Since we, as human beings, are complex creatures, we have sophisticated ways of dealing with life. Our basic survival “instincts” however, are very similar to those of the animal kingdom.
The 3 basic responses to a perceived danger are: fight, flight, and freeze. These are automatic responses of the body which are not mediated by our higher intelligence. One reason for this is that when we are in danger we often have to react quickly, otherwise whatever is threatening us might actually harm us (at least that’s how it feels).
These basic defensive responses can get stuck on ON (i.e. the person is always angry or running “away”) or stuck on OFF (the person is unable to defend him or herself or get out of harms way).
Because, by definition, trauma happens so fast, often we do not have time to complete a flight or fight response, but simply get overwhelmed by what is happening and go into freeze. Freeze is the inhibition of the energy of flight and fight.
Freeze is a useful (if apparently strange) “defensive” measure. However, it is a fact that fighting or running are sometimes dangerous things to do. The freeze response is biologically time limited – when the danger is over our systems “un-thaw” and we continue on our way.
Unfortunately, if the freeze response get stuck on ON then the person can get stuck in a state of dissociation which then continues beyond the danger and becomes an enduring reality – they become permanently dissociated.
If someone has a highly developed freeze response then it usually comes from a very early trauma when they didn’t have access to fight or flight as an option of defense (babies can neither run away from nor fight their attackers). Someone with very early trauma is much more vulnerable to later ones because their system freezes automatically (without fight or flight available to them even as options of how to respond).
