer, and your child may struggle to return to a calm state after something has upset them.[2]
Doctors call the strength of this braking function vagal tone, and they measure it through heart rate variability.[3] A higher vagal tone means the body can move between activation and calm more easily. A lower vagal tone means that change is slower and less complete.[3]
Polyvagal theory is a concept that builds on this idea. It proposes that the autonomic nervous system doesn’t just switch between “on” and “off” but instead moves through three different states.[4]
For parents, this framework can offer a new way to understand your teen’s behavior.
For example, if you’ve noticed that your teen shuts down and refuses to engage, they may not be choosing to be lazy or defiant. They may have slipped into a nervous system state automatically.
Keep in mind that this is still a theory. Critics have pointed out that several of the theory’s core biological claims aren’t backed by current evidence.
Even so, these three states can help you understand and talk about your teen’s experiences. Scientists are still debating the biology behind them.
Across the research, lower vagal tone is a constant in studies of teen mental health.
While the findings don’t point to a single mental health condition, they do reflect challenges with nervous system regulation and less flexibility to manage emotional demands.
Research on adolescents found that vagal tone changes how much stress affects symptoms like anxiety and depression.[5]
Teens with a low resting vagal tone were much more likely to be affected by stressors like conflict with their peers or traumatic events than teens with a higher vagal tone.[5]
This suggests that the vagus nerve may act as a buffer. When it’s strong, stressors are managed more effectively, but when it’s weak, things may hit harder.
One meta-analysis of autonomic functioning in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) found lower parasympathetic activity and a higher resting heart rate across studies.[6] This may reflect autonomic dysregulation.
If your child is dealing with PTSD, their nervous system may sit closer to the edge of activation than to rest. It may take less to push them into a full stress response, and their system may be slower at bringing them back out of it.
Studies that focused specifically on children and adolescents with depression found lower resting heart rate variability. Teens without depression didn’t show the same pattern.[7]
This may suggest that there’s an association between reduced vagal function and depression in young people, but the question of why that link exists is still being explored.
Further research found that people with a history of maltreatment show lower vagal efficiency and linked that reduced function to higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms.[8]
The researchers suggested a possible reason. A disrupted feedback system between the heart and the brainstem may contribute to the numbness and blunted responses some people with depression feel in their bodies. This could be one way early adversity increases mental health risk.[8]
While it’s a promising line of research, it’s important to understand that a strong link is yet to be established.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) isn’t categorized as a mental health condition in itself. But teens with ADHD often report emotional regulation difficulties.
There are several theories on why this may be. One study found that teens with ADHD who had lower vagal activity reported more trouble regulating their emotions.[9]
If your teen has ADHD coupled with emotional regulation difficulties, it may be because their nervous system is having a harder time controlling its own arousal.
Mission Prep is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
Vagus nerve exercises are practical techniques that may influence vagal tone and help the nervous system move toward a calmer state. They range from breathing and grounding techniques to physical movement, and each targets the vagus nerve in a slightly different way.
It’s worth noting that they’re not a replacement for professional help. They’re tools that your teen can learn, try, and test.
Research has found that breathing at around five to six breaths per minute can increase parasympathetic activity. This can help relieve stress and reduce symptoms of anxiety, even after just one session.[10]
The idea is to practice this while your teen is in a calm state. Once they’ve learned the technique, they can use it mid-crisis.
According to research, cold water on the face triggers something known as the diving reflex. It’s a parasympathetic response that slows down heart rate.[11]
If your teen is in the middle of an emotional crisis, encourage them to splash cold water on their face, or hold something cold against their cheeks. It may produce a noticeable change within moments.
The vagus nerve runs through the throat, and vocal vibration may help to stimulate it directly. Humming or singing have been suggested as ways to activate the vagus nerve, and while the research is based on smaller trials, the technique seems low risk.[12]
Regular physical movement improves vagal tone. Some studies suggest this plays a role in the low resting heart rates that trained athletes consistently show.[13]
One study found that exercise training increased the resting activity of vagal neurons, meaning the parasympathetic brake fired more strongly even when the body was at rest.[14] In other words, regular exercise physically strengthens the vagus nerve’s ability to regulate the stress response.
Vagus exercises can help in certain situations. But they are tools, not treatments. If your teen’s emotion dysregulation is severe enough that it’s affecting their ability to function at school or go about their daily life, body-based techniques alone are not sufficient.
Professional help is strongly recommended if your teen is currently experiencing:
If they have already been through outpatient support and not responded positively, residential treatment could be the next step in trauma recovery and ongoing support. This is largely because residential treatment provides an environment where nervous system healing and your teen’s recovery are the main priority.
Your teen can practice the regulation techniques covered above every day, and receive clinical treatment for whatever’s behind the difficulties they’re experiencing.
With residential treatment, medication can also be monitored, and if need be, adjusted in real time.
If you’ve watched your teen struggle with their emotions to the point that it’s impacting their life, a professional assessment can help you find the right treatment.
There is no commitment required. Just an honest, confidential conversation about the support your family needs. Let’s take the first step together.
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If anything on this page has resonated with what you’re seeing in your child, support is available. At Mission Prep Teen Treatment, we use evidence-based therapeutic approaches and innovative interventions to foster sustainable change for adolescents and their families.
Our clinical team is experienced in working with teens whose emotional dysregulation has become severe. We build treatment around finding what’s driving the dysregulation and addressing it directly. We also teach your child the regulation skills they need to move forward and protect their emotional well-being.
To best serve each teen, we offer tailored treatment programs at various levels. Whether your teen could benefit from residential treatment at one of our locations in California or Virginia, or something more flexible like an outpatient mental health program or virtual telehealth to treat their mental health concerns, our team can help.
Mission Prep Teen Treatment accepts insurance and is in-network with most major providers. We are happy to help you check your insurance coverage for mental health care.
Contact us online or call 866-901-4047 to speak with a caring member of our team who can answer any questions you might have. Reach out for a free, no-obligation conversation.
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