I've had questions asking to explain what the freeze response is, so I will answer that question here:
Freeze response is a direct reaction to abuse or trauma, if we don't activate fight or flight. We have no real control over which mechanism the subconscious mind (SC) chooses. These responses occur in fractions of seconds. Which of the 3 the SC chooses is predicated on what other abuse, including our parental attachment, or lack of, or the trauma we have already endured years ago. When life threatening danger comes our way, we do one of 3 things - we fight, we run, or we freeze (neither running or punching to get us out of the dangerous situation). It is actually healthier to fight or to run, as we release/blow off/negate the built-up "energy" (hormones & neurochemicals) in our nervous system. Animals (and humans) shake after experiencing a life-threatening event. The shaking expends the reaction in that moment, blowing off those unwanted chemicals, so the horrific experience isn't trapped (freeze response) in the body to cause us to relive the trauma over and over again for decades. Never STOP a shaking person. Let them shake!
Freeze is the part of our inborn safety mechanism where the emotional pain gets stuck in our nervous system where it rattles around, remaining active, triggering us whenever some sensory input reminds of us of the original abuse or trauma. When wild animals freeze, think "playing possum", they can sometimes avoid being killed because the predator looses interest in "dead" prey. We humans do our own version of the freeze mechanism for the exact same reason. We hope the human predator forgets we are present!
While in the Freeze response we are flooded with endorphins (natural anesthetic), as this article states, so that if we are wounded (or eaten for animals) the pain is numbed. That is why people with horrible wounds can jump up and run out of danger's way or save another human. The endorphins have numbed the excruciating pain in the moment. Later they collapse, screaming, when the endorphins wear off.
Eventually, the way God created our bodies, once the immediate, short-term danger is past, the body "recovers", resuming the sympathetic response (SNS) where we will feel hungry, breathing normalizes, heart rate slows, desire for sex returns, thinking processes come back on-line (this is the same response kids with "test anxiety" have & it's why they cannot "think" during a test). Short-term stress in humans is fine; it is long-term on-going hidden chronic stress in us that eventually causes diseases.
Slower parasympathetic (PNS) is where we want to live. We don't need on-going trauma memories, as that eventually is going to cause our physical bodies to get sick. We need to use tapping to process the abuse and traumas we have endured. It's all about HOW our hormones react, so we can stay physically (and emotionally) healthy.
Yes, the bottom line is your SC thinks you are still in the on-going trauma and abuse, if you haven't processed by tapping (or other somatic technique) the abuse or trauma you have endured. The SC has no sense of time. SC "lives" in the present tense. So, any of us with an abuse/trauma background who hasn't yet used a technique to "inform" the SC to let the negative stuff go, allowing forgiveness to replace the pain, is constantly still right now reliving that abuse in the present day as if it just now occurred. You may not feel consciously like you are , but your SC is holding the emotional pain for you in the background of your mind, and it continually runs that abuse "movie" over and over again 24/7/365.
Our behaviors and reactions occur because of and due to our emotional pain being held by the SC. Our SC mind hides our abuse memories from our conscious mind to keep us functioning day to day. But the trauma is still there. Eventually, we lose control and we don't function well!
We are still in CONSTANT freeze until we tap and process whatever has happened to us. Bottom line is the PNS will take care of itself, if we have tapped and calmed our responses to the negative things that has happened to us.
Chapter 2 of the original EFT for Christians explains this process in detail, as does the physiology chapter in the EFT for Christians, Tapping in Peace & Joy, chapters 2 & 3.
Tapping is one of the emotional tools to help regulate our emotional pain. Consider giving it a try.
Remember, EFT is not a substitute for medical help, so please consult your own personal physician when physical or emotional help is needed.
Sherrie Rice Smith
Certified EFT Practitioner
