 Passing Stranger
580 QA Reputation54 | Exie said 10 years, 6 months ago: I’m in therapy for PTSD and my therapist talked about this thing that happens to abused kids called stilling. She said that it’s this phenomenon that happens when an abused kid is playing or talking or just being a loud, active kid and when they hear something (such as a voice being raised, a door slamming, a certain phrase, etc.) they get really still and quiet out of nowhere. They try to make themselves small and as unnoticeable as possible to avoid being abused. I googled the term but it didn’t really come up with anything. My question is does anybody know anything about it? | |
 Familiar Face
4998 QA Reputation0 | worthasmile said 10 years, 5 months ago: I don’t think it’s an official term or anything. I heard the same thing. You pretty much summed it up though. It’s just a trigger like event in which one gets very quiet all of the sudden and still- hence the name. | |
 Passing Stranger
165 QA Reputation0 | Liz G. said 9 years, 11 months ago: It is a trigger. Those sounds bring back memories most often.
Also, with excessive abuse you could relate this phenomenon with Pavlov’s salivating dog experiment. | |
 Passing Stranger
150 QA Reputation0 | smilielizzie2 said 9 years, 9 months ago: …I have never known a name for it but that makes so much sense and I now have a name for what happens now | |
 Passing Stranger
249 QA Reputation18 | Amanda said 9 years, 9 months ago: I think of it as just another form of your fight or flight response. I had a therapist rephrase that in a way I hadn’t come across before: fight, flight, or freeze. Your body just shuts down instead. | |
 Common Friend
14618 QA Reputation5256 | Swifting said 9 years, 9 months ago: I have heard of the flight fight or freeze before. I’ve never heard it called stilling. I know that while it does exist in PTSD patience, and at times including myself, it’s also a trained response that people create so that they can focus on what is going on around them. I have heard it’s to allow you time to process if you need to be prepared to fight or fly based on the prediction of an event from the source of the freeze. Individuals in the armed forces often learn to develop that skill. They tune out what’s going on around them to focus on a specific conversation and as a result sometimes – their body shuts down slightly giving the brain more room to function. Think of it like a movie where the scene is a loud bar – yet they magically make the rest of the people go quieter so you can hear the characters they want you to do. | |
