This Is What A Healed Freeze Trauma Response Looks Like
The first time I recall having a freeze trauma response
The first time I ever recall having a freeze trauma response was quite dramatic. At that time, I didn’t know what a freeze response was, I just thought I was weird, and I felt ashamed. We were riding in a convertible jeep on my parent’s property. My father was driving, my mother was in the passenger seat, and I was in the backseat. I was probably in my late teens or early twenties. This property was in south Texas, covered in cactus, mesquite trees, and everything thorny. There are scorpions, rattlesnakes, deer and lots of jackrabbits in this part of the state. I imagine it is what most people from other states visualize when they think of Texas.
We laughed because my mother always warned us, as we left the house, to wear boots and watch out for rattlesnakes. On this particular day, we were discussing how people make jelly out of cactus pears, a purple fruit that grows from the prickly pear cactus. My dad decided to show me one of the pears up close. He pulled up next to a cactus, and went to step off of the jeep. As he did, I looked down and saw a rattlesnake, right where he was about to step.
You would think that I would scream, because rattlesnake bites can be deadly. However, I just opened my mouth in shock, waved my hands, and tried to…
