Your brain is wired in a certain way to protect you from danger. When there is a threat, your brain triggers what is known as the fight/flight/freeze response. This response changes the way your body feels in an effort to keep you safe.
Imagine for a minute that you are walking through the woods, and you see a big grizzly bear. The minute you spot this bear, a message is sent to your brain that lets it know there is a nearby threat.
Your brain says, “There is something close by that is dangerous and might hurt me!”
What happens next is your brain sends signals to your body to prepare it to respond to this danger. Your muscles will tense and feel more rigid and strong, your heartbeat will increase, your breath will quicken, and you might start to sweat. Your body is getting prepped and ready to either fight (attack the bear), flight (run away from the bear), or freeze (stand completely still and hope it leaves you alone). Your body has had this ability to prepare itself for danger since the beginning of time. It’s how you keep yourself alive when faced with unsafe and scary situations.
Now, let’s imagine the bear skips off and doesn’t want anything to do with you.
Your brain then says, “I don’t think I’m in danger anymore, I can send a new signal to the body that says I no longer need to be ready to protect myself.”
That signal should slow your breath, slow your heartbeat, and relax your muscles. However, sometimes your body receives this message more slowly, it might take a little longer to calm down even after the threat is no longer there. You can help your body out by taking deep breaths and reassuring yourself you are safe.
The interesting thing is there are many scenarios where your brain may mistakenly sound this fight/flight/freeze alarm. When you are nervous or scared, sometimes your brain thinks you are in danger, just the same as if you see a big scary bear. For example, for school, you may have to do a presentation in front of your classmates. If you are afraid of presentations and speaking in front of other people, your brain will interpret that situation as “dangerous” and get prepared to attack, run away, or freeze. Your heart will race, you’ll sweat, you might even feel sick or dizzy because of the changes your body is going through to protect you. Even though you may be scared, you are not actually in any real danger, so this alarm won’t be of any help to you. It actually is very unhelpful for this alarm to go off when it doesn’t need to.
This kind of scenario can lead to what we call anxiety and even sometimes a panic attack. The fight/flight/freeze response is normal and a very important function that your body does, but it can be harmful when it happens when you are not actually in danger.
It’s important to note that this is not a reason to get mad at your brain, it’s just doing its job! However, what you can do is help your brain out when this happens. Try to notice when your body might be sounding this fight/flight/freeze alarm in situations where it’s not necessary. Notice the changes in your body when they happen. When you can point this out, you can then start to use some strategies to create your own signal to send to your brain to tell it that you are safe, and you don’t need to run away! This can look like breathing techniques, grounding exercises, reframing your thinking, and challenging negative thoughts. All of that takes practice, so it is okay if calming your body down feels challenging right now. Going to see a psychologist to talk about this response and your anxious feelings can be helpful in getting better at using these strategies.
Overall, learning more about this response and its purpose is helpful in understanding the way that you are wired. If you want to learn more there are some YouTube videos attached below that you can watch to continue this conversation.
Fight Flight Freeze – A Guide to Anxiety for Kids
Brain Basics: Anxiety (for kids) Part 3 – The fight, flight and freeze responses
Fight Flight Freeze Response-Anxiety & Stress-The Downside Of The Survival Brain-How To Calm It Down
Maggie Trask
Simply Counselling Services