Be honest: Do you ever have days where you have a big to-do list and tell yourself ‘I’ll do it’, only to feel paralysed with inertia and unable to do anything but lie in bed and scroll through TikTok? Then you feel sick with guilt and anxiety that you wasted the day, but feel powerless to find the motivation to do anything to fix it?

When your mental health isn’t in a great place, it’s normal to want to take a break. But if you constantly feel too exhausted to complete basic everyday tasks, experts warn that it might be a sign that you’re stuck in something called ‘freeze mode’. And if you feel like you can do the basics so you appear fine, but nothing else? That’s ‘functional freeze mode’. 

Many of us are familiar with the concept of ‘fight or flight,’ the body’s automatic response to stressful situations. But did you know there’s a third reaction called freeze mode?

“Like flight or fight, freeze mode is an evolutionary ‘survival of the fittest’ instinct that the brain and body adopts to protect itself when it perceives danger,” explains Tina Chummun, a UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist who is part of Counselling Directory. Basically, when your nervous system gets overloaded with stressful information, your brain might ‘freeze’ as a way to protect itself.

You might have noticed this term popping up on TikTok lately, as thousands of users have flocked to the app to detail their unsettling experiences of feeling trapped in this eerie state.

Functional freeze mode is slightly different, because it’s not always visible. To the naked eye, someone in functional freeze mode might appear to be doing fine, but internally they’re stuck. Someone in a functional freeze mode might be able to tick off tasks at work, for example, but struggle to do the basics of self-care once the clock hits 5pm. Or they might be able to do the essential tasks of eating and sleeping, but their minds still feel frozen. 

Unlike fight or flight, which involve visible reactions like panic, dry mouth or shaking, freeze mode is difficult to spot, as it manifests subtly.

In a TikTok video, psychotherapist Meg Josephson describes common ‘freeze mode’ scenarios, like feeling hungry but too overwhelmed to decide what to eat, or starting tasks and getting quickly overstimulated, so resorting to scrolling instead. Other signs include cancelling plans and withdrawing from friendships, despite feeling lonely, and struggling to stop looking at your phone, even when you want to.

“People often describe freeze mode as a sense of immobility, indecision, or just feeling unable to do the things they used to with the same ease,” says Chummun. Along with struggling to push through a motivation slump, she adds that you might feel numb, disconnected from your emotions, or find it difficult to concentrate on tasks. 

Sometimes a single stressful event can tip you over into a freeze state, such as clamming up in an intense work meeting or struggling to get your words out when you bump into an ex unexpectedly.

But often, freeze mode happens because we’re moving through life in a constant state of low-grade stress. Whether it’s unrelenting pressure at work or our inability to properly switch off from social media, stress is everywhere. In fact, almost half of UK employees are estimated to be close to burnout, putting more of us at a higher risk of being in this mysterious freeze state.

“Because our nervous system hasn’t evolved to keep up with the fast pace of modern life, our brains can interpret this flood of information as a threat – shutting down as a protective measure,” says Jennifer Mann, nervous system practitioner and author of The Secret Language of the Body.

“A lot of us feel stuck, overwhelmed and think, ‘There must be something wrong with me’ because we can’t get basic tasks such as cooking or responding to texts done efficiently,” she adds. “Often, it’s not that you’re lazy or procrastinating, it’s because you’re in survival mode.”

As we’re living in an era obsessed with productivity and hustle culture, where waking up at 5am to smash out a 10k run has become the norm, we can often misinterpret functional freeze mode as laziness or boredom, failing to recognise it as a valid response to stress or trauma. As a consequence, Mann says that people can feel extreme guilt and failure around this natural physiological response, particularly if they don’t fully understand it. 

Experts say that prolonged experiences of freeze mode can contribute to bigger mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, or PTSD, so it’s important to take steps to manage it.

Thawing ourselves out first involves recognising that our symptoms are being fuelled by stress. From here, we can try the following tips to bring our nervous system back into regulation:

1. Try humming a ‘voo’ sound

When you feel yourself slipping into a stagnant state, Mann says that somatic practices can help – short exercises that stimulate the vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve in the body which controls the body’s parasympathetic ‘rest and digest’ response.

“By activating the vagus nerve, we can trigger the release of various calming hormones and neurotransmitters, which help to reduce the stress hormone cortisol. This is what’s keeping us in a state of overwhelm.

“Basic humming is a powerful exercise for effectively hitting the vagus nerve, especially with a low-pitched ‘voo’ sound. Research has found that the vibration of the vocal cords stimulates the muscles in the back of the throat, activating the vagus nerve and bringing on the beneficial calming effects.”

2. Go for a barefoot walk in the park

It might sound odd, but kicking off your shoes and feeling the soil beneath your feet can help to focus your attention back to your body. Known as grounding, this somatic technique calms the nervous system by mindfully bringing us into the present moment.

“When we consciously walk barefoot on natural surfaces like grass or sand, our brain is stimulated by the sensory receptors in thousands of nerve endings in our feet,” notes Mann. “The survival state causes us to feel disconnected from our body as a way of self-protection, so anything we can do to anchor our brain back to the here and now can help reduce feelings of numbness and derealisation.”

3. Start your day with tapping techniques

If you find it difficult to relax, a technique called EFT tapping might be helpful.

“The skin is an organ too, which has many nerve endings that connect to the brain,” says Mann. “EFT tapping is based on the same energy and meridian system used in acupuncture, where we use our fingers to gently tap on specific parts of the skin to stimulate calming messages to the brain’s limbic system.

“These meridian points are considered passageways where energy flows in the body, helping to release pent-up stressful emotions that cause the freeze response.”

4. Get to the root of the stress

It’s all well and good using techniques to manage stress, but the issue will continue to crop up if we don’t eliminate the trigger. Whether it’s a boss with no boundaries, relationships worries or life in a noisy flatshare, stress is a natural response to perceived threats that challenge us.

“At the core of every survival mode is a wound that’s at play, so it’s about figuring out the reason your brain is so overwhelmed that it’s trying to escape your body,” says Mann.

“Therapy can be really helpful for understanding the deeper causes of stress and the symptoms it causes, such as freeze mode,” adds Chummun. “A qualified therapist can help you to work out what’s fuelling the issue, and provide tools and techniques to help bring your brain back to a place where it feels safe and grounded.”

Finally, if you’re struggling with freeze mode and it’s impacting your day-to-day life, it’s important to speak to your GP. They can provide support and guidance to help you navigate through it.

Frame Of Mind is Stylist’s home for all things mental health and the mind. From expert advice on the small changes you can make to improve your wellbeing to first-person essays and features on topics ranging from autism to antidepressants, we’ll be exploring mental health in all its forms. You can check out the series home page to get started.

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