Freezing for Survival

Yesterday I talked about wanting to run, punch, yell, kick and bite as survival strategies. But there is a second strategy - FREEZE. Freeze is its own unique little bundle of joy. This is the response our body makes when it decides we are too slow to run or too small to fight. It's the "play dead" survival strategy. This is the end of the line for survival strategies.

I have heard the stories over and over. Men and women using their little girl and boy voices to mourn their inaction in the face of abuse as children. They ask: "Why didn't we tell someone? Why didn't I protect my little sister? Why didn't I DO something?" It is unsatisfying and unhelpful so I do not say it, but this I know: if you froze, it was your body making the best choice it knew to make at that time.

If this ever happened to you, I pray you know this. Freezing is our last resort attempt to survive..and if you did this, it worked because you are reading this blog. But...you may still suffer the ill-effects because you know what happened...your stress cycle was not completed.

Afterwards, our bodies still have all those amazing chemicals that we could have used for fighting and fleeing if we had been capable. If our freeze move works, then our body begins to shake and shudder. We do not have a good way to describe this sensation, but it is our body doing what it does. It's the physiological way the body ends the stress cycle. Crying is a good example of this, even if it feels like there is no good reason to cry! There is! Listen to your body!!