Have you ever found yourself scrolling on your phone for hours and then not being able to remember what you watched? Or maybe you feel overwhelmed all the time. Or numb. Does this sound familiar? Let’s talk about the freeze response and dissociation 101.

Dissociation refers to a shutdown of sensory experience. There are two main types of dissociation, which include shame and terror dissociation. Both are developed in response to severe or ongoing trauma. This means that during a traumatic event, or a series of traumatic events (such as we often see in survivors of childhood abandonment, neglect, or other types of abuse), our best option was to disconnect.