Freeze Response: How Your Body Reacts to Stress
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- Are you ever so overwhelmed that you shut down emotionally or physically-or both? Maybe you have a crucial school or work project due, but it’s so daunting that you stare at your computer screen for hours. Perhaps you have a high conflict relationship that you need to end, but every time you try to have the difficult conversation, you can’t even speak.
We often mistake this freeze response for some type of personal or moral failing-maybe I’m just not strong enough? But to feel paralyzed in the face of fear is a primitive nervous system response where your body shuts down as a last-ditch attempt to avoid perceived danger.
Psychologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Stephen Porges documented this shut down response as part of his polyvagal theory, first published in the 1990s. When the vagus nerve is stimulated and parasympathetic response is pro-social and marked by rest and peace, Porges calls this the ventral vagal response. While a complete shutdown is a dorsal vagal response.
VIDEO CONTENTS
0:00 Polyvagal theory
00:51 Autonomic nervous system
01:12 Dr. Stephen Porges + theory
02:21 Freeze response
06:50 How to break freeze response
07:34 Further research
DISCLAIMER - Please do not use this video to diagnose or treat an illness or injury. Check with a trusted healthcare provider before starting any self-care routine.
WHAT IS POLYVAGAL THEORY?
Polyvagal theory bifurcates the parasympathetic branch of our autonomic nervous system into the classic rest and digest and a lesser known but crippling “freeze” response. The dorsal vagal or “low vagal” response is associated with feelings of helplessness, dissociation, and an inability to act. When we feel safe and socially connected, the ventral vagal branch of the vagus nerve is activated, a “high vagal” response where we feel peaceful, calm, and balanced.
RESEARCH FOR REFERENCE
Dr. Stephen Porges: www.stephenporges.com/
Polyvagal Theory: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Deb Dana and Stephen Porges’ book: www.amazon.com/Polyvagal-Theo...
Deb Dana podcast interview: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast...
CASES REFERENCED
Aurora shooting: www.cbsnews.com/pictures/powe...
Kitty Genovese: www.history.com/topics/crime/...
WANT MORE?
* Vagus nerve article: www.yogabody.com/vagus-nerve-...
* 21-Day Yoga Breathing Challenge (on-demand): www.yogabody.com/breathing/
* Lucas’ podcast: www.LucasRockwoodShow.com
* Main site: www.yogabody.com/
Like this video? Please subscribe for more czcams.com/users/YOGABODY_Of...
Got a question? Please post down below.
#PolyvagalTheory #VagusNerve #StressRelief
I love the way you deliver information as well as your videos that walk through proper movement, etc. I am a trained practitioner for the Safe and Sound Protocol that was developed by Stephen Porges . I feel polyvagal theory is hugely important to helping people connect inside, outside and between, as Deb Dana says. Polyvagal Theory is based on the biological imperative of connection. We must connect to survive. It works really well with yoga as yoga also helps us connect with our bodies and become more regulated through our breath.
I agree Alexandra, I am also a trained provider for the SSP and as I was watching the video I loved how Lucas explained the PVT so well using real life situations. Then, I was thinking about a client I was working with today - although virtually - who I was connecting with and having a lot of one on one interactive time. It is so important to not only be in the same presence with others but to look them in the eye, validate that you hear what they are saying and recognize their presence. That is what is needed for healing - a therapeutic presence - it is more effective than any specific treatment. The SSP delivers "safety" which I love. We all need to feel safe to heal and thrive.
I basically froze from a traumatic incident 6 years ago and have been more or less in this state since. As you mentioned near the end of your video I have watched my life blow up as I stand and watch. Unable to do anything. I keep working on it (with professional help) but it's devastating. Thanks for the video.
This really struck a cord with me. As someone breaking free of a 3 year horribly abusive intimate relationship, I find myself with a disturbing lack of social connections. I know, logically, most were severed strategically as a way to isolate me from any outside support. However, trying to rebuild these is proving to be a whole new source of anxiety.
So, now I have 2 sources of stress causing my shut down response. This video helped me understand that I am not alone in this reaction. That realization, by itself, will encourage me in making and rebuilding social relationships.
For now, I have faith that some Stretching exercises, along with vagal work, will help me get to a state where I can function in social situations enough to enable me to be around people again without having an anxiety attack.
Thank you so very much for this, and all the videos I've seen on this channel so far. I've kinda been binging for a minute, absorbing as much info as I can.
(Yes, I'm working on my recoverywith a licensed Psychologist on a regular schedule.)
