Polyvagal theory helps us understand that both branches of the vagus nerve calm the body, but they do so in different ways. Shutdown, or freeze-or-faint, occurs through the dorsal branch of the vagus nerve. This reaction can feel like the fatigued muscles and lightheadedness of a bad flu.
Shutdown is collapsing or going limp. Freeze is stiffening. Freeze is the combination of sympathetic arousal plus shutdown. It's flight/fight in combination with immobilization.
3 – Shutdown/Collapse. As the path of last resort, if we are trapped or action taking doesn't work, our nervous system takes us to the bottom of the ladder, into shutdown/collapse. We see this in animals when they “play dead”. The same nervous system pathway is activated for them as it is for us.
Trauma, prolonged stress, anxiety, depression and grief all contribute to feeling emotionally shut down. Nemmers says medication, while lifesaving for many, can also trigger a side effect of emotional numbness. Additionally, he says to keep in mind everyone internalizes and interprets trauma differently.
In shutdown mode, at some level our nervous system believes we are in a life-threatening situation, and it tries to keep us alive through keeping our body still. Some people who have had both attachment trauma and subsequent trauma can have chronic suicidality and dissociation episodes that last days to months.
Intense emotions, such as anger, frustration, or sadness, can become overpowering and make it challenging to engage constructively in the conversation. Shutting down may be an automatic defense mechanism to protect oneself from further emotional distress.
You may not have noticed it before, but here are the signs that someone might struggle with emotional shut-down: Refusing to talk about certain topics. Distracting themselves with other tasks. Leaving the situation and avoiding related parties.
Dissociation occurs when a person feels disconnected from themselves and the world around them. It can be a healthy response to boredom, stress, trauma, fear or emotional overload, allowing ourselves to avoid some of the strong physiological responses to a negative situation.
Graceful shutdown and hard shutdown are two opposing methods of turning off a computer. A graceful shutdown is when a computer is turned off by software function and the operating system (OS) is allowed to perform its tasks of safely shutting down processes and closing connections.
A faulty/corrupt driver can cause the operating system to malfunction and trigger the error Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown. 2) Application error: Application errors are another common cause of the error that can cause the operating system to shut down.
Normal shutdowns and startups allow the machine to perform self-tests, clear out the RAM, and alert you to software updates or minor errors. Power surges or power drops occurring when a machine is powered by its power adapter are more harmful to a sleeping computer than to one completely shut down.
The freeze response, which makes the body immobile. You might feel paralysed or unable to move. This response is most often linked to dissociation. Dissociation in humans is like when animals freeze when they're in danger.
Due to having impaired executive function, people with ADHD can become overwhelmed more easily than those without it, and can experience “overwhelm freeze.” Feeling overwhelmed can be perceived as a certain kind of threat, even if it's just to your mental well-being, causing a freeze reaction much like others might ...
Those who froze as a response often as children may develop a tendency towards disassociation, anxiety or panic disorders, and even post-traumatic stress disorder. As a response to triggering events that resemble childhood trauma, disassociation can be one of the most harmful ways one freezes.
For the person being stonewalled, it can leave them feeling confused, hurt and angry. It can wear down on their self-esteem, leading them to feel worthless or hopeless. For the person stonewalling, they also suffer as they are denying themselves emotional intimacy with their partner.
Stonewalling is when a person in a relationship withdraws from an interaction, shuts down, and simply stops responding to their partner. Rather than confronting the issue, people who stonewall resort to evasive maneuvers.
There are five main ways in which the dissociation of psychological processes changes the way a person experiences living: depersonalization, derealization, amnesia, identity confusion, and identity alteration.
How to reconnect to your emotions. One way of reconnecting with these feelings and emotions is to learn mindfulness with a counsellor. Someone who is willing to offer empathy and work with you in a practical way, re-sensitising you to your bodily sensations and emotions in a safe way.