The Unfreezing of a high-risk taking Banker
In the above case, high risks offered a sense of stillness. A sense of achievement. When the real challenge came up he froze to his childhood behavior and went into the unproductive functional zone
Common life situations that lead to freezing responses as a child
Sudden onset of physical abuse and neglect
Separation from parents and other loved ones.
Sexual Abuse
Unexpected Death of Loved ones
Accidents
Witnessing Abuse of loved ones by a loved one
A banker by profession. Risk-taking was in his blood. He had grown in his career with some bold moves. He seemed to have coped with the unexpected death of his father. When he met me for the first time, his wife and children told me that though he seemed normal for nearly two years since his dad's death. they noticed that he had become disinterested in most of the activities he normally used to enjoy. He was diagnosed with diabetes and had become obese. He had started eating more between meals. Yet he had no idea. He wanted to stop these but he was unable to. When he tried to control his food habits, he experienced depression. He was not able to take action.
Freezing is the unconscious response to sudden psychological and physical trauma. Deep work related to reliving and reexperiencing and release of emotions that got triggered during the death of his father, which were mostly as to how his dad had coped with the death of his parents that he had copied as a child.
Inability to take action fully, though being fully aware that action needs to be taken could be due to an inner psychological freeze. Plastic smiles, coping with many other compulsive behaviors that could include social media engagements, internet browsing, workaholic, being to be more engaged in work, avoiding actions that could be problem-solving are some examples of an inner freeze.
To freeze is a protective response on the unconscious mind when one is exposed to sudden Physical or Psychological trauma. It also gives an inner sense of security. This mostly lead to inaction.
As a child one continuously learns by observing and copying the behavior of parents. Parents' responses to happy events, unhappy events, stressful events are introjected as complete experiences.
This is linked to the intrinsic tendencies of the child - The Samskaric background.
When the inner unhealed or evoked responses from the psyche keep attracting similar events and situations to replay and resolve the accumulation of such emotions and seek balance.
When this is not done, it leads to recurrent patterns
The whole pattern gets opened up when one freezes due to unexpected trauma.
Reliving and re-experiencing leads to release.