When confronting an aggressor in public, many imagine self-defense or crying for help. In reality, a state of immobility, loss of speech, or inability to move is quite common.
Individuals often react by recoiling, trembling, and questioning, "Why did I freeze?" during such moments.
In 1915, American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon coined the term "fight or flight" to describe an organism's core instinct when facing a threat. By the 1970s, scientists began to focus on a third response: "freeze". American psychologist Gordon G. Gallup Jr. noted that tonic immobility – the stillness of prey before a predator – is similar to the human fear response.
Evolutionary and Scientific Mechanisms
The freeze response emerges when an individual cannot fight or flee an overwhelming opponent. From an evolutionary perspective, this mechanism originates from the hunter-gatherer era. When confronting a wild animal with no escape, human ancestors activated a "playing dead" instinct. The primitive nervous system automatically controls the body, creating immobility to reduce the predator's attention.
Immobility also offers psychological benefits. During severe attacks, the brain actively disconnects cognitive systems, preventing memory formation of the event and protecting victims from psychological trauma.
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Anh minh hoa: Envato Elements/choreograph
While immobile, the brain and body quickly assess the danger level. Heart rate and breathing slow to conserve energy; hearing becomes sharper; pain sensation decreases. This entire process occurs in an instant, before the cognitive brain region can analyze the situation. These survival reflexes are entirely controlled by the primitive nervous system, beyond conscious human control.
How to End the Freeze Response
Individuals with a history of psychological trauma or anxiety disorders often experience the "freezing" response more frequently.
In 2024, researchers at Tulane University (US) announced the discovery of a new chemical pathway in mouse brains that controls the transition from immobility to flight. This finding opens opportunities to understand the human brain better, advancing research into treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health therapies.
Currently, humans cannot actively switch off the freeze response, but they can prevent the brain from falling into unwarranted fear reflexes. Sometimes, stressful thoughts can trick the amygdala, generating false life-threatening signals.
Viewing the freeze state as a personal failure only increases psychological pressure. A solid understanding of the body's defensive mechanisms is a crucial step in recognizing and overcoming immobility. The amygdala does not operate on conventional logical thinking; it always prioritizes the body's survival.
Minh Phuong (According to Mental Floss, Popular Science)
