Understanding Functional Freeze

Most people have heard of the fight-flight-freeze response triggered by stress and trauma. It's our body’s survival and fear signals telling us that danger is coming. However, most of the time we are reacting to a perceived threat based on past circumstances or something that is stressful but not life altering, however our body doesn't know the difference and reacts to it anyway.

Well, when our nervous systems are so overloaded and on overdrive for so long or we've experienced trauma time and time again - sometimes we experience what's called “functional freeze” which is your nervous system getting so overwhelmed and exhausted chronically that it then actually shuts down. So particularly if you feel chronically anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed constantly during the day - it might turn into “functional freeze” to help get you through the rest of the day or you crash at night and experience all of this. Or this may be your automatic response to a stress or trauma trigger.

 Here are some signs that you may be in functional freeze:

• Experiencing numbness, or what feels like a lack of feeling/emotion

• Dissociating - feeling out of body or like you are watching yourself

• Zoning out and not being fully present

• Brain fog and trouble concentrating

• Lots of fatigue, chronic exhaustion, low energy

• Struggling with motivation and getting things done

• Having lots of racing thoughts about what you should be doing or shaming yourself but still not being able to find the energy to get things done

• Wanting to numb out and self soothe often like doom scroll, binge eat, drink wine at the end of the day for that specific purpose

• Decision fatigue and trouble with making decisions

• Isolating and withdrawing from people

• Mind going blank or memory issues

• Feeling wired but unable to move much

If this applies to you, please know you are not “lazy” or “unmotivated” - clearly there is something going on! You are under so much stress, nervous system overdrive, or you are currently experiencing a trauma response and this is your way of coping and protecting yourself.

When you experience this type of response one of the most important things you can do is tap into your 5 senses to awaken your arousal system. You can also do some light moving to wake your body up.

Here is how to cope with functional freeze:

• Notice 5 things you see, 4 things you feel, 3 things you hear, 2 things you smell,  you taste

• Pick an essential oil to smell or a nice lotion that has a scent

• Drink peppermint tea

• Yin yoga or light stretching

• Draw or paint

• Stand on one foot and try balancing

• Sing or hum a song or hum the phrase “voo” while plugging your ears

• Light a candle and have a piece of chocolate or candy

• Go for a walk outside and looking at all the colors

• Splash cold water on your face

• Listen to music that uplifts you

In this type of work it's not only important to have the tools to get back into your body and out of this functional freeze -  but noticing it's happening in the first place is huge. And extremely important not to shame yourself for it or call yourself names. Know that your nervous system is responding and giving you a message to what is going on.

The type of therapy I do around this involves learning what the triggers are that you got here, learning to identify when its happening and what it feels like in the body, and then building up more of those resources above for yourself to get back into your body. Going to therapy itself is helpful in getting your back into your window of tolerance. And if you are looking to release and process trauma you may be carrying that has put you in a functional freeze response - EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) can be helpful in really processing whats happened to you and releasing whats still been carried. I am trained in EMDR and find that its a nice addition to regular talk therapy and can get to the deeper root of whats going on. When you pair this work with healing your nervous system and using some other body based approaches - thats when I find true healing and change happening.

If you would like to work together on functional freeze, trauma, anxiety, depression, or burn out whether through regular talk therapy (with a somatic approach) or bringing in EMDR, I’d be honored to support!
Email alyssakushnerlcsw@gmail.com or schedule a free 15 min phone call. Follow my instagram page for more learning, tools, and inspiration.