2 - Impulses and the Freeze Response

Q: 2 – Impulses and the Freeze Response

This section addresses the following questions: Are repressed impulses the same as shutdown/freeze? If you are in shutdown, does it still make sense to follow your impulses, even if they are to sleep and stay alone? Not being allowed by others, or not allowing ourselves, to follow our impulses can definitely be a major cause of unresolved freeze in the system. And then, not being able to hear or follow our impulses can also be an expression of that same shutdown. If we are living with a lot of shutdown and our impulse is to sleep all the time and isolate ourselves, then these are most likely not completely authentic impulses, but are instead ways we have found to stay safe and manage our trauma (though this may also be intertwined with one’s authentic nature if they are more introverted). We don’t want to just ignore these by overriding our fear and forcing ourselves to be social or more active, but we DO need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone a bit, and this is well supported by doing good trauma work, both in this program, and also maybe with some one-on-one work. Having a safe, therapeutic alliance can be a good way to start pushing at our edges in a context of safety and attunement.

This section addresses the following questions:

Are repressed impulses the same as shutdown/freeze?
If you are in shutdown, does it still make sense to follow your impulses, even if they are to sleep and stay alone?

Not being allowed by others, or not allowing ourselves, to follow our impulses can definitely be a major cause of unresolved freeze in the system. And then, not being able to hear or follow our impulses can also be an expression of that same shutdown.

If we are living with a lot of shutdown and our impulse is to sleep all the time and isolate ourselves, then these are most likely not completely authentic impulses, but are instead ways we have found to stay safe and manage our trauma (though this may also be intertwined with one’s authentic nature if they are more introverted). We don’t want to just ignore these by overriding our fear and forcing ourselves to be social or more active, but we DO need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone a bit, and this is well supported by doing good trauma work, both in this program, and also maybe with some one-on-one work. Having a safe, therapeutic alliance can be a good way to start pushing at our edges in a context of safety and attunement.