The Freeze Response

Freeze Response

My previous post discussed the ‘Fight and Flight’ response our limbic system uses to combat threat. But there is another response…to freeze.

The freeze response happens when getting away from a threat is impossible. All of our coping strategies have been completely overwhelmed. Our brains have one final strategy to use to help protect us to survive. Freezing.

This situation might be familiar to you: driving down a road and spotting something on the road ahead. You realise it’s a rabbit. Instead of it running off it stops completely still, rigid. The rabbit is using an old survival mechanism; playing dead. To understand why we need to know a little bit about something called ‘polyvagal’ theory.

Poly-what?!

Stephen Porges, a neuroscientist, explores in his research how our vagus nerve in our central nervous system is  fundamental to the fight, flight, freeze response. He maintains that our vagus nerve has three pathways it uses: immobilisation, mobilisation and social engagement.

The best way of thinking about this is a traffic light. When we are not detecting threat we are able to engage with other people in conversation, games etc. We are able to emotionally connect with others and communicate easily. This is our Social Engagement- GREEN for GO.

‘Mobilsation’ is our amber response. We have sensed threat and we are dealing with it- the previous blog post ‘Fight or Flight’ discusses this response in more detail. 'Mobilsation is our AMBER for WARNING.

‘Immobisation’ is our freeze response. When the threat becomes overwhelming and unsurpassable. When this happens our body has a series of reactions to help protect itself. It is our oldest survival mechanism, and is often the survival mechanism that kicks into gear in life-threatening situations such as sexual violence.

Freeze Body Responses

The ‘freeze responses’ are generally the opposite of what happens in the ‘fight-flight response’. The fight-flight response.

  • Heart rate slows down, lower blood pressure, slower breathing

  • Disassociation (disconnect mind from body). You may feel numb or trapped in your body.

  • Go pale

  • Facial expression goes blank/expressionless

  • Difficulty hearing

  • Voice goes flat or quiet or even completely silent.

  • Tonic (rigid) or collapsed immobility. Either you may freeze in a 'tense way-such as the rabbit on the road, or you might collapse completely. In rape and sexual violence it is normal for the body to go ‘floppy’ as the body is less likely to be physically damaged in the assault.

  • Difficulty remembering what happened- only being able to recall small bits and pieces. This is due to how the brain processes trauma- see my previous blog post on the limbic system response to trauma for more.

What do I do when I freeze?

Often the freeze response may continue to happen in situations after a person has used the freeze response to escape actual danger e.g. rape. I say ‘actual’ as often our bodies might use the freeze response when facing psychological threat as opposed to physical threat. Psychological threat might include feeling embarrassed, stressed, anxious to name a few. It may also happen if you experience flashbacks from a traumatic incident.

If you notice that you’re starting to ‘freeze’ you can use grounding techniques to bring yourself back to the present moment. Some of these include: breathing techniques, activating your senses, and movement. The reason why grounding techniques work well when we freeze is because the vagus nerve has both afferent and efferent nerves (meaning it contains both sensory and motor fibres). So although our senses might be saying “we’re in danger”, we can use body-based techniques help the brain realise we’re safe.

Grounding Techniques to try:

  • Physically moving the body can be a great way to break out of the freeze response. One of the best ways is to use ‘power poses’. These often get a bit of stick of politicians doing them, but they do actually work. Stretch your arms and take up a power pose. Focus on feeling strong. Take up as much room as possible. Walk around in your power pose if you feel comfortable to.

  • Try to notice all your senses- what can you hear, see, taste, touch, smell in the present moment? If you have a sweet or chewing gum etc- focus on on the taste and texture.

  • Spotting items around the room- find 3 green things, 3 wooden things, 3 circular things. These help you to focus on where you are and use your senses in the present moment.

If you find yourself struggling with freeze responses regularly and it is impacting your daily life, counselling can be really helpful way to process why this might be happening and supporting you with developing self-help techniques.

Jo Sankeytrauma, freeze response, polyvagal, neuroscience