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However, there is another aspect of this fear response that isn’t talked about as much. It should really be called the “fight, flight, or freeze” response because there’s a good chance that you’ll freeze under pressure rather than act. It’s not uncommon for people to do absolutely nothing when something or someone is threatening them, and it’s a response that you can’t really control. When it happens, it’s like being paralyzed.
At first glance, it sounds like a cruel joke, courtesy of evolution, and is often seen as a sign of personal weakness. In reality, it is neither of those things, though it is a natural biological response to danger that can be beneficial in certain circumstances. Just as we evolved to have an extreme physical reaction to danger that includes fighting or running away, we have evolved to involuntarily stop moving in certain situations, and there are a few reasons why we do this.
One is that when we freeze under pressure, our senses are just as heightened as they would be if we were running or fighting. We freeze to assess the situation before we act. We also freeze in the presence of predators, which is a kind of defense mechanism. If an animal or person is stalking us, by freezing we aren’t making sounds and we aren’t giving away our position.
And finally, humans freeze in situations where they perceive a threat that appears to be too strong for us to fight or run away from. The brain enters a dissociative state that can’t process the environment when you feel like your situation is absolutely hopeless. In this state, you can’t really hear or see what’s around you, and you can’t feel what’s happening to you. Your brain basically forces you to play dead, so that whatever is trying to hurt you will hopefully give up, and so that your psyche is protected from physical and emotional trauma.
Of course, this response isn’t always helpful. A classic example that is found in nature, is how deer often respond to seeing the headlights of oncoming traffic. They freeze when they obviously should run or retreat. Likewise, your brain isn’t a perfect judge of dangerous situations. Sometimes you can freeze when it would be smarter to run or fight (or if you have anxiety or PTSD, you might freeze under totally harmless circumstances). You can get stuck in that mental state, unable to act on avoidable danger.
As for how to overcome this biological response, it’s not an easy task. You don’t really control when you freeze, and your options for slipping out of this state are pretty limited. The only technique scientists have discovered, is taking deep, controlled breaths.
The new findings from research team at Bristol offer helpful insights for better understanding the root of paralyzing fear coming from deep inside the brain. Fear-evoked freezing is a universal response. Luckily, each of us can flex some cognitive muscle to override these innate neurobiological impulses.
Taking a few deep breaths in any fearful situation will stimulate the vagus nerve and the “rest-and-digest” aspects of the parasympathetic nervous system. This relaxation response unclamps the neurobiological grip of fear and allows us to “unfreeze” and move freely.
And that’s pretty much it. Unfortunately, it’s not clear if that will work in all circumstances. If for instance, you’ve reached the point where your mind is dissociating from the outside world to avoid mental trauma, it doesn’t seem likely that taking deep breaths would help you snap out of it. And even if it could, would you want to be aware of a horrific situation that you have no control over?
There’s only one way to avoid the kind of freezing that is caused by situations that make you feel completely helpless. And that is to not be helpless, by preparing yourself for dangerous encounters before they happen. You have to be thoroughly prepared for a wide variety of situations. You have to learn how to save yourself when faced with predatory animals, and you have to train yourself in many different self-defense techniques. And of course, it helps immensely if you have the right tools and weapons for these encounters.
In short, the more options you have to save yourself when your life is in danger, the less likely you are to curl up in a ball and hope for the best when your life is on the line.
Additional Links:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster
What Should You Do When A Bear Attacks?
Hard Core Chicks: Eight Self Defense Tactics Every Woman Should Know
There also seems to be a hybrid of flight and freeze, which is the old “run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off” Hyperventilating, erratic, panic like movements, unable to stop and assess the situation so as to take productive action. I know people who react this way over even minor incidents like misplacing car keys or wallet. Getting them to stop, breath and re-trace their steps seems like an impossible task. I worry how these people will fare when the whole world is out of control.