2024-02-02 15:30:04
When faced with something frightening or upsetting, we can feel like we are losing control. The most classic reactions? The flight, the fight or even theinability to move …
Can we be paralyzed in the face of danger?
“I remained frozen”, “I waited for it to pass”… Extreme pain, physical aggression, trauma, confrontation with a phobia. Faced with this type of upsetting situation, some people explain that they were unable to react. Obviously, we all react differently to trauma. For some people, experiencing a traumatic event feels like this annihilate the reflexess ordinary protection which provides a feeling of control, contact and meaning.
Why are we frozen by fear?
Our nervous system continually assesses risk and safety in the environment, and monitors whether there is danger or threat. In this type of situation, defense circuits are activated and will dominate brain functioning (Mobbs et al.2009) leading to an automatic response: the escape, the struggle or inability to move. Be unable to move, frozen by fear or as if paralyzed is a common reaction when one finds oneself confronted with fear and/or threat (especially when one has the impression that one’s life is threatened); it is a subconscious reaction to go unnoticed; in the wild, it is generally the reaction of prey to their predators… We talk regarding automatism.
In a more scientific register, it is at the level of the amygdala that everything plays out. Once the threat is detected, the sympathetic nervous system is activated and two types of hormones are released:
adrenaline will act on the blood vessels and increase the heart rate sending blood to the body and the brain. cortisol, the stress hormone, inhibits non-essential bodily reactions, which will allow the brain and body to focus on the threat and the reaction.
What is tonic immobility?
“Tonic immobility (TI) is an involuntary defense reaction of the body in the face of an unavoidable vital threat which is mainly characterized by a state of motor paralysis”, indicates psychiatrist Maëlle Fauvre in her thesis on the subject. Indeed, a person in a state of tonic immobility is in a state of involuntary paralysis and she is unable to move or speak. People who have experienced it say they feel muscle rigidity and a feeling of cold simultaneously. Feeling dizzy? We talk regardinghypotonic immobility when, faced with the threat, the individual experiences a sudden and radical drop in their heart rate and blood pressure: they will then feel unwell and may even faint…
The problem? In the case of an attack, it can be easy to confuse and interpret the victim’s reaction as inaction when it is tonic (or hypotonic) immobility – either a subconscious reaction over which the victim has no power -. Still recent for the moment, the concept of tonic immobility is at the heart of scientific research…
Read also
What is transgenerational trauma? What is this phobia?
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#frozen #fear
