Thaw Functional Freeze with Essential Oils

I stumbled upon a blind spot in my healing.

It has not been fun. 

In fact, over the past week, I have been experiencing more overwhelm, fatigue, lethargy, distractibility, and lack of productivity than ever before in my life.

The trigger was not a surprise to anyone but me.

My former husband –  the driver in the car accident that killed my son and his friends – completed his prison sentence and was released last week.  

The emotions this has released in me – all of the unspoken grief, anger, sadness, disappointment, and rage that my ex may never be able to discuss bubbled up to the surface and got stuck.

Because my body remembers how scary it was to raise children with this man who didn’t prioritize safety in the same way.  Who not only did not agree with some of the health choices I was attempting to make on behalf of the family but would often undermine me in food choices and safety decisions.

I sensed the danger, but I suppressed it.  

The technical term for this is functional freeze, the involuntary, immobile state triggered by the combination of both the fight or flight and the freeze response  – you experience chronic stress, but are unable to fight or flee so you have to freeze, while also feeling constantly alert and attuned to the danger.

What is Functional Freeze?

Functional freeze refers to a state where you may remain capable of performing tasks and functioning in your daily life, despite being stuck in a physiological response similar to the freeze reaction observed in animals under extreme stress or threat. 

The functional freeze response is correlated with an imbalance in the two branches of your autonomic nervous system which primes you for survival by either fighting, fleeing, or freezing, in other words, either ramping up or shutting down.

Your sympathetic “fight or flight” branch primes you for battle by releasing stress hormones like adrenaline, increasing blood and oxygen flow to the extremities, and powering your body with energy to either fight or flee.

Your parasympathetic “rest and digest” branch allows your body to relax and heal, routing blood flow to the organs of digestion and detoxification, and turning on systems that support healing like your immune system.

These two branches help regulate your body’s response to stressors and maintain a balance between arousal and relaxation. 

That said, chronic and prolonged stress can keep your nervous system locked in an ongoing state of “fight or flight”, known as sympathetic dominance. 

This prolonged stress coupled with the re-emergence of unresolved trauma (like my ex being released from prison and all the unresolved emotions that stirred up) can tip you over the edge from sympathetic dominance into dorsal vagal shutdown, a stress response initiated by the parasympathetic nervous system that redirects your limited energy towards essential functions such as conservation and self-preservation.  

In other words, trauma can shift the two branches of the autonomic nervous system from functioning harmoniously – pendulating between arousal and relaxation – into over-activation of your parasympathetic branch causing you to freeze rather than simply slow down.  

In his ground-breaking book, The Polyvagal Theory, Dr. Stephen Porges explains how your vagus nerve consists of three distinct branches: ventral vagal (safety), sympathetic, and dorsal vagal (shut down).

The dorsal side of the vagus nerve responds to cues of extreme danger.  When it is too aroused, the dorsal vagus nerve can shut down the entire system, pulling you away from connection, out of awareness, and into a state of self-protection.  You may experience this as functional freeze, responding to fear or trauma by becoming immobile, frozen, numb, shutting down, dissociating, or feeling unable to think clearly or access words or emotions.

Symptoms of Functional Freeze

In a functional freeze state, your body may become still as a defense mechanism which can present as mental, physical, emotional, or behavioral symptoms, including:

• Extreme Fatigue
• Social Withdrawal or Self-isolation (like canceling plans and not returning calls)
• Constantly Feeling Overwhelmed, even by simple tasks
• Difficulty Making Decisions
• Feeling stuck or unable to move forward.
• Emotional Detachment or Apathy
• Disengagement or a sense of detachment from the environment
• Inertia, lacking the drive to pursue goals or engage in activities that once brought joy
• Weight Gain (functional freeze reduces metabolic activity)
• Desire to Distract, Numb, or Dissociate
• Procrastination, No Energy or Motivation
• Inability to focus 
• Escapism and Task Avoidance (think binge-watching TV or scrolling on your phone)
• Less likely to exercise (freeze response makes it hard to move and be active)
• Difficulty speaking up (your voice feels frozen)
• Spacing Out or Operating on Autopilot
• Crankiness/irritability that often changes without warning.
• Loss of sense of time

My blind spot – The Polyvagal Ladder

I have been over-simplifying the branches of the vagus nerve, focusing solely on the sympathetic “fight or flight” and the parasympathetic “rest and digest” without sub-dividing the parasympathetic nervous system into the healthy ventral vagal safety response, and dorsal vagal immobilization response that I am currently experiencing. 