I thought dorsal vagal shutdown was actually different than freeze- that freeze is actually a mixed state where we are internally hyper alert but physically frozen. Dorsal vagal shutdown is numb, emotionless, zombie like or catatonic. Anyone else hear this ? In other words freeze is still a sympathetic state
Yes, freeze is a sympathetic nervous system response that is different than collapse or shutdown from the dorsal vagal response of the parasympathetic nervous system. This explains it well
nicabm-stealthseminar.s3.amazonaws.com/Infographics/Freeze+vs+Shutdown/NICABM-InfoG-freeze-vs-shutdown.jpg
yes I read this on websites
Get no argument from me
You are correct.
If you find this video helpful, you might like the other vagus nerve videos on my channel. Thanks for your support! - Lucas @ YOGABODY
Thank you for bringing up this information. I have been feeling really stuck in life and lately after all the incidents that have been going on in my family I feel more and more distant and as if I am helping to the cause of wanting to shut down. I recently moved to a new state and I don't have no connection with anyone, instead I feel like I am cutting off all the connections without realizing that I need them to feel better. I have been blaming depression and anxiety which at times I feel they are the reasons why I don't want to make connections, but I have noticed that I feel much better after connecting. I will bring this up to my therapist and work my way out of it now that I have this clear insight you just provided. Thank you so much! 🙏
Nice and easy and filtering out the advanced science to allow for wider understanding.
Thanks Lucas. As always, valuable information, presented in a way that’s succinct and easy to comprehend.
Hi Lucas, thank you again for another great video. I believe I was in a frozen state for many years of my life due to childhood trauma, it is also important to know that this frozen state is also a defense mechanism , if we allow ourselves to shake it off whenever the body is ready.
A few years ago I discovered the polyvagal theory thanks to the book of Stanley Rosenberg, “Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve”. This book has changed my journey on both a personal and a professional level, I truly recommend it.
Hi Sarah - oh yes, I recently found Stanley Rosenberg's work myself, really great...
Lucas: A timely topic and great delivery. Thank you for providing important information that can help all of us.
Thank you for this video and the sources/links you provided! Thank you very much!
I have been diagnosed with a lumbar hernia after a stupid home accident recently. Your videos have been a real helping hand since then and I take this opportunity to send you my thanks. Although I am not a doctor I can feel that you could not be more coherent in your presentations. Cheers from Brazil !
Thank you Lucas, fantastic information as usual. I appreciate the education 🙏🏻
This is information is definitely ring the bell. I feel freeze in almost every adrenaline situation in my life, meanwhile while my brain is active. Lately I stuck in ski slope during the light storm and only positive self talk helped me to keep moving. I realize how un useful this response to me would appreciate any practice advices besides you already gave for overcoming and switching this pattern
Thats the story of my life long depression. After nearly dying during my birth, this was the damage. With the polyvagal theory finally I could explain the origin of my disease. Thanks for uploading!
I’m glad to hear it helped you like it did for me. A couple weeks ago I was undergoing a severe bout of anxiety, and his videos have helped me better understand/regulate my stress under my current circumstances.
@@Cramhead43 I am happy for you mate😊
Wow! How did you find out that you almost died when you were being born?
This struck a chord with me. I was born very premature and learned from my therapist that this can cause some people to be born with anxiety (born into fight or flight trying to survive). Never understood why I was always anxious since I was young. Now understanding this makes me feel so much better. Still have a long way to go tho. Hope you are well.
Thanks for this presentation.
Amazing, heard of the theory already, amazing presentation, thanks Lukas! I had a situation in my life where my hairs where burning in a disco among a lot of people, nobody helped except one person, all the rest was frozen starring at me. I didn t know what happened, until the men from behind but bear over my head and then took me in his arms and said : it is everthing ok! And started to explain to me what happened. I was shoked about nobody help me directly. By the way it was so fast that I lost only some long hairs but nothing seriously on my skull was hurt.
Such a great explanation. You are a really great communicator
Thank you very much for sharing.
Your explanation really helped me understand this Thank you
Fabulous and helpful for sure!
One thing you might make note of at the start of the video and warn people watching - a trauma/activation warning about the image of the auditorium shooting at the school. As a trauma informed practitioner, I feel it would be supportive to those whose nervous system might react to seeing it. I haven’t been in that situation, however, I did feel my body react 😢.
Thank you for your amazing informative and supportive videos. They are so helpful. ❤
Totally agree, I was attempting to reference older events (rather than recent) but you're absolutely right...
@@YOGABODY.Official 🙏🏼😊
so helpful!!!! thank you so much. yes, i have been feeling overwhelmed by work to the point that i just want to crawl up and hide, feeling unable to handle the demands, losing perspective, struggling through deadlines, working long hours and a feeling that it is never enough, sometimes i just wish i could quit. luckily i have a therapist. just knowing that we had our appointment today helped me through the day. after the appointment i was feeling not so much relieved but empowered. exactly like the story you told. a feeling that yes, i can take action. no longer paralized and overwhelmed but calm and determined. more focused. what you explained makes a lot of sense! brilliant!
