If you’ve ever felt stuck, foggy, exhausted, or just disconnected from your own life, this conversation is for you. Today, we’re talking about something that often gets overlooked in discussions around stress and burnout: the freeze response.

Most of us are familiar with fight or flight. We know what it feels like to be anxious, over-functioning, and running on adrenaline. But freeze? That’s a different flavor of dysregulation entirely. Freeze is when your nervous system slams the brakes. It’s what happens when your body decides that fighting or running won’t work, and the safest option is to shut down.

Freeze isn’t dramatic. It’s quiet. It’s heavy. It’s the woman who looks like she has it all together but feels like a ghost in her own body. If you’ve been pushing through high-stress seasons for so long that you’re not even anxious anymore—you’re just numb—this might be what’s going on underneath. And it’s time we talk about it.

What Is the Freeze Response?

The freeze response is part of your body’s natural survival strategy. When your brain detects a threat, it typically activates the sympathetic nervous system first—revving you up to fight or flee. But when the threat feels overwhelming or inescapable, your system pivots into freeze. That’s when the dorsal vagal branch of your parasympathetic nervous system takes over.

In this state, everything slows down: your heart rate, digestion, energy production, and cognitive function. You might feel heavy, foggy, detached. You might go through the motions without actually feeling present. This isn’t laziness or a lack of motivation. It’s biology. It’s protection.

For high-achieving women, freeze is often what comes after prolonged seasons of stress, over-functioning, and emotional suppression. It’s a nervous system that’s had enough—and doesn’t know how to safely keep going. So it stops.

Here are seven signs you might be living in freeze, even if you’ve never named it that way.

1. Emotional Numbness

You’re not feeling much of anything—not sadness, not anger, not even joy. You’re not necessarily upset, but you’re not connected, either. This kind of flatness is your nervous system trying to protect you from more overwhelm. But in the process, it blocks access to all the good stuff too.

Gentle, rhythmic movement like rocking or swaying can help here. It’s not about exercise; it’s about creating safety through motion that doesn’t demand too much.

2. Struggling to Get Out of Bed

Even after a full night of sleep, you feel like you’re dragging a boulder just to stand up. That’s not laziness—that’s dysregulation. When you’re in freeze, cortisol levels (your body’s natural wake-up hormone) are often out of sync, and your cellular energy production slows way down.

Start with sunlight and protein first thing in the morning. These two simple steps support cortisol balance and help anchor your body back into a rhythm of alertness and rest.

3. Always Feeling Cold

If your hands and feet are constantly freezing, or you feel a chill that won’t go away, it could be more than just the weather. Freeze redirects blood flow to your core organs as a conservation strategy, which can leave your extremities cold and numb.

Staying warm and engaging in light, cross-body movements like tapping or walking can gently reawaken circulation and signal safety to your nervous system.

4. Brain Fog and Memory Issues

Can’t remember where you put your keys? Forgetting conversations you just had? Struggling to find the right words? That’s your prefrontal cortex—your brain’s executive functioning center—being put on pause by a nervous system that’s stuck in emergency mode.

Deep belly breathing, humming, and orienting to your physical surroundings (naming five things you see, for example) can help bring that part of your brain back online.

5. Hypersensitivity to Touch

Textures and sensations that used to feel neutral or comforting now feel irritating or overwhelming. You might find yourself avoiding certain clothes or pulling off jewelry because it just feels like too much.

Start by identifying what feels soothing. Weighted blankets, soft natural fibers, or grounding textures can gently build your sensory tolerance without pushing your system too hard.

6. Emotional Underreaction

Something big happens—a conflict, a disappointment, a stressful event—and instead of reacting, you feel… nothing. You might shut down, dissociate, or delay your emotional response by hours or even days.

This is your system buffering against further stress. Supporting yourself before and after intense conversations with grounding practices can help you stay more present, even in the hard moments.

7. Feeling Stuck with No Clear Reason

You know something’s off. You want to change. But no matter how many lists you make or how hard you try, you can’t seem to move forward. That’s the hallmark of freeze—emotional and physical paralysis. It’s not resistance. It’s a lack of internal safety.

The antidote? Micro-actions. Brush your teeth while standing barefoot. Sit outside for five minutes. Shake your hands out. You don’t have to go big. You just have to go slow—at the speed of safety.

Final Thoughts

If any of this feels familiar, take a deep breath. You’re not broken or weak. You’re in freeze. And freeze is something we can work with—compassionately, patiently, and effectively.

Your nervous system is designed to adapt. It wants to return to safety. And with the right tools, it absolutely can.

That’s why I created the Nervous System Reset Guide. It’s completely free, packed with practical somatic tools, and includes a burnout assessment to help you understand where to begin.

You don’t need more pressure. You need support that meets you where you are.

Let’s move gently out of freeze—together.

Related Links:

• Previous Episode
• Why You Need a Family Mission Statement and 5 Steps to Writing Yours
• How to Talk to Your Kids about Hard Things While Protecting Your Family’s Peace
• “Calm in the Chaos: 3 Strategies to Navigate Triggering Family Dynamics “
• Raising Strong-Willed Kids Without Losing Your Mind

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