This section addresses the following questions:

• Are Freeze and Shutdown the same thing? If not, what’s the difference?
• How does the jagged graph of sharp peaks and troughs relate to freeze?
• How can I tell the difference between dissociation and freeze?
• Is social fear of speaking up a form of functional freeze?
• Is it possible to have parts of one’s body in freeze?
• How can I tell the difference between being in freeze and rest-and-digest/calm parasympathetic? Can I tell from sleep or immune function?
• If there’s known birth trauma is there automatically freeze stuck in the system?
• If a child learns to cope with physical abuse by ‘not feeling it’ is that also freeze?
• How long does it take to come out of functional freeze? Is there an order in which body systems come back online?

The freeze response is a distinct mixed state expression of  sympathetic mobilization (gas pedal) and mid to high dorsal vagal (E-brake) simultaneously dominant. A charge to “GO” and a charge to “STOP” both happening at the same time.  The “deer in the headlights” is the classic representation of the Freeze response. Freeze is often misunderstood to be synonymous with Shutdown, however it is not. 

Shutdown is the response of the dorsal parasympathetic state becoming dominant, which occurs along a continuum as a response when Freeze does not lift.  

One important point – there are differences between an acute freeze response that comes on as part of a real-time reaction to a survival situation in the present moment, such as with a shock trauma, vs. a freeze response that has become embedded as part of our way of being in the world due to unresolved trauma. 

Present moment – When a person with a regulated nervous system that is not living with unresolved survival stress is faced with a survival threat in real time, there is a predictable chain of autonomic responses* – First the sympathetic mobilization energy of fight/flight will kick in; then if that is unsuccessful, the dorsal vagal brake will come on which immobilizes the flight/fight and the freeze response will be activated and dominant. 

When the freeze response first kicks in, there is high sympathetic energy running through the system, so for a few moments we will have BOTH, therefore, a mixed state, which gives us the ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ moment – frozen with shock and fear. Then, if the threat persists, the system will continue to shutdown, also referred to as collapse. This is no longer a mixed state, the high-tone dorsal vagal state is running the show and the system goes into that numb, low to no energy, conservation mode. 

*It’s important to note that those living with unresolved survival stress already in the system may not experience this kind of clear chain of autonomic states when faced with a real-time survival situation. The system may have learned to bypass fight/flight and go directly to freeze, which is a common indication of early developmental  trauma. 

Embedded Freeze and/or shutdown response – An embedded freeze and/or shutdown response can show up in many different ways, depending on where along the freeze-shutdown continuum a person’s system was when the response(s) got stuck, and also depending on if that stuck survival response is due to one acute event, a series of events, or a chronic situation of ongoing, persistent threat. 

If it’s an acute moment of freeze that is stuck in the system, this may present as shock, feeling frozen but terrified, or it may just feel kinda ‘herky-jerky’ – the system being pulled towards the fight/flight side of that mixed state and then pulled towards the collapse side of things, and it may also be accompanied by mental confusion or thoughts and/or behaviors that are influenced by the mixed state. 

If the stuck energy is more in the shutdown side of things the experience may be different. Shutdown serves a physiological function to help mammals not feel the physical pain of being attacked and eaten by a predator — that’s how it evolved, to numb the animal body.  As humans, we have the same benefit of shutdown, to not feel the physical pain. We may also have the experience of dissociation. Dissociation is an automatic shift in conscious awareness to be LESS conscious, less aware of what’s happening, less present. In this way, dissociation serves an adaptive function of shutdown, for the same reason – to not feel pain.  If I’m not aware of being in and with my body it doesn’t hurt so much or so bad. 

Our higher brain enables us to manage these survival energies, often unconsciously,  so an embedded, unresolved shutdown response may manifest as feeling lethargic, hopeless, emotionally numb, or literally numb in parts of the body, with or without dissociation. Or it may be experienced primarily as dissociation: being completely checked out and unable to be embodied much at all.

However, the most common representation that we see in our society of an unresolved, embedded freeze and/or shutdown response is what we call functional freeze. This means it has become normalized and doesn’t necessarily show up in dramatic ways. 

Functional freeze can actually show up as the ability to accomplish TONS of work and achieve a lot, especially in Type A personalities. There are many successful business people and incredible athletes who are living with functional freeze. They are only able to be such high performers by not feeling their bodies and what is happening inside. Generally, they don’t know they are doing this, they just know they prefer to always be on the go. Always doing, producing, moving is often the only way they feel anything at all. In first responders, for instance, this is very common. The ‘rush’ of constantly being in a crisis is the only way for them to feel their bodies.

Functional freeze can also show up as limitations; fear of speaking up, not having boundaries, always giving in to others, lethargy, a feeling of no purpose in life, or no drive to accomplish anything. These are all manifestations of trying to stay as small and quiet as possible. In other words, to remain frozen and shutdown.

It can also show up completely physically. Parts of the body may be numb and have little sensation, or when someone tunes in to feel what’s happening on the inside, there may just be a sense of void, nothing going on. Or it may show up as poor digestion and immune function, and an inability to get a restful night’s sleep, because when we sleep or are deeply resting we are supposed to be in a more nuanced and healthy zone for the Dorsal Vagal branch — which is the low-tone state. This low-tone Dorsal Vagal state supports digestion, barrier-keeping in the guts, cell repair, physical growth, and immune function. So, if we are living with functional freeze, there may be a tendency when we sleep to dip fully into that shutdown response (high-tone Dorsal Vagal) such that we don’t have access to a healthier, low-tone state.

There are many ways freeze/shutdown becomes a normal part of how we react to stress. Usually it is rooted in early/developmental trauma, where the little one could not fight or flee a hostile, neglectful, chronically stressful, or misattuned environment, and so the system perceived that survival response as the only option left, and then eventually just starts to default to freeze/shutdown when stress enters the picture. 

It can also happen because of traumatic births or surgical procedures early on, but it’s not a guarantee; if the caregivers are healthy and attuned then the little one’s system will be able to bounce back from pretty much anything. It can also happen later in life through physical abuse that can’t be escaped or defended against; an older child’s system may still learn to numb out as a way to defend.

There is no one timeline or sequence to coming out of freeze/shutdown, it will be different for everybody. One thing is the same though, in that it does take time. This isn’t something that happens in a session, or a week, or a month. Generally we are looking at months or years, with improvements and gradual changes in physiological function that happen slowly. 

Some may start to notice they simply feel more alive or feel more sensation, or have more energy or better boundaries. They may start to speak up for themselves. Sleep may improve and start to be more restful, or immune problems may start to clear up. Digestion may get better. Basically, physiological function will slowly improve over time, and we see this in improvements in the systems that have been compromised, and in the behaviours, thoughts, and beliefs that have their roots in the unresolved freeze/shutdown response.