Funny enough the times I’ve had a gun pointed at me have resulted in a complete lack of emotion, almost like someone pulled the plug and they drained from my body. Brain jumped into analysis mode to figure out a swift way to survive. Time slowed down and I was keenly aware of everything around me.
I’ve always looked at fear as a water in a glass, and training, knowledge and skills are the pebbles and sand I can put in the glass to displace it. Every time I train I drop a rock in the glass and a little more fear dribbles off the rim never to come back.
This is not a new idea. The military has been doing this for centuries now. That’s what makes young Marines get out of a Helicopter to fight in the middle of a firefight while a normal untrained civilian would be busy sliding on their own poop.
Occasionally freezing can be the appropriate reaction. I do a lot of work in the desert sometimes in areas with a lot of rattlesnakes. Sometimes when I hear that buzz I’ll have an idea where the snake is hiding amongst the rocks and the brush and can immediately dance out of the way. But other times I automatically freeze until I can figure out where the snake is so I can slowly back away in a safe direction. Freezing and talking calmly has even gotten me out of some uncomfortably close encounters with bears.
I could even imagine some human threat self defense situations where initially freezing could be a better option than fight or flight.
Actually what you describe is not freezing up. It’s a calculated reaction, plan and actions designed to get you out of a situation.
Freezing up is someone paralyzed in fear as an assailant (human or animal) attacks with intent to do harm and letting it happen.
It’s the by-product of lack of survival skills and no training. When the poop hits the fan we do what we’ve trained to do. If we have not trained we do nothing because the brain has no immediately available tools and options to pick from to execute.