When Fight or Flight Becomes Overwhelm

Live Holistically is a multi-author site.
This post was written by: Susan Blue

Hello, it is me, Susan Blue, adding to my previous articles on Depression and the Effects of Trauma.

The instinct for survival is hard wired in our systems. We will run or we will fight. It depends on the situation and our physical / emotional make up.

In our modern world, there can be a lot of stimuli for running away. Your co-worker gets in your face and you just want to get away from them. Of course, you don’t. You stand your ground and listen to their complaint. (Check out your body and see if you feel defensive, ready for ….) If you have communication or negotiation skills: You might be able to redirect them, “Talk to the person you are complaining about. Talking to me isn’t helpful for your situation.” Or “You are telling more than I want to know.”

Author Meryl Runion writes communication books for the business world. I highly recommend, How to Use Power Phrases to Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, & Get What You Want. Even if you don’t consider yourself a business person, the art of negotiation is part of life. You may as well be skilled rather than not.

Knowing what to say or how to behave will let the nervous system settle down after such an encounter. For many of us, the intensity of the reoccurring situations can build in our systems. The process of overwhelm begins.

Overwhelm

Overwhelm happens when our resources no longer meet the needs of the situation. Our minds and bodies are no longer able to do what needs to be done. The focus is scattered. The body is sluggish, heavy, or we might have a problem being in our body and being present. If we are able to change that process, overwhelm stops. If not, our nervous system may take us to freeze.

Freeze

Freeze happens in all mammalian life. It is there for our protection and survival. An example of how it works: a deer is running from a mountain lion. As it is about to be attacked, the deer drops. That deer is in freeze. The mountain lion may get it, but the deer will not feel the demise of its life. The mountain lion may pass it over as it is hard wired for getting live food. Dead food would be dangerous to health as the lion’s digestive acids would not break down bacteria. Or the mountain lion gets the deer but may drag it off and cover it with debris, to eat it later.

If this is the case, after some time we would see the deer come out of freeze. First there would be trembling, then shaking as the deer got up. The shaking would continue for a bit before the deer ran off. Trembling and shaking is the discharge from the nervous system. The deer may be wounded, but it is not traumatised.

In our civilized world, we often get in the way of nature’s process. We seek to control the trembling or shaking, the crying or sighing. We want to be on top of our emotions rather than being present with them as they pass through the body in various feeling tones. Because of this, we interrupt the discharge of the nervous system and the overwhelm or freeze becomes encoded.

Over time, overwhelm and freeze effects the mind body relationship in a negative way. Oh what to do? You may want to read one of my previous articles, 13 Holistic Tips for Depression.

My next article is how traumatization happens. How we can get our nervous systems to become resilient again will be my concluding article.