Anxiety and the Freeze Response (Episode 64)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 665 Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Everyone talks about the fight or flight response. But what about the freeze and fawn responses, which are also found in the anxiety disorder community?
This week Josh and Drew dig into the freeze response to anxiety, panic, and perceived threat. What is the freeze response? What does it look like? Does the freeze response mean being literally frozen and completely immobilized? Do we need special instructions or rules for how to "fix" the freeze state when anxious or experiencing panic?
Along the way, the guys also touch on the fawn response, which also doesn't get enough discussion in this community. We'll be doing a dedicated fawn response episode next week.
----
Struggling with worry and rumination that you feel you can't stop or control? Check out Worry and Rumination Explained, a two hour pre-recorded workshop produced by Josh and Drew. The workshop takes a deep dive into the mechanics of worrying and ruminating, offering some helpful ways to approach the seemingly unsolvable problem of trying to solve seemingly unsolveable problems.
https://bit.ly/worryrumination
-----
Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?
Visit us on the web at https://disordered.fm
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, my name is Anna Lisa. I'm from Estonia, Tallinn. |
| 0:06.0 | And yes, you can use my name. |
| 0:09.0 | I thought if you could perhaps have time and touch upon more about the freeze response in a panic attack. |
| 0:18.0 | You know, usually I've had the wish to run away, save myself, run away, but now |
| 0:26.5 | I'm kind of always freezing. Another thing that's really scary for me is that I'm having |
| 0:33.0 | several panic attacks in a row. Like I was so scared that something was like, you know, that I was |
| 0:39.4 | going to go crazy or I'm going to have a psychosis or some kind of an episode. So I called |
| 0:46.1 | myself an ambulance. But it is so scary. And if it lasts so long, it really, you know, |
| 0:52.7 | makes you think that something really is going on. |
| 0:55.4 | So how can adrenaline create itself again so quickly? |
| 1:00.3 | But I haven't really found anyone who's had this experience. |
| 1:04.4 | Thank you so much. |
| 1:09.7 | Welcome to Disordid. This is episode 64 entitled The Freeze Response. I'm Joshua Fletcher, |
| 1:18.3 | also known as Anxiety Josh, and I'm a psychotherapist based in the UK, specializing in anxiety disorders. |
| 1:25.9 | Also a previous sufferer, an author of the book, |
| 1:29.0 | and how does that make you feel? |
| 1:31.0 | And I am Drew Lynn Salana. |
| 1:32.7 | I am in New York in the USA, therapist and training, also specializing in anxiety and anxiety disorders, |
| 1:38.2 | also a podcaster and author and educator, former sufferer, co-host of this lovely podcast, |
| 1:43.6 | and today we're going to talk about |
| 1:44.8 | freeze and fawn. We do freeze and fawn today. We'll touch a bit on fawn because it overlaps |
| 1:51.0 | a little bit, but we'll do a separate episode entirely on the fawn response because there's a lot |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.