Brad Schipke explains how the brain triggers a freeze response when facing an inescapable threat, shutting down emotional and sensory processing as a last-line defense. In PTSD, this reflex stays chronically activated, making people freeze even when they want to act. Recovery means retraining the body and processing the trauma.
When you're unable to fight or you're unable to escape, your brain shuts everything down and freezes in an attempt to protect you. Freezing is your body's last line of defense. Your brain disconnects you from emotion and sensation so that you can actually survive what's going on in the moment. And later on, that same freeze reflex can get stuck. You might freeze even when you want to react, but you can retrain your body, process the underlying trauma, and that's what healing really does. It restores the choice.
