You are probably familiar with the fight-or-flight reflex, that instinctual response to real or imagined threat. Another response available to both reptiles and mammals (including humans) is referred to by psychologists as the “immobility” or “freezing” response. While less is known about thins instinctual behavior, Dr. Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger, believes that, “It is the single most important factor in uncovering the mystery of human trauma.”
Human trauma occurs as the result of past experienced events or when the need to protect one’s ego overwhelms the rational mind. For example, your boss verbally abuses you in front of your co-workers. The event is traumatic enough, but every time you recall the event your subconscious mind relives the event all over again as if it was happening all over again. The more severe the incident and the more your recall the event the more you re-traumatize your body. Remember, the subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between a real event and one that is vividly imagined. That is why we can become frightened watching a scary movie. The movie is not real, yet the subconscious mind processes it as though it were and we become scared.
Many times hunted animals become “immobile” or “frozen” in the last instant before contact with their predator. The frozen animal is not pretending to be dead and may not even be hurt; instead, it instinctually enters an altered state that serves one of two purposes. It can be a last-ditch survival strategy: the frozen animal can quickly unfreeze and escape it its attacker looks the other way, or is spared incredible pain when it is torn apart by its attacker because the animal does not feel pain in this state.
Externally an immobilized animal appears to be dead, yet internally the animal remains supercharged with the energy of the chase. If the animal survives the hunt, it instinctively discharges all the compressed energy trapped inside its body, suffering no long-term ill effects. It merely goes back to being what it is – an animal. Have you ever seen a cat shake its hind legs after a fight?
Humans also freeze when faced with overwhelming or inescapable threat. While most modern societies consider this response a sign of weakness, tantamount to cowardice, realize that it is an involuntary reflex governed by the instinctual parts of the human brain and nervous system.
Unfortunately, humans are not adept at discharging pent up energy after becoming immobilized. A wide array of debilitating physical, psychosomatic, and behavioral problems, including anxiety, fear, anger, rage, sorrow, and depression occur if residual energy persists in the body. In effect, without being able to discharge the pent up energy, veterans and victims of war, rape, and abuse remain physically traumatized and become victims of the trauma itself. The same is true for individuals who suffer long-term unresolved stress from everyday issues. The present economic situation is one such scenario with so many people unemployed who have or fear losing their home or way of life.
The result, sadly, is that many of us become riddled with fear and anxiety and are never fully able to feel at home with ourselves in the world. According to Dr. Levine, effects of trauma also are not caused by the “triggering” event itself, but by the un-discharged energy that remains lodged in the body. Un-discharged energy wreaks havoc on our nervous system, body, mind, and spirit,
If you suffer from PTSD or experience long-term unresolved stress your body is contaminated with this pent up energy. You can take any number of steps to dislodge the energy from your body. Massage, Chiropractic, Osteopathy, Reflexology, acupressure, acupuncture, Reiki, Ascension Reiki, Sound Therapy, Relaxation Therapy are all great strategies that remove unwanted pent up energy from your body. However, the longer and more severe your symptoms the longer it will take to return your nervous system back to a state of normalcy. I suggest weekly (or more) sessions with qualified professionals in any of these disciplines for at least several months. Then you can begin to space out your therapies to monthly (or when needed). Next time, more about the “freezing” response and other strategies for eliminating unwanted energy from your body.
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I have read Peter Levine's book. It explains a great deal. I think the most powerful thing he says and of which you remind us is that it is essential to rid our bodies of the energy after a trauma and how to go about doing it.
ReplyDeleteToo often we just stuff it and move on like you say, only to continue to be traumatized by it. I know that I was guilty of this and our society encourages it. I tortured myself with the events of my past over and over much more than the initial event.There is a different way. We just have to use it.