Rattibha

Dr. Nicole LePera

11 Tweets 27 reads Feb 03, 2023

Are you an over-achiever, workaholic, or someone who looks like you're doing well, but you're shut down emotionally and feel like life is passing you by?
Your body might be in functional freeze:

You can picture the freeze state of our nervous system as a deer in headlights. Our body freezes in hopes that the threat or danger avoids us and we can survive.
Just as the deer does when it experiences the threat of a car.

A freeze state happens when the dorsal branch of our vagus nerve is activated due to a perceived threat in our environment.
In humans, this threat can be: chronic stress, toxic work environments, toxic relationships, grief, etc.

Ideally, when we enter a freeze state, we return to a regulated (or ventral vagal) response.
Essentially, we recover from the stressful event and return to a baseline. When we can't or don't recover, we can get stuck in a freeze state.

Functional freeze is a blended state where we're within a freeze state, but we are also capable and able to function.
Rather than being in complete shut down, we're present enough to go through the motions of life.

Functional freeze looks like:
- feeling dazed and dissociated but going through the motions
- numb but physically present
- excessive workaholism or need to distract oneself through keeping busy
- inability to sit still

- a feeling you're watching yourself overhead
- a fuzziness around if something happened
- getting lost for long periods of time and then 'coming to.'
- running on autopilot getting long lists done without being mentally present

Many people in functional freeze appear to be doing very well. They may be high performers but they struggle to actually feel anything. And, struggle to have intimate connections with others.

They might also feel like life is passing them by, like they're living life but not experiencing it. Almost as if life is fuzzy, or they're watching themselves overhead (derealization.)

It's helpful to think of functional freeze a prolonged state of shock.

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