Working with the Freeze Response with Peter Levine, PhD

[@angelbulldog4934]

My mom was a narc. I couldnt fight her. She was a slim and fit six feet tall and seemed like a giant to me as a little thing. I couldn't fight her because I was so much smaller. I couldn't run because the punishment (read beatings) would've been much worse. Only other alternative was to freeze. I still do even in my mid70s. Can you imagine my messed-up attachment? She was the one I turned to for comfort, care, and sustenance but I was petrified of her. Became an addict/alcoholic, now clean and sober almost 16 years. Got back to my roots in the Bible. Life is still far from perfect but I've learned ways to deal with it. I pray for healing for all of us.

[@stefanie4620]

Same here. I hold every friendship and relationship at an arms length. I attract chaotic people because they are the only ones who “understand” me, but at the same time I end up having to hold them at an arms length like I did my parents, because they are unpredictable.

[@mikewood5757]

You said it all. I just had to change Father for Mother in your story & there I am too. Thank you & Peter Levine too. God bless you both.

[@robertsahlberg7888]

So relatable 🙏🏻

[@anaisminto]

Very grateful for this explanation! A few month ago I started coming out of severe freeze in a very titrated manner and for the first time I was making progress, able to tap into a sense of calme and safety. Until my “trauma therapist” tried to push me to do more way more then I felt capable. He didn’t see the body component and labelled me as merely resistant and destructive for not complying. The way he spoke to me, making me doubt all the progress I had made and wich he had witnessed before, retraumatised me. I quit the therapy and work with a somatic practitioner. It is painful to have experienced someone who is ought to know about these involuntary bodily limits push someone over the edge. It tought me that no authority has the right to decide about my body and my pace. It did touch upon an early trauma and though it was painful it was also liberating to put a boundary and leave. It’s been several month now that I work towards regaining a sense of safety and movement.

[@TheBakingGirlShow]

Omg! He sounds like a Cluster B

[@olgamelo5227]

I'm so sorry to hear about your experience. Unfortunately it is very common. I've seen people reporting they've changed therapists 5 times. Great Trauma informed therapists are rare to find. Some therapists should be put in prison for re-traumatizing us and causing more harm, even sounding like our abusers. I'm so glad you listened to your gut feeling and was able to decide what is best for you.

[@eleanor4759]

So sorry you experienced this! Clearly the therapist had resistance to the resistance which he perceived you to harbour - ha! Somatic therapy is the way! Irene Lyon is a great resource on KZbin if you haven't yet heard of her.

[@anaisminto]

@@eleanor4759 Thank you! I didn't thought of it like that. It was indeed a projection from the therapist's side. I am glad to say, that I learned quite a lot with Irene Lyon. And trusting my gut was the beste decision : O)

[@eleanor4759]

@@anaisminto 😊❣️

[@victoryamartin9773]

Thank you for that explanation. That will help me be kinder to myself while I remain paralyzed with indecisiveness. When I am able to think, I can formulate plans to free myself, but when it comes to carrying out the plans, I get stuck in the fear. As I watch life passing me by, I am helpless to catch up with it.

[@hew195050]

I cried thru this.......Total explanation for Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

[@angelbulldog4934]

I have it, too. I'm also one to freeze.

[@tammyrobinson1613]

Also CFS. Brain scans and blood work has shown that a person experiencing CFS has the same slowed down metabolism as an animal playing dead for protection, and a bear in hibernation

[@milax2730]

That’s me

[@cherrylane79]

Abuse can cause also autoimmune issues.

[@NowIAmAwake]

This made me cry too. I have fibromyalgia, GFS, IBS, poly-artrosis and lichen sclerosus. Despite many years of therapy I feel stuck

[@azeminaay4971]

damn, this completely explains my neck soreness/tightness which I have been suffering from for years. thank you Peter and God bless you!

[@eleanor4759]

What an asset these researchers and somatic practitioners are! 💗

[@balbijanic]

Do TRE! In my case, my neck and shoulder are far less tight thanks to TRE!

[@AnhLe-iy6ck]

@@balbijanicwhat is TRE?