Until now, I mistakenly assumed that activation of the parasympathetic nervous system was a good thing, not realizing that there could be detrimental consequences from too much of a good thing, in the form of functional freeze.

I would therefore like to elaborate on my previous explanations by introducing the concept of the polyvagal ladder, developed by Rhythm of Regulation® founder Deb Dana.

Dana describes three distinct states or pathways that individuals experience in response to perceived threats or safety cues. 

Social Engagement (Ventral Vagal or Healthy Parasympathetic State): Characterized by a sense of safety, connection, and social engagement. The ventral is the front side of your body. In this state, your heart is open and able to connect to others and your vagus nerve promotes relaxation, social engagement, and adaptive responses to stress. Individuals in the ventral vagal state feel grounded, present, and capable of forming meaningful connections with others.  This is the positive version of the parasympathetic response that I have referred to thus far where you enjoy better digestion, immune response, circulation, and you’re more relaxed.

Mobilization (Sympathetic State): This refers to the sympathetic “fight or flight” state of mobilization, and prioritization of resources to respond to perceived threats or challenges. While mobilization can be adaptive in certain situations, prolonged activation can lead to feelings of stress, anxiety, and hypervigilance.

Immobilization (Dorsal Vagal State or Parasympathetic Collapse/Functional Freeze): Characterized by immobilization and shutdown responses. In this state, the body perceives overwhelming stress or threats or ongoing trauma (including interpersonal trauma), triggering a cascade of physiological responses aimed at promoting survival. Individuals in dorsal vagal shutdown may experience feelings of numbness, dissociation, and disconnection from themselves and the environment.

Just like you can get stuck in “fight or flight” sympathetic overdrive, traumatic experiences can keep you stuck in a functional freeze, as it help to numb you from feeling life’s pain so you can survive it.  This shuts you down both emotionally and physically.  It literally shuts your body down, storing unprocessed emotions in your body and your nervous system.

Smell and Functional Freeze

In order to thaw the freeze and move out of stuck and shutdown, you need to begin feeling again beginning with feeling your body sensations which helps discharge stuck energy.

Connecting to your body is the key to thawing your freeze response.  Your cognitive brain becomes mostly disengaged during stress, when everything other than immediate survival is shut down, and can’t be accessed, so trying to think your way out of freeze or access your cognitive function becomes unavailable under high-stress states.

Your sense of smell and your other senses can be powerful tools to bring you into the present moment and into your body so you defrost the freeze.  Smell  can be used to as a trigger to stimulate the body to re-engage in its own self-defense mechanisms.

When you smell something strong, it’s very hard to focus on anything else.  Smell can be used as an anchor to help reorient you from the present to the here and now.

Essential oils are gentle tools that allow you not to overwhelm or overload your nervous system as you are attempting to calm the overwhelm and defrost the shutdown.  Gentle strategies are helpful for unpacking freeze as when you feel frozen feelings that you have been avoiding, it can make you feel worse.

Essential oils can be used as a behavioral prompt to help shift you out of your head and into your body, for a number of reasons. Your brain responds to smell-based stimuli like essential oils within seconds.  In fact, research estimates your sense of smell to be 10,000 times more acute than your other senses. Once registered, scent stimuli travel more quickly to the brain than do either sight or sound.

Scent has direct access to the emotional center of your brain that controls your hormones and motivation levels, known as your limbic system.  On a physical level, only two synapses separate your amygdala from your olfactory nerve.  No other sensory system has this kind of direct and intense contact with the neural substrates of your brain’s emotional control center.  Your other four senses, including sound, sight, taste, and touch must travel to other regions of the brain first, before reaching your limbic system. This makes essential oils an incredibly powerful prompt for triggering desired behavior.

