Can you be stuck in freeze response? (2023)

Can you be stuck in freeze response?

What triggers the freeze response? We tend to think of traumatic events, but according to Peter Levine, PhD, that's not always the case. Even a perceived threat can be enough for a client to get stuck in a frozen state.

It takes around 20–60 minutes for the body return to its normal state after the stress response becomes activated. Afterward, a person may feel tired, achy, or have some lingering anxiety. Generally, it is a good idea to do things that feel safe and restful during this time.

Freeze – Feeling stuck in a certain part of the body, feeling cold or numb, physical stiffness or heaviness of limbs, decreased heart-rate, restricted breathing or holding of the breath, a sense of dread or foreboding.

The Shutdown Dissociation Scale (Shut-D) is a semi-structured interview, it was first published in 2011 to assess dissociative responses caused by reminders of traumatic stress .[1] The Shut-D Scale assesses biological symptoms associated with freeze, fight/flight, fright, and flag/faint responses, and is based on the ...

However, if you are under chronic stress or have experienced trauma, you can get stuck in sympathetic fight or flight or dorsal vagal freeze and fold. When this happens, it can lead to disruptions in everything from basic life skills like sleeping, self-care and eating, to complexities like learning and self-soothing.

Dissociation is an adaptive response to threat and is a form of “freezing”. It is a strategy that is often used when the option of fighting or running (fleeing) is not an option.

Understanding the Fawn Response

The fawn response involves trying to appease or please a person who is both a care provider and a source of threat. Examples of fawning include: “I hoped that by caring for them they might care for me.” “I never showed my true feelings for fear of retaliation.”

What is a freeze response PTSD?

The physical response of freezing, feeling paralyzed, or feeling like you are out of your body (dissociation), can be triggered by events that are not at all life-threatening for those of us with PTSD (PTSD and the Freeze Response).

When trauma and chronic stress become overwhelming, our nervous system tends to move into a shutdown state. Counsellors often refer to it as dissociation, a common response to traumatic events.

As mentioned above, the four types of trauma responses are: fight, flight, freeze or fawn. You may have one or more of them at different times and under different circumstances: The flight response can be defined as getting away from the situation as quickly as possible.

Right after a trauma, almost every survivor will find it hard to stop thinking about what happened. Stress reactions—such as fear, anxiety, jumpiness, upsetting memories, and efforts to avoid reminders—will gradually decrease over time for most people.

Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.

... the fright stage, also known as tonic immobility, a peak of arousal and physical immobility where the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are simultaneously activated to decrease hyperarousal, and finally shuts down, wherein it may enter a profoundly dissociative state (flag) or even faint as a response ...

Usually, signs of dissociation can be as subtle as unexpected lapses in attention, momentary avoidance of eye contact with no memory, staring into space for several moments while appearing to be in a daze, or repeated episodes of short-lived spells of apparent fainting.

The freeze response makes the body immobile and releases chemicals which 'numbs' your body and mind. You might feel paralysed or unable to move. The flop response is where lots of the thinking processes in the brain are shut off.

Taking just 10-20 minutes each day to practice relaxation techniques can make a world of difference. Whether it's with meditation or meditative movement techniques like Qigong, yoga, or other techniques that relax you, give yourself a break during the day to simply be.

This chain of reactions results in an increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. 3 Your body can stay in fight-or-flight for 20 to 60 minutes after the threat is gone, which is how long it takes for the parasympathetic nervous system to return it to pre-arousal levels.

Can you get stuck in the sympathetic nervous system?

Signs you are stuck in sympathetic mode include problems with sleep, anxiety, blood sugar issues (even with a blood-sugar-balancing diet), sexual dysfunction, brain fog, memory issues, fatigue, difficulty recovering from exercise or stressful events, getting sick easily, and chronic pain.

The freeze response is connected to:

childhood trauma and neglect. adult psychological trauma. post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) complex post-traumatic stress disorder (c-PTSD).

Symptoms of depression can be understood as the body going into freeze mode to protect itself from a threat. We feel helpless in the face of the different challenges in our life. Often, this is accompanied by a sense of frustration or shame at ourselves.

Fawning is a trauma response where a person develops people-pleasing behaviors to avoid conflict and to establish a sense of safety. In other words, the fawn trauma response is a type of coping mechanism that survivors of complex trauma adopt to "appease" their abusers.

When someone is in a dissociative state they may be disconnected from their surrounds and from their body, but this does not mean they are in a state of tonic immobility. The experience of tonic immobility can occur while one is aware of and connected to their surroundings and body. The person is just unable to move.