Thanks Gi Gi!
Thanks for explaining ...it does give me a better understanding of what I feel going on
Glad it was helpful, Suzanne!
Your videos are very helpful for my pain
I am so much what he mentioned... Useless to the world I am.. But I can change and I will.
I am definitely going through anxiety at the moment and it's getting worse and my body is letting me know for sure. Trying deep breathing at times, trying to stay calm, going to see a counsellor and taking some anxiety medication to help relieve the symptoms for now.
I tried vagus nerve exercises, breathing from him and Brain education tv., which It was helpful to me. Plus my therapist recommended coloring pictures, meditation, relaxation walking at park.
Thank you Lucas, that was really interesting. After the lockdown of covid and being isolated, I found this has become a normal state. When I got covid, that seemed to suck the last bit of energy and enthusiasm out of me. Now, things are good at work when I connect, but in the school holidays those connections end and I stop. And I just can't start again; until I have to go to work. This explains a lot and I think I can find a way out now. Thank you again.
Thanks for watching, Susan.
Very helpful Lucas, it's happening right now. I've got to submit case studies for one of my training course certificates. The dead line is approaching and I'm in that freeze state. I've done the case studies practise with clients, it's just a matter of getting it on paper and handing them to the examiner! I've sat and stared at the screen now for almost 3 weeks, feeling hopeless and thinking why can't I just do this, write up notes? I've connected today with one of the other students asking if she did hers and explained how I feel, we chatted and realised that I'm on the same page as her not chapters behind and what she submitted was on the same lines as what I was thinking in my head to write about my clients. I've done my first case study and will aim to complete everything by the end of the week. You are right it's just like being a deer stuck in headlights, this is exactly how I was feeling. Really interesting.
You'll do great... go go !
Thankbyou
Glad you liked it, Nancy!
- YOGABODY Team
I have Asperger's syndrom, cptsd, and chronic illness and depression. I'm 55, i worked for 23 years, than i burned out. The autistic's symptoms came more and more frequent. These weeks have been particularly difficult, i freeze / have a shutdown almost every day. I'm catatonic, even if the position hurts, i almost don't blink, I can't speak, i can hear people like in another room understanding nothing.
Two weeks ago, I was with my family for the birthday of one of my nefew, the exhaustion, the pain from my body, etc I shut down, a fork in my hand, barely able to breathe. It tokks usuelly 1 hour before recovering but that day, the dog of my sister in law, who haven't seen me before, came from the house straight towards me, put his paws on my legs pushing my hand to be cuddled. The freeze, catatonia ,shutdown.. had stopped within a minute.
My example is not like yours, but my point is that the contact of that dog took me back in reality. (I'm not aware of the different roles of sympathic or vagal system)
It would be cool to hear your take on fasting.
This was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much!
Hope it's useful, Mellie!
Yes! Polyvagal Theory!
The story you used about Kitty was used in the Boondock Saints movie as an example of a kind of evil, looking at it like this changes the meaning of that event. And I now know that it's based on a real event!
Really appreciated the neurological explanation of the freeze response. The simplistic telling of the story of Kitty Genovese, though, has been debunked. There were a number of folks who called the police, but the police attributed it as a domestic dispute or didn't respond at all. While it is true bystanders likely can have a "freeze" response, as a social psychologist who teaches the Genovese case, I suggest you extract that from your explanation.
Good video
Thanks for watching, Taffin!
00:57 Gas pedal ? Brake pedal ? I use the same foot for both!! Lol
Yet what have we been here since 2020? Social distance, social distance....
Thanks for such inforative video. My hand gets freezed while playing certain shots in Snooker. Does vagus nerve theory applicable here?
Hello Sandeep - very unlikely it's related, sounds like a muscular cramp.
Interviews, that happens to during Interviews, when I'm left alone, on paper on an exam I do well, then the interview comes, and just go into freeze mode after I get asked a question I Know!!!!! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
7:17 "that might mean paying someone to connect with you". Yes I do this with Roxy and Kandi actually. They are my therapists.
👍
@@YOGABODY.Official Thanks for your videos, they are very informative. It is worth to note that the vagus nerve can also be stimulated through non-physical approaches such as meditative practices. You can feel the vagus nerve activation through the relaxation of your eyes (as opposed to the tense eyes that you get when you are stressed), because the nerves that contract and relax your eyes are also connected to the vagus nerve. This is why Eye Movement desensitization and reprocessing is imortant to reset the vagus nerve.
