Xisca
Member
Why "learned"? It is not that much in the neo-cortex.
What happens at the level of the autonomous nervous system is the root that results in helpless behaviours and powerless feelings.
For various reasons, the freeze response in much less taken into account than the fight and flight response. The 3 of them are valid though. The word "freeze" has been chosen because of the F, because this is usually an immobility response. It is better described as a discontinuity in the felt sense, for protecting reasons. This happens when the activation coming from the impossibility to manage a danger successfully is too strong and cannot be taken safely by the system. So you stop feeling it. The same system exists in your home electric system! So you do not burn out.
When any animal from insects to humans is repeatedly defeated, the real problem is that the high activation is still running underneath the apparent immobility. This has many purposes that are beyond the scope of a short description. The difficulty to go out of immobility is the too strong activation when too much has been acumulated. There comes a moment when it needs to be discharged by bits instead of all at once. That is what makes it more difficult to do it when you do not know how it works.
This explains why it becomes impossible to act again even when the problem or the threat is gone. For our system, the problem is considered as gone only when the activation has been discharged. Whatever solution you chose to deal with helplessness, the sometimes invisible result will be a discharge of activation, that is behind ALL successful methods.
And I would say better than learned, it is accumulated or imprinted in the body. You can access it by the felt sense, which is the language of the Autonomous Nervous System (ANS). Peter Levine call it the unspoken voice... The reason why we focus on thoughts and emotions is that they are a translation of the felt sense when it is too strong to be comfortable. Also, physical symptoms are the body's way to release some steam and avoid explosion.
Animals are better than us at going out of immobility, because their neo-cortex in not as strong. Ours is not strong enough to control the automatic activation when we are challenged, but it is strong enough to control the discharge of activation that MUST happen after each activation. When we do not reach the freeze stage, the discharge is not too unconfortable, and we mostly let it happen. But when we respond by immobility, which mean that the activation is still at its highest point underneath, it is very unconfortable to go out of it. That is why our powerful cortex "help" us to control it, preventing the total discharge.
All experiences with animals about the freeze response include being caged. Wild animals do not get that much traumatised because this situation does not exist in the wild. Traumatised animals in the wild got a problem such as loosing their mother at early age, preventing them to strenghten their nervous system with support.
For all of us, and especially children, the best way to prevent trauma is to live successful experiences and celebrate them. This strenghten our ability and our resilience, so that we can take more stress before having to freeze. We do not choose to freeze or fight or flee, our instinct chose. But we can use our brain to chose how to practise our life. It would be like the samourai: they practise their defense strategies, and their system will automatically use it at its best level whenever it is necessary. Therefore, they can sleep quietly with their spade at their side, because they can trust their reaction.
What happens at the level of the autonomous nervous system is the root that results in helpless behaviours and powerless feelings.
For various reasons, the freeze response in much less taken into account than the fight and flight response. The 3 of them are valid though. The word "freeze" has been chosen because of the F, because this is usually an immobility response. It is better described as a discontinuity in the felt sense, for protecting reasons. This happens when the activation coming from the impossibility to manage a danger successfully is too strong and cannot be taken safely by the system. So you stop feeling it. The same system exists in your home electric system! So you do not burn out.
When any animal from insects to humans is repeatedly defeated, the real problem is that the high activation is still running underneath the apparent immobility. This has many purposes that are beyond the scope of a short description. The difficulty to go out of immobility is the too strong activation when too much has been acumulated. There comes a moment when it needs to be discharged by bits instead of all at once. That is what makes it more difficult to do it when you do not know how it works.
This explains why it becomes impossible to act again even when the problem or the threat is gone. For our system, the problem is considered as gone only when the activation has been discharged. Whatever solution you chose to deal with helplessness, the sometimes invisible result will be a discharge of activation, that is behind ALL successful methods.
And I would say better than learned, it is accumulated or imprinted in the body. You can access it by the felt sense, which is the language of the Autonomous Nervous System (ANS). Peter Levine call it the unspoken voice... The reason why we focus on thoughts and emotions is that they are a translation of the felt sense when it is too strong to be comfortable. Also, physical symptoms are the body's way to release some steam and avoid explosion.
Animals are better than us at going out of immobility, because their neo-cortex in not as strong. Ours is not strong enough to control the automatic activation when we are challenged, but it is strong enough to control the discharge of activation that MUST happen after each activation. When we do not reach the freeze stage, the discharge is not too unconfortable, and we mostly let it happen. But when we respond by immobility, which mean that the activation is still at its highest point underneath, it is very unconfortable to go out of it. That is why our powerful cortex "help" us to control it, preventing the total discharge.
All experiences with animals about the freeze response include being caged. Wild animals do not get that much traumatised because this situation does not exist in the wild. Traumatised animals in the wild got a problem such as loosing their mother at early age, preventing them to strenghten their nervous system with support.
For all of us, and especially children, the best way to prevent trauma is to live successful experiences and celebrate them. This strenghten our ability and our resilience, so that we can take more stress before having to freeze. We do not choose to freeze or fight or flee, our instinct chose. But we can use our brain to chose how to practise our life. It would be like the samourai: they practise their defense strategies, and their system will automatically use it at its best level whenever it is necessary. Therefore, they can sleep quietly with their spade at their side, because they can trust their reaction.