Exploring how we protect ourselves in the face of overwhelming or scary situations is essential. Naturally, we might react by freezing, fleeing, fighting, submitting, or seeking attachment.
Tag: freeze
When the Freeze Response is Chronic, It Is Related to Depression.
Your automatic response in any stressful situation will be the one that your autonomic nervous system found most effective in the past. The freeze response takes over when we cannot fight or run away from the situation and it is …
Explaining the Window of Tolerance
The window of tolerance is a phrase first used by Dr. Dan Siegel to describe the arousal state in which a person can best function and feel they can manage life. As we live our life, we experience what I …
6 Ideas to Unfreeze
I wanted to share a few ideas of things that might help when you feel you have gone into a freeze response. The freeze response occurs on a continuum, one day, something might happen, and you feel a little numb, …
When the Freeze Response is Chronic, It Is Related to Depression.
Your automatic response in any stressful situation will be the one that your autonomic nervous system found most effective in the past. The freeze response takes over when we cannot fight or run away from the situation, and it is …
When Your Defence Mechanism Is to Freeze
You make sense. I hear so many people feeling confused about their response to a stressful situation. Asking for years: “Why didn’t I scream?” “Why didn’t I run?” “Why didn’t I kick?” “Was I being complicit?” NO, NO, NO, NO!!!! …
The Freeze Trauma Response
The freeze response is an INVOLUNTARY physiological change in your body and mind when you feel threatened. In a split second, we have established that we can’t run (flight) or defend ourselves (fight), so we freeze. Freezing allows us NOT …
Adaptive Survival Strategies
Let’s talk about Complex PTSD, childhood trauma, and its effects. The fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses are known responses to trauma, and they are ways that the body responds to danger, overseen by the autonomic nervous system. When we …
Can I Widen my “Window of Tolerance”?
The simple answer is YES! With time and focus you CAN widen your window of tolerance. Why is this a good thing? It increases your resilience and keeps your prefrontal cortex (the part responsible for cognitive processing) switched on for …
How To Decrease Hypoarousal
When we are in hypoarousal (when we have gone into freeze and dissociation) we have started to numb and dissociate. To help yourself when you are on this end of the spectrum, you need to stimulate the senses and get …