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.

FAQs Archive - Page 19 of 21 - SmartBody SmartMind

Q: 3 - How do I nurture my system into knowing it is safe to be calm?

This may sound over-simplistic, but it’s true that really it just comes with practice. Keep practicing the lessons in the course, particularly the Orientation exercises, Follow Your Impulse, and being aware of, and using, your resources. When we have lived with unresolved trauma for a long time it takes time, practice, and the right tools to communicate new information to our system.

Q: 2 - In a session with an SE therapist, I partially completed an early event by stomping, and initially felt release, but then felt increased stiffness. Is this usual?

Yes, this is not unusual. If we complete a procedural memory which has been wanting us to do something to protect ourselves, this can help the muscles and fascia come out of bracing, which is like a kind of sustained preparation to act. Also, it may be helpful to revisit this action in a slower, gentler way -- going through the same kinds of motions and images/emotions, but with more awareness and less force.

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.

Q: 2 - How does it feel to have the gas and the brake on at the same time?

This depends on each person. When one is living with freeze and/or shutdown (with the E-brake on) that automatically means there is also big sympathetic activation in the system (the gas), because remember -- in a real-time survival response, freeze only comes on after fight/flight has been unsuccessful, so if freeze has become stuck in the system due to trauma you can be sure there is also fight/flight stuck in the system, though one may not always feel that if freeze or shutdown has become the more dominant state. It can act like a big, heavy, lid that keeps all that underlying sympathetic energy locked away. The most common thing we see when someone has been living with both unresolved freeze and fight/flight in their system for a long time is autoimmune disorders, what we call Syndromes (fibromyalgia, chronic pain, Crohn's, IBS, etc.). This is because the nervous system is so darn exhausted and confused! We have these big survival energies always running in the background, and over time that wreaks havoc with all the functions the autonomic system is supposed to support: immune function, heart rate variability, breath, digestion, cell repair, etc. This freeze and/or freeze fluctuation with high fight/flight experience can also show up behaviourally or emotionally. Often labeled as Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder, as nervous system experts we understand these as expressions of always being ON or OFF / HIGH or LOW, HYPER or HYPO, is essentially the system flip-flopping between high Sympathetic arousal and high dorsal vagal Parasympathetic arousal. I.e. Freeze. This may also show up more mildly as episodes of either anxiety, depression or both.

Q: 6 - After the lesson I felt surreal, a bit dazed, and out of my body. This shifted into feeling calm and truly open and expansive - feelings I’ve never felt before! When I got up I felt a bit woozy, like I'm seeing and feeling too much? Any insight on what might have been happening?

This sounds like you might have done a bit too much, but that it also introduced you to a positive state of expansion. This is okay, it just means you will probably need practice and smaller doses over time to really integrate that change. It could also be that you really had a profound shift in your nervous system and it will integrate, but you will feel a bit weird and out of it for a while as a result of that process. If the after effects subside within 24 hours that’s generally a good sign that the system was able to integrate the changes.

Q: 5 - Is a big sigh different than a spontaneous breath?

Yes. A sigh is an exhale and the spontaneous breath we are talking about comes on the inhale. A sigh may be the exhalation of a spontaneous breath though. There can also be deep breaths that are actually a management strategy, which happen because something is arising in our system that isn’t comfortable, and these are often followed by sighs. It can take practice to discern the difference, but the spontaneous breath we are talking about has a quality of expansion and true relief, along with a sense that something has shifted. A deep breath that is being used to help keep something packaged up will feel more like we are pushing something down, and then there’s relief because we pushed it down -- that’s the best way I can describe it.

Q: 4 - During this lesson I found that at some parts of my scanning, my eyes would blink rapidly. Does this mean something?

Well, it could just be dust in your eye, but often yes, it means something. :) This can be a sign that something is moving and shifting in the nervous system. The best thing is to simply allow it to happen, it usually won’t go on for very long.

3 – How do I nurture my system into knowing it is safe to be calm?

3 – How do I nurture my system into knowing it is safe to be calm?Irene Lyon2019-11-11T12:12:40-08:00

2 – In a session with an SE therapist, I partially completed an early event by stomping, and initially felt release, but then felt increased stiffness. Is this usual?

2 – In a session with an SE therapist, I partially completed an early event by stomping, and initially felt release, but then felt increased stiffness. Is this usual?Irene Lyon2019-11-11T12:12:02-08:00

1 – The Vagus Nerve and its Functions

1 – The Vagus Nerve and its FunctionsIrene Lyon2019-11-13T10:35:35-08:00

2 – Impulses and the Freeze Response

2 – Impulses and the Freeze ResponseIrene Lyon2019-11-13T10:34:07-08:00

1 – Following Impulses and its Impact on Others

1 – Following Impulses and its Impact on OthersIrene Lyon2022-10-12T10:21:22-07:00

2 – How does it feel to have the gas and the brake on at the same time?

2 – How does it feel to have the gas and the brake on at the same time?Irene Lyon2024-09-01T10:10:12-07:00

1 – All About Freeze

1 – All About FreezeIrene Lyon2024-09-02T15:26:03-07:00

6 – After the lesson I felt surreal, a bit dazed, and out of my body. This shifted into feeling calm and truly open and expansive – feelings I’ve never felt before! When I got up I felt a bit woozy, like I’m seeing and feeling too much? Any insight on what might have been happening?

6 – After the lesson I felt surreal, a bit dazed, and out of my body. This shifted into feeling calm and truly open and expansive – feelings I’ve never felt before! When I got up I felt a bit woozy, like I’m seeing and feeling too much? Any insight on what might have been happening?oddjar2019-11-05T12:09:28-08:00

5 – Is a big sigh different than a spontaneous breath?

5 – Is a big sigh different than a spontaneous breath?oddjar2019-11-13T10:21:50-08:00

4 – During this lesson I found that at some parts of my scanning, my eyes would blink rapidly. Does this mean something?

4 – During this lesson I found that at some parts of my scanning, my eyes would blink rapidly. Does this mean something?oddjar2019-03-09T10:32:26-08:00