Are You Stuck in Freeze Mode? How to Turn off the Freeze Response
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The freeze response is a survival instinct stored deep in your brain. It’s an automatic response to overwhelming danger - or at least perceived danger. When fighting your way out or running away seems impossible, the brain turns on the freeze response as the last resort.
This is not something conscious. It’s not something you plan or choose; it’s something that your deep limbic brain triggers much faster than thinking. And it can be hard to break out of the freeze response. So in this video, we’re going to talk about one of the things I do in session with my clients to help them work through it.
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Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC, and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction.
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe
If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.
Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC
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Music licensed from www.Bensound.com or Artlist.io
Images from Freepik.com (premium license), Pixabay, or Wikimedia commons
Do you want to learn How to Process Emotions and improve your Mental Health? Sign up for a Therapy in a Nutshell Membership, you’ll get access to all of Emma’s courses, workbooks, and a Live Q and A with 100’s of exclusive videos: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership
The freeze response is a survival instinct stored deep in your brain. It’s an automatic response to overwhelming danger – or at least perceived danger. When fighting your way out or running away seems impossible, the brain turns on the freeze response as the last resort.
This is not something conscious. It’s not something you plan or choose; it’s something that your deep limbic brain triggers much faster than thinking. And it can be hard to break out of the freeze response. So in this video, we’re going to talk about one of the things I do in session with my clients to help them work through it.
Looking for affordable online therapy? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell
Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_campaign=03122020&utm_medium=Description&utm_source=YouTube
Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell
Sign up for my newsletter: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/free-resources
Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books
Check out my podcast, Therapy in a Nutshell: https://tinpodcast.podbean.com/
Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC, and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life’s direction.
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe
If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.
Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC
—-
Music licensed from www.Bensound.com or Artlist.io
Images from Freepik.com (premium license), Pixabay, or Wikimedia commons
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Hello, I just want to hurt the monsters that have hurt me, you're probally thinking I'm very young since I used the description, monsters but no. You seem like a very kind person. So many damaged people are in prison and I realize that every time I let my mind go back to what happend, different tramas, I am still allowing those monsters to hurt me. I compare myself to a roley poley bug 🙂
Is there anyone else that can burst into tears at ANY moment during the day without any trigger?
I don't know what anybody else is finding when they try or if this is just my city? Or just my country? But it sure is frustrating to me that the only therapist who seem to really have a grip on trauma for abuse victims are not actually accessible to me in their offices, only online it doesn't work this way. This is an avenue for disseminating information, but it can't go much further than that.
My…i never imagined that living with a verbally abusive, extremely narcissistic woman would lead to this. Although i thought staying in the relationship would be best for my kids, I now realize I have to save myself in order to save them.
And then we started shaking our arms and stomping and dancing and then people started saying "you go girl" and " you're so brave" and it was so much fun and we laughed and laughed and cried and hugged each other and I was cured.
This is me when I need to get something done. One of my primary caregivers used force as a tool to get me to do my homework, I felt trapped in that moment and now this makes sense to me why I wouldn't be able to say or do anything, and get beaten up even more because of it. It makes sense now why I freeze up when I need to complete something, the whole feeling of needing to do some work makes it feel like I'm in danger and trapped, paralyzing me to such an extent that I can't think, I also start fawning when I am so called "procrastinating". Although it makes so much sense that it's not procrastinating at all. Thank you so much for this valuable information. I will definitely use it to do meditation on this and hopefully move out of this.
Thanks for the video! Just want to share that I've had several times of freeze response when working with toxic colleagues or in a toxic culture. I remember there was one time that I even sat for more than 6 hours on the chair, unable to move or do anything. The very first strategy of engaging the body is already extremely difficult for me.
Literally the most life changing thing I have done for myself is implementing intense exercise in my moments of chronic-anxiety -freeze. This is all so valuable. Thank you!
I was beaten by my parents for the entirety of my childhood- I was told by my mother every day for many many years that I was a mistake and I shouldn’t have been born and I hate you – my father would beat my ass until it was purple for no reason whatsoever? My family was 11 children and I can’t remember I single day that there wasn’t screaming ,crying, fighting and beatings- my mom would slap you so hard that you would flip over and land on your head- for no reason whatsoever!? I had 6 older brothers who all got into legal trouble with the police- so I can see why my parents hated me?? My 1st day in high school in my first class my teacher asked me about my brother’s- he immediately assumed that I was just like my brothers- he called me out and tried to make me sit in the front of the class in the middle because of what my brothers did?? I told him to fuck off and walked out- the amazing thing is that I over came all of that and became a very successful person and entrepreneur- a worked for a boiler company for 26 years and made a very good living! I got married at 26 years old and had two children in the next few years- my wife is now still very beautiful!!
