What is the freeze trauma response?

The fight, flight, or freeze response refers to involuntary physiological changes that happen in the body and mind when a person feels threatened. This response exists to keep people safe, preparing them to face, escape, or hide from danger.

What does the freeze response feel like?

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.

What causes a freeze response?

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.

How do traumatic experiences affect emotions?

Depression. Depression is different from feeling down or sad. Someone experiencing depression will experience intense emotions of anxiety, hopelessness, negativity and helplessness, and the feelings stay with them instead of going away.

Is depression a freeze response?

Symptoms of Depression as a Freeze Response Feelings of helplessness. Sense of shrinking into yourself or trying to disappear. You feel unable to move or to take action.

Is the freeze response sympathetic or parasympathetic?

Freezing, a state of parasympathetic dominance. When a stimulus or a situation is perceived to be threatening, the brain activates many neuronal circuits to adapt to the demand, the most well-known being the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

What does a trauma response look like?

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.

How do you identify trauma?

Symptoms of psychological trauma

1. Shock, denial, or disbelief.
2. Confusion, difficulty concentrating.
3. Anger, irritability, mood swings.
4. Anxiety and fear.
5. Guilt, shame, self-blame.
6. Withdrawing from others.
7. Feeling sad or hopeless.
8. Feeling disconnected or numb.

Does depression cause Fight or flight?

Previous research has shown that depressed people can have strong feelings of anger (fight) and desires to run away (flight), but these ‘fight/flight’ defences can become blocked, inhibited, and arrested, which increase stress.

Is dissociation a freeze response?

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.

Which of the following signs would indicate that someone is in the freeze response?

In the freeze response, you might hold your breath or restrict breathing. Eyes. Your peripheral vision increases so you can notice your surroundings. Your pupils dilate and let in more light, which helps you see better.

What are different trauma responses?

Emotional reactions to trauma fear, anxiety and panic. shock – difficulty believing in what has happened, feeling detached and confused. feeling numb. not wanting to connect with others or becoming withdrawn from those around you.

Is the freeze response to fear a symptom of PTSD?

If so, you may have been experiencing the freeze response to fear, which is a common symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The freeze response is a normal, physical response to extreme fear or trauma.

Is the freeze response to trauma as adaptive as the fight-flight response?

So, in its own way, the freeze response to trauma is—if only at the time—as adaptive as the fight-flight response. For a small child, the developmental capacity to protect is markedly limited. So, rationally or not, he or she would likely to experience a whole host of situations as threatening to survival.

What is the freeze response?

Peter Levine developed a theory that trauma is the energy trapped in the body when attempts to escape from trauma are unsuccessful and the freeze response occurs. When children are traumatized they have few resources to cope or escape so they tend to freeze or dissociate.

Why do victims of abuse freeze?

Victims of abuse often freeze when they’re in the presence of their abusers or people who resemble them like they did when they were actually abused. Many such victims, when they seek counseling to get relief from their traumatic symptoms, feel guilty for not doing anything but simply freezing when they were abused.