Your sense of smell is also tied to your breathing.  Deep inhalations and exhalations both help you focus on your breathing, taking time to slowly inhale and exhale while helping connect to your mind and body in the present and remind you that you are safe. 

How to Thaw Functional Freeze with Essential Oils

To thaw the functional freeze, you need to let your body know that you are safe.  You can incorporate your 5 senses – including your sense of smell which plays a critical role in safety – to communicate safety cues to the body.  The blends that have helped me the most include:

1.  Parasympathetic™ 

Activating the ventral vagal nerve tells your body that you are safe.  Stimulating the vagus nerve by inhaling or topically applying the Parasympathetic™ blend can help activate the ventral vagal parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you regulate your nervous system, promoting safety and relaxation which may help counteract functional freeze mode, inducing a state of calm and openness which can help you process through the underlying emotions and traumas.

Parasympathetic™ blend can help calm the nervous system and help you be grounded and present in the moment.  This sense of embodiment and safety can prevent future Freeze Responses.  Apply Parasympathetic™ over the vagus nerve (behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone) to activate the vagus nerve.  This helps discharge energy and shift out of the frozen state into the healing Parasympathetic.

2. Fascia Release™ 

Trauma lives in your tissues, specifically in your fascia, the tissue that surrounds every cell in your body.  Your emotions – or energy in motion –travel through your fascia in order to be released. When your fascia is tight and constricted, emotions do not flow and are not released, but instead become trapped in your tissue.

To release the trapped energy in the tissue and negative emotions, you need to release the fascia.  Essential oils offer a safe and simple way to release negative emotions from the tissue and create an ease of flow for healthy fascia.  Releasing my fascia with Fascia Release™ essential oil and Deanna Hansen’s block therapy.

Fascia lies just below the skin so topically applying essential oils onto the skin allows for easy and immediate access to the fascia.  The skin is your largest organ and is relatively permeable to fat-soluble substances like essential oils.  Fascia Release™ blend is uniquely formulated to unravel deeply held tensions, constrictions, and energetic blockages in your tissues to reduce pain, improve blood and lymphatic circulation, and release fear, repressed emotions, and tension held in the body (organs, muscles, tendons, bones, and joints) or the mind.

Application Tip: I have been applying Fascia Release™  to my fingertips and tapping on key reflex points to actively engage my safety response.  The video in this post and graphic in this post show how to tap in more detail.

3. COMING SOON! Limbic Reset™

I am in the process of creating a new Limbic Reset™ blend because smell plays such a critical role in communicating a safety signal to your body.  When your body enters freeze mode, both your nervous system and your limbic system become hyper-sensitive to potential threats and need to be calmed and reset.  

Essential oils – especially those that are high in the constituent Sesquiterpenes like Frankincense and Sandalwood – are thought to help increase the oxygen in the limbic system of the brain which in turn “unlocks” the DNA and allows emotional baggage to be released from cellular memory.  The blend is formulated to provide safety cues, drawing on the grounding energy of trees with deep roots in the earth, like sandalwood and Cedarwood, which help you feel grounded and safe.

I am incredibly excited to release this new Limbic Reset™ blend, which has dramatically helped me calm the freeze response and support smell-based safety cues.  The blend can be inhaled and topically applied above the eyes on the forehead and at the base of the skull to calm maladaptive stress responses, support healthy limbic system function and send safety signals that help release immobilization to calm functional freeze response and allow the brain to safely experience and process uncomfortable feelings and sensations. 

In addition to inhaling and topically applying essential oils, it is helpful to move your body, as movements such as yoga and walking allow you to ground and be present in the moment and know that you are safe.  These gentle movements provide a pathway to restore balance so your sympathetic and parasympathetic branches can function harmoniously again.

Do not be surprised if you feel the need to physically shake as you release and move out of the functional freeze response.

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