（IC photo / 图）
Recently, news incidents about sexual harassment have repeatedly appeared on the hot search list of social platforms, attracting the attention of a large number of netizens, triggering round after round of debate, and in the comment area, from time to time, you can see some netizens questioning how victims do not resist when they encounter sexual harassment.
Remember that the safety education course we were indoctrinated from childhood was taught like this: when encountering danger and difficulties, first, we must loudly ask the surrounding people for help, second, dial 110, clearly explain the situation to the police, and when we can't do it, we quickly flee the scene and run to a crowded place...
In fact, these teachings have certain practical value, the problem is that people are awake and critical, there are two completely two states, for example, you can think of three or four coping methods when you are awake, you can remain calm in critical situations, and it is very good to implement one of them.
As for why some people's heads and bodies are easy to get stuck when they are nervous, after careful calculation, we have to attribute the reason to our incomparably delicate and mysterious brain.
Who "froze" you
Have you ever had some experiences where you should have moved immediately to avoid danger, but your mind was blank, such as seeing a speeding car, an oncoming basketball, but your hands and feet were immobile like lead?
After a while, you reacted and began to dodge, afraid that your reaction at that time must have been "scared silly".
In the early twentieth century, American physiological psychologist Walter Cannon first described the "Fight or Flight" (Fight or Flight), also known as the "acute stress response", to describe a series of physiological and psychological changes in stressful and dangerous situations.
Cannon's method at the time was to analyze the effects of sympathetic nerves on the animal's internal organs through the autopsy of animals. He believes that when an animal is startled or suddenly threatened, the sympathetic nerves make it excited, adrenaline rushes, pupils dilate, and the heart beats faster. In order to protect themselves, animals are forced to choose between fighting and fleeing, bursting with speed and strength beyond usual.
As research has been refined, "Freeze" and "Fawn" have also been added to acute stress responses.
These responses present four distinct states in the face of crisis: fighting means facing danger and taking the initiative; Running away means doing everything you can to stay away; Choosing to meet the occasion is to choose temporary submission, to preserve oneself by enduring it. And freezing sounds the most inexplicable, neither confrontation nor flight, making people anxious.
In fact, this particular response mechanism, although it looks clumsy, is likely to have undergone a long evolutionary process, inherited from the ancient hunting era.
Most carnivores are sensitive to the movement of objects, and fleeing further stimulates their desire to attack. Try to imagine that if you encounter wild animals alone in the endless African savannah, it is difficult to judge the intentions of the other party and it is difficult to measure the difference between the speed and strength of the two sides, and the best thing to do is to stare at the other person and remain still.
The so-called enemy does not move I do not move, this is what it means, when you are evaluating the opponent, the opponent is also evaluating you, the main thing is not to show flaws, no one will rashly launch an attack, the two sides leave together under a stalemate, is a harmonious and happy ending.
I didn't expect that such a distant survival skill could actually continue to this day.
（IC photo / 图）
Facing Fear and Breaking the "Freeze"
Modern people do not need to hunt, and their freezing reactions in daily life situations are often more subtle, such as holding their breath, cold palms, rigid face, congested feet, and so on. The most obvious feature is the eyes, which, out of an instinctive reaction, keep looking at the thing that scares you.
So, the freezing reaction seems to make people sluggish and stiff, does it mean that the brain is lazy? Quite the opposite.
As mentioned earlier, when people are in danger, the sympathetic nerves are quickly activated by hormones, releasing a large amount of adrenaline, allowing the body to enter a stress response. After this operation, whether the brain finally chooses to fight or flee, freeze or meet, the body is ready according to the highest defense specifications, and the desire to survive is full.
It is worth noting that this process of deploying the whole body, which seems to be extremely responsive, is actually a complex work that requires a lot of support from the physiological system. At the same time, the brain is still rapidly calculating, weighing the various courses of action, which is more efficient and which is safer, like a computer with a bunch of large background programs on the computer, and the task manager is busy.
At this time, the performance of the CPU is particularly critical, different people's sensitivity to fear, but also lead to different reaction results, the body responds quickly, can quickly execute brain instructions, and slow is frozen. So after dealing with an extreme critical moment, some brains experience a brief crash and slowly restart, and some brains fall into hibernation.
This also explains why, in criminal cases, some victims neither resist nor escape, and after silently enduring, they have to undergo a long period of self-brainwashing, and it takes many years to come out of the shadows.
Although the freezing reaction is an instinct, sometimes the chance of survival is fleeting, and this knee-jerk reaction may drag us down, making us unable to make simple and quick coping actions, such as not shouting or running, even in public and with easy access to help.
In order to avoid freezing the reaction and improve the ability to cope when necessary, we can gradually increase the tolerance of fearful events in normal times. The most common activity is to participate in exercises such as earthquakes and fires, and to deepen your thinking and behavior in coping methods, familiarizing yourself with this fear so that it cannot interfere with your judgment.
For some sudden, difficult to practice situations (such as sexual harassment), first take a deep breath to ensure that the brain is clear, and then face the fear. When you feel your heart rate increase, take advantage of the adrenaline rush to strike – whether it's fighting or fleeing, it's better than standing still.
Xiao Luo