Have you ever been paralyzed or shocked by a threat?We thought it would be normal to react when we perceived great danger. However, in many cases there is an inability to defend ourselves and we cannot move any muscle.
Then we will see what happens in these situations and why our muscles are paralyzed when the most logical thing would be to use them.
- Maybe you had a cat that.
- When he got scared or didn’t want to know.
- Was paralyzed.
- This usually happens when he’s young and it’s a survival technique.
They claim to be dead, so that, in this way, your attacker will stop paying attention to them and abandon them, so to us, human beings, something quite similar happens to us in certain circumstances that prevent us from defending ourselves.
The amygdala is located in the brain, inside the temporal lobe, plays a very important role in our emotional system, but is primarily responsible for alerting us when we are in danger.
No matter if the threat is internal (we have a heart attack) or external (someone approaches us with an aggressive attitude), in both cases the amygdala is activated.
What happens next is that the amygdala sends certain nerve impulses to different areas of the brain to activate certain bodily functions.
In this way, our heart rate will increase, more oxygen will reach our muscles, and we will prepare to react and defend against the possible threat, either in the race or in attack.
The amygdala is activated due to fear and triggers a reaction that sends hormones into the bloodstream to prepare it for action. The senses are more precise, the breath is restless and the memory more vivid.
With all this emotion could not miss the adrenaline, which actively participates in this response to escape or face the threat, causing the constriction of our blood vessels and the dilation of the airways.
At the same time, many parts of the body will be inhibited at this time, they are responsible for making decisions.
Why can’t we make decisions in a situation of danger, this is a consequence of the stress that all this alarm activation causes in our body, causing our nervous system to decide to act instinctively to save our lives.
Here, reasoning can be an inconvenience, as the priority is to react quickly.
Given all of the above, it may seem strange that this inability to defend ourselves from a threat occurs, as our bodies prepare to confront it, however, we must consider the situation that this need for protection causes us.
If a circumstance triggers past trauma, or is so severe that it leads to a state of panic, a complete disconnection can occur in our brains, meaning we’ll be stuck.
This disconnection is related to what we call depersonalization, one of the symptoms of anxiety, as a result, we feel strange in our own body, the senses and emotions fall asleep and we are completely disoriented, acting automatically, as if we were robots.
We are talking about a means of survival that helps us reduce the pain and emotional suffering that the situation can cause us, in this situation you do not escape, you do not react, you do nothing.
Dissociation is a mechanism that our brain performs to protect us from a situation in which it understands that there is no way out, so that our mind from reality sets a certain safety distance that reduces the emotional impact that this circumstance can cause us.
This type of reaction usually occurs in many abused children or people who have been repeatedly assaulted, in fact dissociation can make them doubt what happened and even make them think they have imagined everything.
The inability to defend against a threat should never be penalized or questioned, because, according to all that is explained, it is a completely normal reaction that tries, in a way, to protect us.
Depending on the situation we face, we may be able to react or, because of our personal history or the severity of the problem, we may be completely paralyzed.