[@balbijanic]

@@AnhLe-iy6ck Trauma release exercises (8 physical exercises with legs followed by tremors (you can fully control tremors)) - brilliant technique (my frozen (i.e., tension) neck and shoulder almost disappeared). Legs are probably the most important for our mental health!

[@Kambaba15]

Thanks for the video. I have freeze response while standing or in motion, knocked myself out last year. It’s been the slowest recovery ever. I haven’t walked unaided in 2 years due to fear of freeze while upright, but have no problem in deep snow where I know I can’t get hurt.

[@NatalieVasilyev]

This is very helpful to understand what is happening with one's body. The. best explanation of the freeze response.

[@kelmac6076]

Wow you just described my muscles. Daily they shake when I move them - they feel jittery and shaky. More on contraction that release. I’m definitely in a freeze response.

[@regaininglife9084]

Try some progressive muscle relaxation exercises.

[@Serenity7250]

Makes so much sense. Scared stiff. All muscles are tense and it's SO hard to release them. I have to deal with the threat because they're family. I need to deal with all this while still IN the situation. The fight or flight is coming down but is now a freeze, overwhelm and desperation feeling of not being able to move or feed myself. I've been doing the work for a couple of months and seen so many changes, will keep going!

[@janetpattison8474]

We had time to take-flight! There was a long driveway to our house, so we had a look-out child, who’d watch for my dad’s approaching car about 5pm every day, so they could yell out to the remaining 5 siblings, “dad’s home!”, and we’d all run as fast as we could & in a panic, to seek cover, or hide in our rooms. My mom never mentioned it. It was a welcome holiday if he was working out of town & not home on any given day. I give my bully dad 100% of the credit for ruining our family.

[@emilyb5557]

Eesh that's horrible 😢 I hope you have managed a good relationship with your siblings sounds like you worked together as a brilliant team against him. I hope you can find ways to heal the beliefs & wounds imprinted by those experiences. I can imagine you're very hypervigilance to others behavior n subtle changes? I am too for similar although not the same reasons and found PDS Thais Gibson work on core wounds for safety & connectedness has helped more than any therapy. YT videos often focus on relationship & attachment but underlying that is the core wound work. I find it bizarre how much it's helped but also want to share for that reason. Good luck in your recovery whatever route you take!

[@rarra]

Hey sorry to hear what you went through. I was also terrified of my dad coming home every night. I still get scared of the sound of people walking outside my house or the sound cars approaching. Unfortunately I also had a horrible mother too, who would tell my dad of everything I had done during the day that she didn’t like, and ask him to beat me. 😢

[@CIF369]

@@emilyb5557 Thank you🙏🏻

[@susanstancliff2937]

Thank you. I never realized the reason for the freeze reaction.❤

[@excel04]

Too much 'freeze' response, I would offer would create fatigue and too much fatigue will become 'chronic fatigue' and pain. This wouldn't explain every aspect of CFS but I can see how it would be a contributing factor.

[@gemmakelly5257]

Absolutely. You're so right. I have severe m.e/CFS. It's an inextricably complex thing and each person will have different contributory factors, but for me and many others chronic freeze and nervous system dysregulayion is the primary cause

[@Mushroom321-]

Please do more videos!! You have a calm voice !!! 😊😊

[@kathybramley5609]

Wondering - as a person with Autistic and ADHD diagnosis with a sometimes personal interest in schizophrenia - about the relationship to similar conditions we talk about in those contexts, how we explain the links and separate them: catatonia, and autistic shutdowns and autistic catatonia, adhd paralysis. These are terms which many clients will know about, or some might not but might hear about if they start to talk to others about the freeze response.

[@kathybramley5609]

NB I usually use identity first language but I am nuanced and chill about it, especially when I talk about several symptoms and conditions together in a more clinical/theoretical framework as it more sense then.

