When any organism perceives overwhelming mortal danger with little or no chance for escape, the biological response is a global one of paralysis and shutdown. Ethologists call this innate response tonic immobility.
In the fight-or-flight response, the objective is to get away from the source of threat. All of our muscles prepare for this escape by increasing their tension level, our heart rate and respiration increase, and our whole basic metabolic system is flooded with adrenaline. Blood is diverted to the muscles, away from the viscera. The goal is to run away, or if we feel that we can't escape or if we perceive that the individual that's trying to attack us is less strong than we are, to attack them. Or if we're cornered by a predator—in other words, if there's no way to escape—then we'll fight back. Now, if none of those procedures are effective, and it looks like we're going to be killed, we go into the shock state, the tonic immobility. Now the key is that when people get into this immobility state, they do it in a state of fear. And as they come out of the immobility state, they also enter a state of fear, and actually a state in which they are prepared for what sometimes is called rage counterattack. For example, you see a cat chasing a mouse. The cat catches the mouse and has it in its paws, and the mouse goes into this immobility response. And sometimes you'll actually see the cat bat the mouse around a little bit until it comes out of the immobility, because the cat wants the chase to go on. Now, what can happen is that the mouse, when it comes out of the immobility state, goes into what is called nondirective flight. It doesn't even look for where it can run. It just runs as fast as it can in any direction. Sometimes that's right into the cat. Other times, it will actually attack, in a counterattack of rage. I've actually seen a mouse that was captured by a cat come out of the immobility and attack the cat's nose. The cat was so startled it remained there in a state of shock while the mouse scurried away. When people come out of this immobility response, their potential for rage is so strong and the associated sensations are so intense that they are afraid of their own impulse to strike out and to defend themselves. Again, this all goes back to our animal heritage.
Humans experience this frozen state as helpless terror and panic. It is a state of utter hopelessness. Sometimes these are referred to as meltdowns or panic attacks. Tonic immobility is the last-ditch of defense cascade, occurs in traumatized humans. Immobility correlates with tachycardia and low heart rate variability. Cardiac deceleration response is hypothesized to be part of a freezing-like defensive response that includes reduced body sway and heart rate deceleration. Tonic immobility is an innate behavioral response characterized by temporary, profound physical inactivity, analgesia, and relative unresponsiveness to external stimulation that occurs in response to inescapable threats. It is a form of disassociation similar to self-hypnosis.
Being physically, mentally, and emotionally immobilized by overwhelming stress permits an individual to not feel the harrowing enormity of what’s happening to them, which in their hyperarousal state might threaten their very sanity. In such instances some of the chemicals (i.e., endorphins) secreted functions as an analgesic, so the pain of any injury (to their body or psyche) is experienced with far less intensity.
One of the things that Bessel van der Kolk showed when he first started to do trauma research with functional MRIs is that when people are in the trauma state, they actually shut down the frontal parts of their brain and particularly the area on the left cortex called Broca's area, which is responsible for speech. When the person is in the traumatic state, those brain regions are literally shut down; they're taken offline. Some Aspies report that during a meltdown, they have difficulty processing speech. It is like hearing white noise. Others indicate they lose their ability to think in words. Rather they revert back to thinking in terms of pictures and video clips and when they try and communicate, their words come out as gibberish. Others indicate they lose their ability to process all sensory inputs. Sometimes during a panic attack, the whole body goes limp and the person will collapse on the floor.
For an individual this state of tonic immobility is very scary one to experience. The individual literally lose control over their actions. Highly traumatized and chronically neglected or abused individuals are dominated by the immobilization/shutdown system. Chronically traumatized individuals tend to be plagued with dissociative symptoms, including frequent spaciness, unreality, depersonalization, a general disengagement from life and various somatic symptoms and health complaints.
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Got any tips on how to get back to normal?
Aspies experience significantly more stress than the average individual. This stress builds up over time unless it is vented. Otherwise the stress can transition into distress, such as panic attacks devolving even into tonic immobility. When most people think about stress they think about emotions. But stress is physical in nature. It is generated by chemicals inside the body, many of which are the release of chains of hormones. These chemicals build up over time and spill over into distress. So the answer to your question is to learn ways to vent the stress chemicals stored within your body effectively.
From my perception there are 6 regions of the human body where stress is stored. These are the core, the two legs, the two arms, and the neck. If you are experiencing tonic immobility where you cannot even talk, then I would interpret this as your neck is overloaded.
So how do you vent this chemical energy? The answer is that you SCREAM. When an infant is in distress, the child will cry and scream. Individuals have been taught to constrain and control this action because this behavior is very disruptive. About the time a child sets off to school he begins to be ridiculed for crying – they are called “crybabies”. But by inhibiting this natural reaction, the stress energy is not vented but rather stored. And this stored energy needs to be vented and released in order to avoid distress. So the main question is “How does one scream in a socially acceptable manner as an adolescent or adult?
One needs to vent the stored stress energy in their neck muscles, vocal cords, and jaw. The best way is to scream at the top of your lungs several times. But this must be done in a socially acceptable manner. Never scream at a person. I live in the rural countryside and my dog is a free-range dog. When it is mealtime and my dog is up and about; I call my dog very loudly.
R-o-c-k-y. Come here puppy. R-o-c-k-y.
R-o-c-k-y. Where are you puppy? R-o-c-k-y.
R-o-c-k-y. Come here puppy.
I yell so loud that I can hear my voice being echoed back to me from nearby hills and mountains. My voice carries about a mile. The call is so strong that it borders on a roar. It is a very good feeling. It gives me a sense of great strength, like I could split a mountain in two just with my voice alone. I feel strong to my core. It is a great stress reliever or normalizer. And it is socially acceptable in the countryside.
One might try howling like a wolf at the moon. There is an individual on this site from New York City area that howls at the subway cars as they pass by deep down in the subway stations. But there are other ways to scream in a socially acceptable manner. A singer can do this if it is a very powerful song. A barker in the county fair can do this. A fan at a rock concert can sing along at the top of their lungs. Some commuters sing along to the tune on the radio at the top of their lungs while they are driving down the road. A spectator at a sports event can do this in cheering on their team. Even a Girl Scout can practice barking in front of the local grocery store when she sells Girl Scout cookies. Or find yourself a soundproof room.
28 Dec 2020, 1:56 pm
