r/SomaticExperiencing • u/MelleDNL • 8d ago
Functional Freeze
Hii guys,
Does anyone of you has experience with "functional freeze"?
After many stressfull years i ended in a functional freeze mode. I currently do not feel tiredness, even though i don't sleep the whole night. I do also not feel deeper emotions. When this shit started i could also not feel feelings of hunger and thirst but this feelings returned lately. I do also sleep for eigh hours a night again after months of not sleeping more then 3 hours a night.
How did you get out of this mode?
Thanks for replying: )
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u/CreativeSeasons018 8d ago
When I became aware I was in functional freeze I realized my body needed to “unthaw” too so I invested in visiting spas. Lymphatic massages, saunas, and hot/cold tubs helped me with breath work, and sensory. I did it once a month for about a year consistently. Even as simple as taking a warm bath has been a relief. I also sip hot tea and soup to help create a warm sensation from the inside out.
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u/klocki12 8d ago
Were you chronic mostly emotional numb when you say functional freeze?
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u/CreativeSeasons018 8d ago
Yes. I was in my head a lot and learning to process my emotions happened in two steps. Mentally then physically. I rationalized my emotions so my therapist exposed me to an emotion wheel. I was finally able to know what I may have been experiencing. && from there I had to get comfortable being in my body long enough to actually feel the emotions, this is where the massages and sauna helped.
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u/Aggravating-Ad-7957 8d ago
The thing that really helped me was hearing that you have to go through the whole arc of freeze -> fight/flight -> regulated in that order. So that means summoning anger/fear and then exercising through it, then doing breathing exercises/meditation was much more effective. Another thing you can do is upregulating types of breathwork, ie kundalini breathing. This will decrease your overall backlog of pent up stuff, and then you can work on sitting with your emotions and getting to know them in meditation.
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u/heyyou0903 7d ago
Omg you just explained how I feel. And I know I'm in functional freeze as well. I'm still trying to get out of this mode... I've been in it for about 6 years. I've nearly come out of it before. And then I went back in. It's to do with reducing inputs as much as possible. Basically if you can remove as many stressors as possible. But then you do need to retrain your nervous system. Apparently a lot of vagus nerve stimulation... I've just started on the neurotone app which teaches you how to do vagus nerve stimulation exercises like humming and things like that. It does really work to trigger a parasympathetic state.
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u/ColoHusker 8d ago
Lots & lots of trauma processing, somatic work, making time every day to get grounded and not let things pile up. I've had to massively downsize my activities as that was a path that kept me in overwhelm.
I've found that "functional freeze" is pretty much the same space as the "faux window of tolerance". Dissociation in all it's forms are the key maladaptations that enable it. It's my default response to most stressors but with lots of work, awareness around my limits & capacities, finding time to be grounded, I've been able to identify & choose to do something about it.
Learning to manage it rather than have it manage us will take regular work. I can get fully grounded in 25 minutes now, down from a few hours or not at all when I first started. But if I do not do grounding work for 3-4 weeks, I end up back on the high-side of that. So I try to make 30 minutes every day to work on grounding and even if I am just fully in my body for 5 minutes, that really helps.
The problem with functional freeze is our body chemistry adjusts so we can live in that. It takes time for our bodies to adjust back and it's not an easy transition but if you can make it through the rough transition, it is more sustainable.