Immobility Response

[MrDon]

If you have not read "Waking The Tiger" by Peter Levine, you need to pick this book up and read it. It is all about trauma and how our body processes trauma (by learning from what happens in animals). It is an excellent book and one that makes so much sense to me. For the first time, I am learning so much about why I react in the ways I do and the reasons behind the whole process of paralysis for me in 1991. There is just so much good information in this book.

Here is a section that I really liked as I was reading today from this book. (pg 96)

"The purpose of running or fighting to escape danger is obvious. The efficacy of the immobility response is less apparent, yet it is equally important as a survival mechanism. Ultimately, only nature determines which instinctual responses will enhance the overall likelihood of survival for a species. No animal, not even the human, has conscious control over whether or not it freezes in response to threat. When an animal perceives that it is trapped and can't escape by running or fighting, freezing offers several advantages."

 

[theo]

don,
i recall an experiment i read about many years ago about the poor canine who was conditioned to no longer try to escape the electric shock by jumping over the divider in the enclosure. the immobility response you speak of reminds me of this. it is a disturbing picture, but one in which we are all acquainted with. can this immobility really point to a type of strength in terms of survival? i cannot answer that, yet.

 

[heart]

Hi Don

Thanks for that quote.

When I started recovery I heard many times people talking about the fight or flight response and it made me feel really inadequate. Not only I felt bad about having been abused but on top of that I had not even been able to react "properly" by fighting or running away. I felt there was something very wrong with me.

So when I came across this book it was like the light was suddenly switched on. I also attended a course for counsellors of survivors and we learned about the freeze response and its validity and importance.

On this course I learned that all instinctive behaviours such as fight, flight,freeze, hunger, sex etc originate in the reptilian brain, the first part of the human brain to develop, a part of the brain that does not have the ability to think or analyze. In a healthy function of the brain the reptilian brain sends out messages to the neo-cortex, the part of the brain that thinks, to make sense of what is going on and act appropriately.
Apparently what happens when a young child is abused, the experience is too powerful to process and the "wiring" between the reptilian brain and the neo-cortex gets damaged. So when the adult survivor is triggered by something or a situation which reminds him/her of the abuse the reptilian brain reacts instinctively and the message does not go through to the neo-cortex, hence panic attacks, freezing, over-reacting etc etc.

What I have learned from this is that when I get triggered I have to consciously check what the trigger is and "re-organize" my response. For example when I get on the underground, somedays as soon as the doors close and I am "trapped" in the carriage I am convinced one of the passengers is a perp and start panicking. I have to consciously analyze the improbability of the situation and even remind myself that according to figures one in four women and one in 8 men have been abused, so I check the number of men and women and figure out how many of us are survivors on this carriage. It's hard work and I don't manage to do it every time,but that's ok.

Take care
Heart

 

[Leosha]

Hm, I can see that as being both good and bad things. Perhaps like in nature, to take flight and run triggers the 'chase response' from animals (like, you are not supposed to run from a strange dog, right? You stand there and show no fear, and they react with respect to you as the superior species. Or tear your skin off. Whichever the dam thing feels like!)

Adrenalin is released in us in stress, trauma, which causes that 'fight or flight' response within us. It is there if we need it, for extra strength, extra energy, to get us to safety. To 'freeze' instead, it is like that would be counteracting what our body naturally wants to do.

But then, there are times when holding your ground is truly being on the higher ground. Like to stand up to a bully, will often get that person to back off of you.

I guess there are times when it would be more of advantage to do one or the other. The trick, it seems, is to know which one is better at that point in time.

leosha

 

[MrDon]

Theo,
I'm not sure if I can answer your question yet. I may not be to that place of understanding either. But like you, I'm searching too.

Heart,
Glad you were able to take some training on this and have read the book. It is an awesome book and it makes so much sense to me. Many books seem like part of them may make a differance but this one explains so much to me. It answers so many questions. The person I am training under for this somatic therapy method is very good and himself a survivor as well.

Leosha,
I think there are times that like when I was a little boy, I couldn't run away or do anything to stop my abuse. So while my body stayed in the place and underwent the experience, the rest of me left. If I would have tried to run and tell anyone, my father had threatened us so many times of what he would do. But I get particularly impressed with the book in how it describes all of this in nature. Of course, I'm only quoting a very small part of a page out of the book. It is a good book to read though and it explains a lot.

Don