[@gratefulkm]

There are people that want to kill everyone around them for safety survival reasons , This is controlled by a biological switch in our skull Now our cortex does not want the humans around us to know we want to kill them all, so it creates an extra layer of imagination then locks us in thier And the cortex is praying that the Thin ice we are skating on never breaks Because once the imaginary box we exist breaks then the killer is let loose and they want to send us all to work lol The collapses and break downs and FREEZING is a response so the killer stays locked up , instead of let loose We probably at that stage have not had years of spiraling out of control of overclocking our LEFT PFC We are the Sufis. always have been

[@klattalexis]

I actually know of a lady whose dream was to move into the country to have a hobby farm. It had long been her dream. She had every kind of farm animal you can imagine. However, she began experiencing vandalism, animal deaths, and mutilations of her beloved pets. The police just suggested perhaps she should think about moving and suggested that if these things were really happening, perhaps she was doing these things herself for attention even though she had shown dead & mutilated animals and shown them to the police and her veterinarian could vouch for all the deaths and mutilations but the vet was never contacted. Then the vandalism and drive-by shootings began, 5 to be exact and it was suggested that next time she should go out and get the license plate number in the dark with a flashlight. She was in the freeze response after 30 years of C-PTSD and was unable to sign the realtor's documents to sell her property. Finally, a relative was able to put his hand over her hand forcing the signing of all the legal documents in order for her to sell her property. Little did the perpetrators realize that it was their fault she was unable to sign the documents sooner and move away!

[@sarahwagland1559]

What a terrible story. We are unable to sell our property because of an error on the deeds which our sadistic neighbours refuse to agree to rectify. I expect once this poor lady moved the perpetrators lost interest in the ground and looked for someone new to torment. Being left alone to find peace is often easier said than done.

[@sarahwagland1559]

This is exactly what happens with horses. I have a mare with PTSD and very quick to adopt the freeze response which is very dangerous cos you don't know when its going to spill over. Movement is key, getting control of the hind legs to get her to engage her brain.

[@mik2820]

Makes me cry

[@nederhood9192]

I had a spider bite in my hind arm unexpectedly while I extended my hand to pick up an object. It was a stinging bite. I continued with my work. The body responded by inhibiting the extensor muscle. Since then I am having stiffness in that arm as a response to the trauma the arm underwent. Autonomic response.

[@RainFall-wz2yp]

all 45 years of my life: all my self esteem and sense of self worth, has been raped out of me Three principle functions of the nervous system: - SENSORY INPUT (nervous system senses the spider on your leg) - INTEGRATION (nervous system processes the input, and decides what should be done about it) - MOTOR INPUT (hand shakes off the spider, a response that occurs when the nervous system activates certain parts of the body) --- CENTRAL nervous system - brain - spinal cord --- PERIPHERAL nervous system - SENSORY DIVISION (afferent) - picks up a sensory stimuli - MOTOR DIVISION (efferent) - sends directions from your brain to muscles and glands - SOMATIC nervous system - voluntary (skeletal movement) - AUTONOMIC nervous system - involuntary (heart, stomach, lungs) - SYMPATHETIC - sends the body into action - PARASYMPATHETIC - relaxes the body Neurons have huge appetites. They need a lot of oxygen and glucose. About 25% of daily calories are consumed by your brain. NEURON STRUCTURE: - Soma - cell body - Dendrites - listeners - Axons - talkers

[@karindegraaf246]

Good information on the freeze response. I would like to hear more about freeze being a parasympathetic response with a lower heart rate and blood pressure while simultaneously stiffened muscles. I find it difficult to combine the polyvagal theory with other models of stress responses. Does anybody offer a comprehensive theory that includes all the information?

[@ellisvandenbosch5201]

It helps me to put my hand on my heart and breathe into the heart. That usually softens it up, some tears fall and the body softens. The blood pressure restores, so does the heart pressure. Good luck!

[@rg1283]

Thanks very much Dr Levine

[@anaban9633]

i was driving 6.5 hours yestarday and the whole time i was in freeze mode. it was hard and i didn't know what to do. i stopped once to try to get myself to be normal but i could only stop the pain in fingers and but muscles, stil i remain in freeze mode. i wasn't putting anybody in danger cause i took the slower road and the minimum speed limit, also pulling aside if there was a jam. But it is sth i shouldn't do and experience anymore.