👍
My freeze response manifests in my stomach and chest. I had an “attack” yesterday that left me barely able to move to the toilet, only after trying Lamaze-type breathing, where I dry vomited and then had to lie down until my distended stomach finally relaxed and shrank back down to size. It was about 30 minutes before I could function again. How do you socially when you’re by yourself?
Do you think that to a certain extent written communication can break the freeze response? Like for example texting? Or only eye-contact?
Thank you so much for this video. I am having freezing responses at the moment because of the construction work in the next door flat. For some reason the loud noises and the tremors in the floor elicit a strong fear response. I feel very scared, even though there is nothing to be scared of. Still I freeze. The construction work starts very early in the morning so I am in bed when it starts. And then I get scared and can't get up. It is so eerie. I can not get up. Your tip is great, but I live alone, so. Hm. Isn't there anything else that helps, some breathing exercise maybe? I mean, I already knew that I need to get outside as quickly as possible. Now I know it even more. But I also understand the freezing response better, so let's see.
Sounds like the noise might be stirring up so unresolved trauma from earlier in your life you may not have dealt with. Very interesting. Hope you're doing well.
@@quickpstuts412 thank you! Yes that is very true. I am not sure yet, about my connecting trauma. But for sure there is a transgenerational trauma. My granddad was many things but also a violent drunk. When he came home, after drinking, he trashed things and was very violent to my grandmother. My own mother, a little girl back then, was scared beyond believe in her bed, while hearing all this. I never witnessed this myself. But my body seems to remember it anyhow. Thanks for beeing interested :) By the way, the construction work has thankfully ended by now.
Hi Lucas - I love your channel, but I have some criticisms about parts of this video. Specifically, I think the Kitty Genovese case is a particularly bad example to use to explain this effect. The shocking idea of the account of Genovese's murder is not that people were frozen in fear, but that they were apathetic or uninterested in helping the victim. However, the case as reported was basically a fabrication of the Times journalist. The link you provide to the History channel makes reference to the multiple faults and inaccuracies of that initial '38 witnesses' report, and you can find more detail on Wikipedia and elsewhere. Kitty Genovese's murder is a sad and complex case, but many people who bore witness to her assault did attempt to help her, and did call the police. The idea that a large number of people saw the murder occur and did nothing is simply not true.
However, if we were to take the example as reported, I don't believe it offers a compelling argument for this dorsal vagal reaction. In your first example, in my opinion a good one to use, you mention that a small minority of people felt frozen in their seats. It doesn't track that in one situation a small number of people exhibit this reaction, and in the next example given, everyone exhibits the reaction.
This also has implications for the 'Bystander effect', which you reference. The idea of bystander effect was developed in part thanks to that inaccurate Kitty Genovese report, and suggests that people are less likely to intervene when other bystanders are present. Much like our changing understanding of the Genovese case, modern case studies also make this theory look increasingly inaccurate. Regardless of the accuracy or otherwise of this theory, it does nothing to support or explain the polyvagal theory. The Bystander Effect supposes a social diffusal of responsibility, not that people are 'frozen' and feel unable to act.
I'm not trying to dismiss the Polyvagal theory, or your idea about how social connection can help, I just don't want a poor example and a old case of 'fake news' to derail the video or diminish how helpful Polyvagal theory can be for people!
Hello Morgan - thanks for writing and I appreciate your feedback. I'm aware of the controversy around this particular case. It's certainly possible that it's all fabricated, unfortunately with all things news it's always been a challenge. This is hardly an isolated incident, and perhaps you're right I should have chosen another. I'm not sure if you've ever been witness to extreme events, but I unfortunately have a number of times. I was below Canal St on Sept. 11th, for example, and saw many people quite literally frozen and watching, some inside shops, some on the street. I've also seen street fights, same thing. At the same time, I want to acknowledge my lack of training / education in psychology, and it's certainly possible my layman's understanding is incorrect. In either case, I appreciate you comments.
@@YOGABODY.Official I'm absolutely on board with the polyvagal theory, and its utility in explaining people freezing in both situation of extreme stress and also in 'everyday' life. No criticism there! I just think the Kitty Genovese example, and any mention of the Bystander Effect, harms this argument rather than helps it.
I have mixed feelings about this video because the information is valuable. But if people are coming here to get unstuck due to anxiety and you start talking about and showing images alluding to violence, m*rder and r*pe without a warning it’s very triggering. This video made me more anxious 😢
a bit too much visual and auditory information tbh
1:49 "you are stuck, you are frozen, that's why you are watching this video", Oh the irony!
❤️💖❤️💖❤️🙏❤️💖❤️💖❤️
Hello sir May Allah bleass you
My big problem is solved
Sorry, Connecting with others people is NOT a solution because in many cases, (80% according with Peter Levine) trauma are behaviors traumas. Thanks for your work.