{"id":152256,"date":"2024-03-05T14:04:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T19:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152256"},"modified":"2024-03-05T14:04:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T19:04:46","slug":"stuck-in-freeze-trauma-and-your-nervous-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/152256","title":{"rendered":"Stuck In Freeze: Trauma And Your Nervous System"},"content":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9G2QUpHExjk<\/div>00:00:01<\/a> It’s not the event that causes trauma it’s your\u00a0 physiological reaction. For example David and\u00a0\u00a0 John witnessed a violent pub fight in which two\u00a0 people died, David froze in absolute terror, he felt\u00a0\u00a0 disconnected from his body, he couldn’t move and\u00a0 he couldn’t respond. He was actually immobilized\u00a0\u00a0 for more than three hours and he was eventually\u00a0 taken home by a kindly police officer. Once at home\u00a0\u00a0 he sat alone staring at the wall until the early\u00a0 hours of the morning. Now John also witnessed the\u00a0\u00a0 violent attack but his nervous system reacted\u00a0 in a very different way, he felt a sudden surge\u00a0\u00a0 of adrenaline and his muscles tensed primed for\u00a0 action. He ran to the back of the pub and managed\u00a0\u00a0 to escape via the fire exit, when at home he spent\u00a0 the evening talking to his wife about the event.\u00a0\u00a0 David and John witnessed exactly the same\u00a0 event but their nervous systems reacted very\u00a0\u00a0 differently, David developed PTSD and John didn’t.\u00a0 But why? There are constant movements within your\u00a0\u00a0 inner landscape, salivation, breathing, heart\u00a0 rate, muscle tension, perspiration and so forth. Now they are a product of the harmony between the\u00a0 two branches of your autonomic nervous system the\u00a0 sympathetic which acts as a body’s accelerator\u00a0 and the parasympathetic which is your body’s brake.\u00a0\u00a0 The sympathetic branch of your nervous\u00a0 system is responsible for the fight or\u00a0\u00a0 flight response, it’s like the accelerator of\u00a0 a car. So when John ran out of the pub it was\u00a0\u00a0 his fight or flight response that had primed\u00a0 him for action. His amygdala, his brain’s alarm\u00a0\u00a0 bell, sent a distress signal to his hypothalamus\u00a0 which activated his sympathetic nervous system.\u00a0\u00a0 His adrenal glands responded by pumping\u00a0 adrenaline into his bloodstream which\u00a0\u00a0 caused his heart to beat faster pushing\u00a0 blood to his muscles and other vital organs.\u00a0\u00a0 The parasympathetic branch of the autonomic\u00a0 nervous system is responsible for rest and\u00a0\u00a0 digest, and social engagement, think of it like\u00a0 the brake pedal of a car. It puts a brake on\u00a0\u00a0 arousal by slowing down your heart rate, relaxing\u00a0 muscles and returning your breathing to normal.\u00a0\u00a0 There’s actually a very simple way you can\u00a0 experience these two systems for yourself,\u00a0 if you take a deep breath in you activate the\u00a0 sympathetic nervous system, when you exhale you\u00a0\u00a0 activate your parasympathetic nervous system. Now\u00a0 John’s sympathetic nervous system enabled him to\u00a0\u00a0 get away from the dangerous situation but it was\u00a0 the kind face, soothing tones and physical contact\u00a0\u00a0 from his wife that brought him to a sense\u00a0 of calm and safety. John received the message\u00a0\u00a0 ‘you’re safe with me’ which reset his physiology\u00a0 by activating his parasympathetic nervous system.\u00a0\u00a0 Basically John’s a parasympathetic system opened\u00a0 and then stayed open because he felt safe in his\u00a0\u00a0 wife’s presence, so the social engagement with\u00a0 his wife helped John’s nervous system reset\u00a0\u00a0 after the trauma. Now David responded in a very\u00a0 different way, he froze, his nervous system shut\u00a0\u00a0 down and expended as little energy as possible.\u00a0 This is called the freeze response and it’s the\u00a0\u00a0 ultimate emergency system. Now during the freeze\u00a0 response the parasympathetic system comes in so\u00a0\u00a0 strongly that it overwhelms a sympathetic arousal\u00a0 and sends a person into a state of freeze. This\u00a0\u00a0 can be a full collapse, dissociation or partial\u00a0 freeze such as an inability to think clearly.\u00a0\u00a0 The freeze response may be momentary such as a\u00a0 deer in the headlights but in humans the freeze\u00a0\u00a0 response can continue indefinitely. Peter Levine\u00a0 trauma expert and the creator of somatic experiencing\u00a0\u00a0 maintains that when in the freeze state your energy\u00a0 is tightly activated and doesn’t discharge so\u00a0\u00a0 your nervous system concludes that you’re still\u00a0 in danger and the symptoms of trauma are born.