[@Sincerely_SweetAesthete]

This helped me so much to understand

[@miriamceornea97]

the example with the water made me think about Parkinson, don't know if it works that way but can it be that if you have experience a lot of traumatic things that it could lead to later in life to this type of reactions from the body? as far as I know the body is just a projection of what is going on inside of us

[@angelicacroitoru4946]

Did anyone found usefull information on how to get out of freeze response?

[@Kazokaslt]

So doing trauma work, somatic experiencing, somatic practise?

[@balbijanic]

TRE is great technique for freeze responses.

[@annapurnamurthy]

What is tre

[@balbijanic]

@@annapurnamurthy Trauma release exercises (8 physical exercises with legs followed by tremors (you can fully control tremors)) - brilliant technique (my frozen (i.e., tension) neck and shoulder almost disappeared). Legs are probably the most important for our mental health!

[@annapurnamurthy]

Do you have any certified techniques on that

[@krishnabhakt7776]

You are right. How long you are doing TRE? Did you came out of freeze?

[@balbijanic]

@@krishnabhakt7776 2 to 3 months but it depends. It is better to do it regularly before going to sleep. I have done TRE for more than 2 years.

[@cindysmith6612]

Thank you for this information❤ I don't have it as severely as others in coments but I am always in a lot of pain because of this.Can you help with sleepwalking? I notice if I take care of what I'm worried about and take care of it I don't do it as often. Any tips would be greatly appreciated ❤

[@Knifymoloko]

Ok well I don't have the resources to find such a therapist. How can I titrate on my own? Any responses are welcome. I need to function again in daily life

[@Don-pk2uy]

Tre exercises

[@erickaepworth6257]

If you feel an old emotion or bodily sensation arise, go to your room. Sit or lay silently. Allow the energy (emotions) to move through your body. If you want to cry or scream, do it. If you feel like you need to stretch out your right shoulder or the left side of your jaw is tight, stretch them however you need to. If your hands or legs start twitchy, allow them to twitch. Whatever you feel like your body wants to do, DO IT! If you need to take a break to breathe or go to the restroom, do it. The release response will continue when you return. Laying on your left side may also relax the response temporarily. This can be very physically exhausting. Your body will intuitively know when to stop. I am currently processing trauma from my abandonment/adoption 55 years ago. Sometimes my shaking and release goes on for hours. I am usually very exhausted for about 24 hours after. I have spent my whole life in a freeze state. Sometimes while I release, my body temperature will toggle between freezing cold to burning hot. My feet or hands may feel insanely hot and tingly. This is all normal. Just make yourself comfortable and allow it to happen. Afterwards drink lots of water. Maybe take an Epsom salts and soda bath or a nice long shower? Some people need a nap. Sometimes I even need a light snack in the middle of the whole process. All of this can be done safely at home. Re-parent little you. Tell him/her what a loving parent should tell their child. It's almost like being two people at the same time. 💗 Happy Healing! 💗

[@angelicacroitoru4946]

Dr. Levine, how to get out of freeze response?

[@y.s7787]

That’s what I want to know

[@y.s7787]

Maybe move your body

[@angelicacroitoru4946]

@@y.s7787 maybe I moved my body, I used to work in house cleaning , but still the freeze response did not get away. Thank you!

[@nie3344]

First you should moved your body (shaking it it helps alot). do some exercises or some stretching. When you feel you can’t stop scrolling in social media eat sour candy. Practice what you want to say if you freeze while you talking your muscles memory will remember. Remind yourself everything will going to be okay. Try to do something you’re afraid of every day at least. And change your rules ( you can be anxious and be fine) I hope this helps❤

[@nie3344]

And don’t forget to sit and tapping on your legs with your hands open it’s so important

[@pablow129]

and What do you do with the information and ideas that are released with the energy?

[@punyashloka4946]

Thank you for the information😊.

[@sumitkhatri3530]

How to release the contracting muscles

[@dannycolwell8028]

Been frozen for years. Don’t know what to do.

[@singlaankush777]

same here.

[@Artista.Atipica]

When freezing happens often, how to differ it from catatonia?

[@sharonashley1008]

I have cfs after going through years of chronic trauma and then severe trauma past few years led me to becoming completely disabled and bedridden. Does this mean I'm stuck in freeze response?

