Other survival reactions
Freezing
At times, the best way for you to survive danger is for you to keep very still. This could be if you are being hunted. You are less easy to spot if you don't move. So you may feel rooted to the spot (freeze) when you feel stressed. Even if you want to move, you find you cannot do so. There are other reasons for freezing to protect yourself.
Look at the ordeal of rape. About one in three victims freeze during the rape. They are in a state of terror. They want to get away or fight back yet their bodies freeze and they can't move. Why should this happen? Where is the survival value in freezing? Bear in mind that, like Fight / Flight, freezing aims to keep you alive. If the rape is taking place, it means the rapist has overpowered you. Your chances of escape are low. The rapist is likely to be bigger and stronger than you are. You are more likely to be killed if you fight back during rape. So freezing stops you fighting back. It does this as your chances of winning are low while your chances of being killed are greater. So, instead of Fight / Flight, freezing is the best chance of surviving.
This freezing just adds to your distress after the ordeal. You wanted to fight back. You wanted to escape. You do not know why you did not try to fight or flee. You feel guilt. You feel bad about yourself. Your self-esteem, low enough, drops even more due to this. But you did not have a choice. This ancient mechanism switched on without you being able to make a decision.
Fainting
Though not common, some of us may faint when stressed. This is more common in people who are prone to fainting for non-stress reasons. It is also common in those who have a blood, illness or injury phobia. In this phobia, unlike all the others, your blood pressure drops quickly when, e.g. you see blood.
Why should this happen? If the blood you see is yours, your blood pressure drops to stop you losing more. This may keep you alive. If you have fainted, you will be still and blood loss will slow right down. Again, it boosts your survival chances.
Withdrawal
So far, we are talking mainly about fear. This fits in well with anxiety, panic, and anger. But what about depression? Is there any survival value in being depressed? It is hard, at first glance, to see any. But think about what happens when you are depressed. One of the most common things you do is withdraw.
Withdrawal is a way to protect yourself. The survival value is that if you are really up against it, you should retire to lick your wounds. Once you are back on your feet, you get back into the fray.
The problem with this, as with Fight/Flight, is that it might have worked well for us in the past but now it just makes us worse. When you feel depressed, you may think "I don't have the energy to face this" so you withdraw.
But because you withdraw, you get worse.
This is because any kind of stress feeds itself. In this case, your self-confidence can't be fed so you don't feel better. Your energy does not come back, so you don't get better, and so on. As with fear, you must learn ways to face up to the things you have withdrawn from. You will learn to do this on the course.