This process triggers a state of 'freezing', our heart rate and breathing slows down and we may find that we hold our breath. We may feel cold or numb and we might experience a sense of being trapped within our body. Pain killing hormones can also be released into our system to reduce the physical and emotional impact.

Fawning often first develops in early childhood when a traumatic event has been perpetrated by a parent or primary caregiver, explains Walker. A child who has been abused may learn to fawn to avoid any further abuse, such as physical violence, sexual abuse, or verbal abuse.

What types of trauma cause the fawn response? The fawn response is most commonly associated with childhood trauma and complex trauma — types of trauma that arise from repeat events, such as abuse or childhood neglect — rather than single-event trauma, such as an accident.

If you live with complex trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma dumping or oversharing could be a natural trauma response and coping mechanism.

Is zoning out a mental disorder?

For the most part, zoning out isn't bad at all. It's a normal part of brain function, and it's also often helpful.

Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.

High levels of cortisol wear down the brain's ability to function properly. In addition, extended levels of elevated stress can kill brain cells, even leading to the reduction of the size of the brain. High levels of cortisol wear down the brain's ability to function properly.

Collapse is a state of hypo-arousal. When a person begins to experience this response, they may not be able to speak, and they feel detached or disconnected from their body. Their heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature lower.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who don't talk about their feelings after a traumatic event are no more likely to have problems down the road than those who do express them, new research shows. In fact, they may be better off.

Emotional numbing is a term used to describe a state of mind in which people with PTSD try to cope. Specifically, they emotionally shut down.

Responses to trauma can last for weeks to months before people start to feel normal again. Most people report feeling better within three months after a traumatic event. If the problems become worse or last longer than one month after the event, the person may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Trauma can make you more vulnerable to developing mental health problems. It can also directly cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some people misuse alcohol, drugs, or self-harm to cope with difficult memories and emotions. Depending on how you're affected, trauma may cause difficulties in your daily life.

But repetitive, nearly constant apologies for every little thing—or, what Psychologist Paige Carambio, PsyD calls, “apologizing for existing”—can actually be an after-effect of trauma, a self-preservation technique survivors may think they still need to utilize in order to protect themselves.

What is the most severe form of PTSD?

Complex PTSD is one (sometimes referred to as “Disorder of Extreme Stress”), is the most severe form of the condition, requiring the most support of the five sub-types.

We often will feel sad and cry after a highly traumatic event. The crying can be a way for the nervous system to come down from the fight-or-flight response, since crying is associated with the parasympathetic nervous system which calms the mind and body.

Intrusive memories

Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event. Reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again (flashbacks) Upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event. Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event.

Perhaps one of the most common forms of trauma is emotional abuse. This can be a common form of trauma because emotional abuse can take many different forms. Sometimes it's easy for emotional abuse to be hidden or unrecognized.

The symptoms of unresolved trauma may include, among many others, addictive behaviors, an inability to deal with conflict, anxiety, confusion, depression or an innate belief that we have no value.

The “freeze” response occurs when our brains decide we cannot take on the threat nor are we able to escape. Often when this happens our bodies might remain still, unable to move, numb or “freeze”. We may feel as if we are not actually a part of our bodies.

Dissociation is an adaptive response to threat and is a form of “freezing”. It is a strategy that is often used when the option of fighting or running (fleeing) is not an option.

The freeze response is connected to:

childhood trauma and neglect. adult psychological trauma. post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) complex post-traumatic stress disorder (c-PTSD).

What is Cptsd freeze?

Freeze. The freeze response, also known as the dissociative response, is when someone shuts down, either physically, mentally, or emotionally, when feeling triggered or experiencing pain. This can manifest as feeling numb, experiencing brain fog or memory loss, or completely dissociating during the stressful experience ...

Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to open the Windows Task Manager. If the Task Manager can open, highlight the program that is not responding and choose End Task, which should unfreeze the computer. It could still take ten to twenty seconds for the unresponsive program to be terminated after choosing End Task.

Why Freezing During Trauma Happens. In the face of trauma, we might react in ways that make zero sense to us. At all. Anytime we feel really uncomfortable or unsafe, our brain shuffles through the fight-flight-freeze responses and decides subconsciously which one is best for us at that exact moment.

What we call procrastination is actually the “freeze” response of the brain to a stressful situation. The stress generated by a trauma or a fear, even an unconscious fear, will prevent you from doing something. The more you delay the task, the more stressful you become, thus the worse the situation becomes.