Living with anxiety engages your autonomic nervous system (ANS), also known as the fight, flight, or freeze response. The “freeze” response can feel like paralysis — physical, emotional, or cognitive. If you're feeling this way, there's nothing wrong with you.
the nervous system may be overwhelmed by the inability to eliminate or escape the threat and may move to the freeze response. This is a way of escaping without physically removing the body from the situation.
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.
If you often feel disconnected or numb when faced with stressful situations, this may be a sign that you're going into the freeze response. Some other signs of the freeze response include: Feeling like you can't move your limbs. Feeling paralyzed in fear.
Due to having impaired executive function, people with ADHD can become overwhelmed more easily than those without it, and can experience “overwhelm freeze.” Feeling overwhelmed can be perceived as a certain kind of threat, even if it's just to your mental well-being, causing a freeze reaction much like others might ...
In other words, a child that suffered from constant anxiety and fear due to trauma may develop a tendency to freeze as a response to triggers as an adult. Those who froze as a response often as children may develop a tendency towards disassociation, anxiety or panic disorders, and even post-traumatic stress disorder.
“In the face of physical or emotional pain, or a traumatic incident, our sympathetic nervous system has three responses: fight, flight or freeze. Emotional numbing is freezing. Our brain shuts down as a protective response to keep us safe when our nervous system is overloaded,” he says.
We freeze when we feel completely helpless, meaning when the circumstances are so painful/stressful that we can't fight, and flight is not possible either. Sometimes, the freeze response is so ingrained in our minds that we don't even realize it is our go-to response.
Symptoms of Depression as a Freeze Response
Sense of shrinking into yourself or trying to disappear. You feel unable to move or to take action.
While the stress response changes are active, they can cause a wide range of symptoms, including feeling chilled, chilly, chills, cold, and shivery. As long as this response is active, these types of anxiety symptoms can persist.
To manage anxiety shivers, you must learn to cope with anxiety. Self-help methods such as breathing techniques, yoga, mindfulness, and progressive muscle relaxation, help to calm your nervous system, causing the physiological symptoms of anxiety to lessen in severity.
Symptoms of the freeze response
can't make a decisions. or perhaps can't even move. have no emotions, you feel blank. just want to sleep and be alone. might feel like you are no longer even in your body but are watching yourself from outside.
When you're in freeze mode, it can feel near impossible to take action. Even if you want to or have a mounting pile of responsibilities. Other symptoms can include feeling stuck in a certain part of the body, heaviness of limbs, feeling numb, decreased heart rate, holding your breath and a sense of dread.
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.
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.
The 'fight or flight' response is how people sometimes refer to our body's automatic reactions to fear. There are actually 5 of these common responses, including 'freeze', 'flop' and 'friend', as well as 'fight' or 'flight'.
You Cry Periodically
In fact, it's how your body releases pent-up energy after a traumatic or distressing event. During your recovery period, let yourself feel your emotions. After crying, you may feel like a weight's been lifted off your shoulders.
Learned fear responses enable animals — including humans — to flee or freeze in the face of a perceived threat. But if these behaviors persist after the danger lifts, they can become paralyzing and disabling. That's a key element of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Have you ever been so terrified, that all you could do is freeze in your tracks, afraid, or even unable, to move? If so, you may have been experiencing the freeze response to fear, which is a common symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The sympathetic nervous system instigates the fight or flight response whilst the parasympathetic stimulates the freeze response. The autonomic nervous system releases adrenaline and cortisol, which are stress hormones. These hormones are largely responsible for the physiological changes which occur.
Avoid making eye contact– To someone who's experienced trauma and who is stuck in freeze, the proximity of eye-contact can be too intrusive and can further dysregulate them. Don't offer touch. – If someone is frozen and unable to physically or verbally respond, unsolicited touch may feel violating.