If you ever feel like you’re “lazy”, you may be just stuck in a freeze response.
Like animals, humans use basic survival instincts when confronted with a stressor.
The fight – or – flight response is a well-known response that occurs when humans are confronted by a situation, event, or object that they believe is a threat or dangerous.
Fight – this response occurs when there is a threat, and the body feels like it can confront the danger and overpower it. 
Examples of fight responses:
Aggressive behaviour – attacking the source of danger
Intense anger
Tight jaw or grinding teeth
Hyperactive
Flight – this response occurs when the threat is too large, so we run away from the danger.
Examples of flight responses:
Feeling fidgety
Restless
Dilated Eyes
Excessive exercising
However, a response that is not commonly spoken about is the Freeze response.
This response occurs and causes individuals who cannot fight or flee to feel stuck in place, like a deer caught in headlights. Other symptoms related to a freeze response may be:
Coldness or Numbness
Heaviness of limbs
Decreased heart-rate
Holding of breath
Sense of dread
In some animals, the freeze response is protective technique where they “play dead” in the presence of predators, making them less desirable as prey. See YouTube link which shows a great example of a possum playing dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwjmts-HoQ
While this is great for animals like the possum for safety and survival, in the face of continuous or prolonged stress without any time or ability to process, our body’s natural response to stress begins to become dysfunctional and the body is stuck in a never-ending stress response.
When this happens the body’s natural stress hormone -cortisol- disrupts the body’s processing which puts them at higher risk of:
Anxiety
Depression
Physical Symptoms (digestive problems, muscle tensions, heart disease)
Sleep problems
Weight gain
For most people, life must go on, so we force ourselves to complete daily tasks like going to work, seeing family and friends, completing household chores. But the unprocessed stress or trauma does not go away and leaves us in a state of feeling tired but anxious which causes a lack of motivation, heaviness in the body, and a wish to disconnect or dissociate from your world. Almost as if your mind is awake but your body is asleep. Hence, we are “functional” but frozen.
Some signs you may be in a functional freeze state:
Procrastinating on tasks you know you have to complete
Shaming for not completing tasks
Feeling scatter brained
Emotionally numb
Feeling burnt out at the end of your day
No energy or low energy
Therefore, the days when you feel tired, procrastinate, feel numb, and may categorize this as “laziness”, may simply be your body needing to take a break and process what has been going on in your life. Life these days seldom allows us to permit ourselves to take a break and just come to a stop and fully relax. During functional freeze states, our body can only focus on one goal: survival.
How can I fix it?
Self-awareness is the first key step! If you have ever felt any of the freeze response symptoms add begin to notice their effect on you, here are some ways you can begin to process and begin to self-regulate:
Stop and bring yourself back to the present moment.
Go for a walk outside or incorporate other regular exercise
Use meditation techniques, deep breathing, or grounding techniques
Take a short nap
Talk to a counsellor/therapist to process the stress or trauma
The more aware we become of how we respond to stress, the more in control we are. Stress responses (fight, flight, or freeze) is a natural reaction and biologically there for our own survival and safety. But our body also requires us to be able to come to a relaxed state in order to provide us stability in the perception of actual threats and the ability to manage the coinciding stress. Sometimes, this can be done quickly or may need to be processed over time.
The above self-care or self-regulation techniques are a non-exhaustive list and is recommended individuals find what self-care techniques work for them, including speaking to a health care provider.
Additional Resources about the Freeze response:
https://khironclinics.com/blog/functional-freeze-emotions-after-trauma/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4835712/
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-does-fight-flight-freeze-fawn-mean
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037
https://www.ashleytreatment.org/rehab-blog/learning-about-stress-responses/