Fight and flight have long been established responses to stress, presenting people with two paths: engage with conflict head-on or try to escape from it. But what happens when you can’t seem to move forward or backward?
Functional freeze, otherwise known as the the third “F” in the fight, flight, freeze and fawn list, is a stress response defined as a feeling of numbness or paralysis when faced with a threat. This may look like an inability to respond in a verbal confrontation, or the body’s refusal to take action upon receiving a request or demand.
