Fight, Flight, or Freeze

As I sit back and think about all that has happened to us in the past few months it amazes me that we aren't in some corner sucking our thumbs rocking back and forth.  Some how or another we've managed to keep ourselves (most of the time) together.  I think this is due to a lot of reasons but one thing comes to mind.  There is a theory that is based on people's first reactions when they are faced with a crisis.  They can either fight, flight, or freeze.  These reactions are pretty self explanatory but I'll explain them a little bit.

The fight reaction can be a lot of different things.  You can fight and persevere through the crisis.  You can fight and deny everything that is happening.      
The flight reaction is reaction is basically when a crisis hits you turn tail and run away as fast and as far as you can. 
The freeze response is something that has recently been added.  The idea is that when a crisis comes instead of fighting or fleeing you freeze like a deer in headlights. 

There's a great article from a stress website that talks about these three responses.  They have a great explaination of these three

"The fight or flight response (in its original form) is about survival. It's about hope. We activate it when we believe there's a chance we can outrun or outfight our attackers. The freeze response however, gets activated when's there's no hope."

 

I wish I could say that when this all started we were fighters from the get go.  We weren't.  We froze.  It was like drowning in a mud puddle.  Each stroke caked more and more mud on our arms.  We felt like our little boy was doomed.  I felt like my baby had died.  It took Brigder's seizures getting to the point where he was in intense pain and absolutely hysterical after each cluster for us to snap out of it.  After that we chose to fight.  Sometimes I feel like we are in a constant reign of fire.  We are THOSE parents and we will continue to be.  I suppose the message is that you can chose to change your response to situations.  You can fight, flight, or freeze as much as you want.  To this day I still have moments where I freeze or what to run away.

Recently Bridger's development was evaluated and he was put at like a 2-3 month level.  I wanted to run and hide in a corner!  That seems so far behind although it isn't.  He's made so much progress!  Which by the way...

 

BRIDGER ROLLED ON HIS OWN TODAY!!!! :)

 

I think we'll keep on fighting for these good moments :)

 

 

Fight, Flight, or Freeze article