HeckNo Why people freeze, and why it is not consent
- It is the most common reaction, and it is involuntary.
- It is not consent, and not a failure.
- What helps comes earlier: notice, leave, say it out loud.
THE FREEZE
Most women freeze.
Of 298 women seen at a Stockholm clinic within a month of a rape, seven in ten said they froze — could not move, could not call out.
reported significant tonic immobility during the assault. Almost half — 48% — described it as extreme.Möller, Söndergaard & Helström, 2017 — tonic immobility during sexual assault, 298 women at an emergency rape clinic, Stockholm.
It has a name, and it is not a choice.
Tonic immobility: an involuntary, temporary shutdown of movement under intense fear. Animals do it when fighting is impossible. So do people. Nobody decides it.
Someone describes an assault where she “just lay there”. What does that tell you?
Answer: That her body froze — the most common reaction
Freezing is the most common reaction to an assault. It is not a decision and not consent, and fighting back is the exception — a standard nobody is held to.
Möller, Söndergaard & Helström, 2017 — tonic immobility during sexual assault, 298 women at an emergency rape clinic, Stockholm.What it feels like.
Frozen or paralysed. Unable to move, though nothing is holding you. Unable to call out. Numb, cold, watching yourself from somewhere else.
A reflex, not a failure of nerve. Nothing in this app is a standard you failed.
AFTER
Freezing makes the aftermath harder.
Women who froze were around three times as likely to develop PTSD or severe depression. Not for anything they did — for what was done while they could not move.
roughly: the odds of PTSD (2.8×) and of severe depression (3.4×) among women who froze, compared with those who did not.Möller, Söndergaard & Helström, 2017 — tonic immobility during sexual assault, 298 women at an emergency rape clinic, Stockholm.
EARLIER
So the answer sits earlier.
The freeze arrives with the attack. Every skill in this app lives before that moment: noticing, leaving, saying no out loud. Earlier is where choices still exist.
When does freezing take over?
Answer: At the moment of the attack, under intense fear
It is a reaction to intense, immediate threat. That is why the skills that count are the ones used before that point — noticing early and leaving early.
Möller, Söndergaard & Helström, 2017 — tonic immobility during sexual assault, 298 women at an emergency rape clinic, Stockholm.Nobody has shown that training stops a freeze, and this app will not claim it. What practice changes is how early you act, and whether “no” is a word you have already said out loud.
Practise the word, not the war.
Saying no out loud in an empty room is not silly. The voice drills exist so the first time you shout is not the worst day of your life.
Sources
- Möller, Söndergaard & Helström, 2017 — tonic immobility during sexual assault, 298 women at an emergency rape clinic, Stockholm.
- Senn et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2015 — randomised trial of a sexual assault resistance programme, 893 women.