[@DanielMatotek]

Probably but you can heal 100% you need to reconnect with your body.

[@sharonashley1008]

@@DanielMatotek Thank you. What somatics did you do and what kind of symptoms/feelings did you get from it?

[@DanielMatotek]

@@sharonashley1008 trauma yoga, exercise intense cardio is best if you can do it. Depends on energy levels baths, cold showers, gymnastics, balancing exercise all are good

[@DanielMatotek]

@@sharonashley1008 wish you all the best on your recovery. You will recover its just a matter of when

[@mvdhaak]

I'm watching this because I have cfs and believe it's my nervous system in overdrive. Perhaps the freeze response. I'm doing yoga nidra for 7 months now and it really helps with all almost my symptoms. Yoga nidra is a kind of relaxation and self hypnosis exercise with audio guidance, you can find it on KZbin. Also brain retraining exercises to get out of this vicious cycle of stress help a lot. I'm still in a wheelchair and in bed most of the day, but I'm more stable and happy. To get more and quicker results I just started working with a hypnotherapist. I hope you can get some relief with these tips.

[@frazerburns91]

Thanks Pete!

[@tarakadir9259]

Thank you 🙏🏻 ❤️

[@Mushroom321-]

Definitely needed P.s.a. 😮😮🎉🎉🎉

[@namesecondname4548]

Use EMDR eye movements.

[@aymanhimself]

When is his new book coming out ?

[@darkspecops202]

How does one get rid of the freeze response?This is in regard to law enforcement background

[@nie3344]

First you should moved your body (shaking it it helps alot). do some exercises or some stretching. When you feel you can’t stop scrolling in social media eat sour candy. Practice what you want to say if you freeze while you talking your muscles memory will remember. Remind yourself everything will going to be okay. Try to do something you’re afraid of every day at least. And change your rules ( you can be anxious and be fine) I hope this helps❤

[@nie3344]

And don’t forget to sit and tapping on your legs with your hands open it’s so important

[@lukapesun]

what about fawn?

[@dianealbano3]

How can I find a trained therapist in my area who can help me.

[@nicabm]

Unfortunately, we do not offer referrals, nor do we release any information about the practitioners who’ve participated in any of our trainings. I can, however, recommend that you check out the database through Psychologytoday.com

[@deelynn8611]

My stiffness is from severe rheumatoid arthritis. But I also can't escape, so maybe that makes it worse.

[@balbijanic]

TRE is a great technique to unfreeze. However, the cause of arthritis in not due to freeze response and thus TRE may not be efficient for arthritis.

[@philhob4317]

What about if your mind shuts down and you can't think and sense anything around you as soon as you get intimate or try to build a connection with your partner. Is that the same thing?

[@emilyb5557]

Sounds like its triggering a core wound of being unsafe and you're going into shut down state?

[@philhob4317]

@emilyb5557 interestingly enough I found out it was the body from protecting me. Because of my trauma wounds and my unfulfilled needs I would overstretch myself in the extreme and my body responded by shutting me down. I use this now to know when is telling me I'm going down the wrong path....

[@gemmakelly5257]

Kind of. Sounds like relational trauma causing fear in your nervous system - putting you in 4F sympathetic state, where we lose access to our prefrontal cortex, so our ability to think clearly.

[@nektonekto3459]

i'm scared :)

[@nektonekto3459]

and isolated. it makes people feel helpless

[@ΧΑΡΑΒΑΜΑΛ]

PLEASE TURN THE SUBTITLES ON BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW ENGLISH

[@nicabm]

Hi Xapa, unfortunately, there is no closed captioning available during the free broadcasts. That said, when you purchase what we call a “Gold Package” www.nicabm.com/order/master-program-on-treating-trauma/?id=1940, not only do you get the transcripts of each session, but you can also enable closed captioning directly on the videos.

[@jj42684]

@@nicabm shouldn’t closed captioning be freely available? Would you ask a deaf person to pay in order to hear?

[@joanne5275]

You can auto generate subtitles yourself in settings

[@Sharon-id6eo]

explanation for Tourettes