Wow!-all I have to do is go rock climbing to release my freeze response! I fucking can’t get out of bed and I’m going to go rock climbing? That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard!!?! Please go back to school and give proper guidance and advice!!
It's really frustrating when you're stuck in a situation You can't escape from yourself yet.You have no support or family or friends. I always put other people before myself. I trusted the wrong people. And now i'm thirty one years old, Sleeping on a couch, In someone else's apartment, With not even a dollar in my bank account, No car, No social life, And barely any food in the fridge. And unable to work a normal job because my body is all fucked up. So basically I feel totally trapped, and I'm sorry but I really don't think there is anything that I can say to myself or in my head that is going to make anything feel better. I think my goal is to learn how to disassociate from the immense amount of shame and guilt that I carry because of the situation that I meI think my goal is to learn how to disassociate from the immense amount of shame and guilt that I carry because of the situation that im in, Until I eventually die And can be at peace
First there is zero evidence to suggest evolution on any level. In fact the evidence that exists is that geneticists have proven conclusively that human DNA has been corrupted more every generation for the last 50,000-100,000 years but that’s according to unreliable dating but still proves the point mankind started perfect and devolved every generation since. Never wondered why humanity is garbage? That’s a clue. You discarded any perceived credibility as soon as you said “ancient LT evolved brains”. The end. Everything you have to say is at best highly questionable. You can’t argue against DNA samples taken from every available generation for the last 50,000 years
Entirely helpful this very moment I'm in. Your communication style and achievable, grounded advice and gentle tone assists and resonates with me so much more than really any other individual, in relation to the specific areas I've sought to understand and heal from. You're amazing and I'm no huge religious buff but you've honestly been a complete blessing to my mental state and I want to send you my thanks and show my gratitude. ❤
I am unable to respond and prefer to keep quiet to a point that I do not greet anyone most of the times and I am now middle aged. I have spent all my life this way.
I really needed this thank you
Thx alot
I felt something strange
When I am alone n I sleep in middle of my sleep I woke Up by opening my eyes (actually my eyes are closed but I can watch) and I want to sit but I can't move for few seconds .
Then my eyes opens.
It usually happened w me .
So I avoided sleeping when I am Alone at home .
I feel freez and can't move my body but I can see even w my close eyes .
Wow, so not feeling joy at a party or a very busy event could be my freeze response, I was thinking this was a sign of depression. Basically, I'm probably just scared to be too enthusiastic and let it show. 😮
Background first
Actual Info at 6:00
Wow, this really explains so much. Like some of the other comments, I think I have had this all my life. I had therapy for many years but you have explained this so well. I always thought freeze response was much more severe but I didnt realise it could effect us in the more subtle ways that you have explained. I think I do this constantly. Thanks so much
Clients=Patient
I've been 3 months like that, I'm not answering to my friends, family, my best friend, not feeling with energy.
Im diagnosed with autism and ptsd from being trafficked as a kid and i dunno if my flat effect is from trauma or autism.
I'm sure I've been like this since infancy. My father confessed when I was a few months old he couldn't get me to stop crying so he smacked me hard enough on my back I lost breath. 😭 Then in 2017 I was at my Mother's side as she died from hyperkalemia, another traumatizing event to experience. 💔 I feel disconnected and tired with life. 🫂
Is this applicable to speaking to people? I started a new job where I have to explain processes to people, kind of in a salesman type way. Sometimes I just freeze, stutter, or repeat the same things because I feel like my anxiety is taunting me saying "you're gonna screw up and they're gonna think you're weird". I feel that the calls being recorded, sometimes being sleep deprived, lack of confidence, the lack of interest in the topic I am presenting are contributing factors in my freezing, stuttering, or repeating things. Anyone else experience this? Sometimes when I'm speaking to a group of people like at a dinner table it happens too… I have in the past acted like I had a tickle in my throat and started coughing to distract them from the fact that I froze… sometimes it gives my brain enough time to snap out of it… I am honestly not sure if anyone even notices… but to me, it feels weird and embarrassing… anyone go through this? It almost feels like I'm mildly blacking out… I don't loose consciousness but in the moment it kind of feels like I'm in a dream or on a different planet… It doesn't happen all the time but when it does it freaks me out. I feel like it's actually getting worse with age (I'm 32). I sometimes I am terrified that this is a precurser to dementia or Alzheimers 🙁 I really do feel that my serious chronic insomnia has a lot to do with this though in addition to my anxiety… maybe trauma? Yes, I have a sleep doctor and have had two sleep studies… I have plmd that wakes me up through the night and problems getting to sleep… I've had sleep issues since I was 12… I have tried so many meds… nothing works well.. I also have a neurologist (for a different issue of neuropathy)… my brain mris look fine… anyone else experience some or all of what I experience or am I alone in my weird world? Lol