How Do I Get Out of Freeze When I'm Afraid of It?How Do I Get Out of Freeze When I'm Afraid of It?
The Biology of Trauma™ With Dr. Aimie
You push through every day, and an exhaustion stays underneath. What will surprise you is that the fear of the freeze is often what keeps you in it.
29:12•27 Oct 2026
Breaking Free from Functional Freeze with Dr Aimie
Episode Overview
- Functional freeze is a chronic state where the body’s "emergency brake" stays on, leaving a hidden exhaustion beneath everyday functioning.
- People often compensate for this state with adrenaline-driven habits like caffeine, over-exercising, sugar, busyness, and crisis-seeking.
- Stored trauma and long-term functional freeze can contribute to chronic illnesses that appear decades after early adverse experiences.
- The fear of freeze — especially the fear of not coming back — becomes a second layer that keeps the freeze response locked in place.
- Creating safety, allowing controlled moments of collapse, and sometimes working with an experienced person can help uncouple fear from freeze and open up more energy and joy.
“The fear of the freeze is often what keeps us stuck.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety and healing from trauma? This episode of The Biology of Trauma™ With Dr. Aimie leans right into that question by focusing on a state many people quietly live in: functional freeze.
Dr Aimie Apigian breaks down what she calls a chronic, background freeze response, where life looks fine on the surface but "there is an exhaustion underneath it." She explains how people keep going by adding caffeine, drama, deadlines or over-exercising, all as ways to pump in adrenaline and push past that inner shutdown. From the outside you’re functioning; inside, your body still has the "emergency brake" on. A standout theme is the fear of the freeze itself.
One participant’s question shapes the whole conversation: every time they drop into freeze, they panic they won’t come back. Dr Aimie notes that "the fear of the freeze is a second layer" that often keeps people stuck, and she highlights research showing that "the fear of the feeling feeds the feeling." That fear can block healing and keep the nervous system stranded in survival mode.
She shares her own experience of learning to let her body move into that heavy, numb state instead of yanking herself out with busyness or sugar. With the support of someone who wasn’t scared of her shutdown, she practised allowing collapse and noticing that her body did, in fact, come back. Over time, the freeze became more predictable and less terrifying.
For anyone in recovery who feels constantly depleted, stuck, or over-reliant on adrenaline just to get through the day, this conversation offers language, structure and practical ideas for working with freeze rather than fighting it. Could giving yourself permission to rest, collapse a little, and come back gently be the next step in your healing?
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