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately unless you release the trauma from\u00a0 your body and nervous system you remain stuck in\u00a0\u00a0 a traumatised state now. Peter Levine often uses\u00a0 a prop to demonstrate what’s going on in the body\u00a0\u00a0 during trauma, this prop is a slinky, I have one\u00a0 with me today. So the slinky represents your energy\u00a0\u00a0 and arousal level, if you’re walking around day to\u00a0 day this would demonstrate your energy and arousal\u00a0\u00a0 level. If you’re running it’s more like this and if\u00a0 you’re in fight or flight mode then your energy is\u00a0\u00a0 really aroused but when you’re overwhelmed your\u00a0 energy can become locked down in your nervous\u00a0\u00a0 system and we have the freeze response. Now when\u00a0 this energy doesn’t get released it leads to a\u00a0\u00a0 whole host of trauma symptoms such as flashbacks,\u00a0 nightmares, feelings of being unsafe, pain and PTSD.\u00a0\u00a0 So by using this slinky we can see that\u00a0 John mobilised his energy by running away\u00a0\u00a0 and this was then soothed by talking to\u00a0 his wife, the social engagement system.\u00a0\u00a0 But David’s energy was locked down, stuck\u00a0 and frozen in time hence his PTSD diagnosis.\u00a0\u00a0 According to Levine David experienced PTSD\u00a0 due to an incomplete biological process that\u00a0\u00a0 got locked in his body and nervous system so\u00a0 when completing trauma work with David we need\u00a0\u00a0 to discharge this energy gradually by the process\u00a0 of titration. So the key is to get a little bit of\u00a0\u00a0 discharge at a time so a little bit of energy\u00a0 is released and again and again and so forth.\u00a0\u00a0 So little by little his nervous system resets.\u00a0 How do you release trauma from the body?\u00a0\u00a0 Levine suggests the bottom-up approach to trauma\u00a0 work which refers to the type of therapy which\u00a0\u00a0 starts its work at the base of the brain the\u00a0 limbic system this is the part of the brain\u00a0\u00a0 that’s responsible for the fight flight or freeze\u00a0 response. So the therapist would first facilitate\u00a0\u00a0 a sense of safety and then use body-based\u00a0 interventions with the aim of releasing\u00a0\u00a0 trauma’s impact on the body. Now to activate\u00a0 this bottom up process you can use a range\u00a0\u00a0 of activities such as exercise, rhythmic movement,\u00a0 diaphragmatic breathing, yoga, EMDR and much more.\u00a0\u00a0 Bottom-up approach is focus on body sensations,\u00a0 movement impulses and emotions, basically these\u00a0\u00a0 interventions allow you to release the traumatic\u00a0 event from your body and nervous system so you can\u00a0\u00a0 then relearn how to inhabit your body. By contrast\u00a0 the most prevalent approaches to psychotherapy\u00a0\u00a0 today are top down approaches such as CBT, a\u00a0 top-down approach involves a therapist working\u00a0\u00a0 directly with the thinking part of the brain, the\u00a0 prefrontal cortex, the aim of a top-down approach\u00a0\u00a0 is to change thinking so interventions such as\u00a0 challenging thoughts, socratic questioning and\u00a0\u00a0 thought records are all top-down interventions. But\u00a0 when someone is stuck in the freeze response they\u00a0\u00a0 can’t process verbal communication well that’s\u00a0 because they’re prefrontal cortex, the logical,\u00a0 analytical, thinking part of the brain, is offline.\u00a0 Bessel Van Der Kolk the author of The Body Keeps\u00a0\u00a0 The Score, says: “You cannot do Psychotherapy or\u00a0 psycho-education when people are frozen because\u00a0\u00a0 when you’re frozen nothing can come into your\u00a0 brain until the frozenness is stopped”. This is\u00a0\u00a0 why when helping someone come out of the freeze\u00a0 response relying on words alone often fall short. You better off treating freeze\u00a0 with somatic or bottom-up approaches.00:08:06<\/a> Now I’ve already given examples of bottom-up\u00a0 approaches such as diaphragmatic breathing and\u00a0\u00a0 yoga but equally important is the activation\u00a0 of the social engagement system. According to\u00a0\u00a0 Polyvagal Theory we all communicate with each\u00a0 other via our social engagement system, facial\u00a0\u00a0 expression, tone of voice and body language, so by\u00a0 communicating cues of safety we can enable someone\u00a0\u00a0 to stabilise in our presence and eventually thaw.\u00a0 Remember talking to his wife was one of the key\u00a0\u00a0 things that helped John move out of the fight or\u00a0 flight response. Sadly David had nobody to talk\u00a0\u00a0 to which only served to embed the freeze response.\u00a0 Now to find out how the social engagement system\u00a0\u00a0 can help regulate your nervous system and\u00a0 move you out of the freeze response please\u00a0\u00a0 view my video on polyvagal Theory which is on the\u00a0 screen now and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Source : Youtube<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9G2QUpHExjk00:00:01 It’s not the event that causes trauma it’s your\u00a0 physiological reaction. For example David and\u00a0\u00a0 John witnessed a violent pub fight in which two\u00a0 people died, David froze in absolute terror, he felt\u00a0\u00a0 disconnected from his body, he couldn’t move and\u00a0 he couldn’t respond. He was actually immobilized\u00a0\u00a0 for more than three hours and … Continue reading Stuck In Freeze: Trauma And Your Nervous System<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[532],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/1709665486-maxresdefault.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}