Hello dear Guest,
That sounds really hard. I’m wondering if you have had an opportunity to speak with a counsellor or psychologist about what may be behind the freeze reaction and overthinking? If you haven’t already, you can see your GP for a mental health care plan that will give you up to 10 sessions with a Medicare rebate with a psychologist.
I have experienced a lot of freezing in my life so I really empathise. For me there are a lot of past trauma issues/experiences where I learned the freeze response early on. For me I have found the physical reaction and freeze happens first then layers of thought can build on top of that. Is that sort of what happens for you?
It has gotten better for me as I’ve learned to understand my own nervous system. I’m much more aware of what’s happening now. I’ve done somatic approaches to processing experiences with my psychologist which has helped. Recently I’ve also got to really like the meditations of Loch Kelly who has this approach called “awake awareness” which is being able to step back and see things from kind of outside the smaller focus of the thinking mind to simply being aware. He refers to his approach as Effortless Mindfulness. He has a website and various meditations on YouTube. I just thought I’d mention it in case that’s helpful.
Sometimes grounding techniques can help to settle the nervous system, bringing you back to the present moment and that things are ok. Feeling your feet on the ground or where you are sitting, listening for the sounds around you and noticing things in the room by simply being present can often ease those panicky responses.
Take care and happy to chat further if you would like.
Kind regards,
Eagle Ray
