"We've been using that word-freeze-to describe two completely different reactions to threat. And it's causing real confusion for everyone trying to understand whether they're traumatized or what their symptoms mean. Think about it. When your therapist says "you froze," do they mean you were alert and scanning for danger, muscles tense, ready to act? Or do they mean you went numb, collapsed inward, and later couldn't remember what happened? These are extremely different experiences, and giving them the same name makes it frustrating and misleading."
"Lock (the attentive immobility-orienting-paralyzation) This is the instant your system needs to find out what's happening before making a decision about how to protect your life. Think of that moment when you hear a suspicious sound. You stop. Muscles tense, senses sharpen, and heart stays steady or quickens. You're not shutting down-you're buying time while your brain figures out what to do next by staying ready to act but not yet."
The word "freeze" names two fundamentally different reactions to threat: a vigilant, immobilized orienting response ("lock") and a complete physiological shutdown (immobilization). Lock involves tense muscles, sharpened senses, steady or quickened heart rate, and attentional holding to assess danger while remaining ready to act. Immobilization involves numbing, collapse inward, disconnection from the body, and later memory gaps. Lumping these reactions together under 'fight-flight-freeze' obscures adaptive functions, causes clinical misinterpretation, and leaves people confused about their symptoms and trauma status. Clearer terminology distinguishing lock from shutdown enables more accurate diagnosis and understanding of nervous-system responses to threat.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]