Why does my body go numb when i'm scared ?!
Question:
Why does my body go numb when i'm scared ?
i live with someone who works nightshift and i'm always alone , and every so often i will hear a loud noise outside or people talking out the front of my house , and get so scared that my body goes numb ( mostly my feet, legs, arms and hands ), and i can't move and i shake and my heart beats really fast .(i'm 20 years old by the way ) i don't know why i get so scared though . i'm agoraphobic ( i leave my house about once a month ( i dont even go outside in my backyard or in the front yard . i dont answer the phone or the door . i sort of feel like i am the only one that exists in the world , and so i think the worst will happen if someone breaks in . i live in a nice area , no one has ever broke in here for the 2 years i've lived here. i feel like if someone gets in they will stab me to death lol but i know it wouldn't happen but when i'm so scared thats what goes through my mind .
why can't i move when i get scared ?
Answers:
You freeze like a deer trapped in headlights as they say. Adrenaline gets released into your body preparing you for fight or flight and often this makes people freeze. You go numb because the blood is being taken from your extremties ready for "fight or flight" as they say. You need all the energy you can get if you need to run away from the situation or fight it out either way your extremeties fingers, hands legs etc will get cold as blood gets rushed into the central part of your body.
HTH
Are you in any kind of counselling for your agrophobia? There is no way you should need to go through your life feeling the way that you do especially at such a tender age. Many new mothers experience this and I know I was certainly one of them for months. I wouldn't go anywhere at all and was constantly frightened. As you begin to work on self esteem and what issues have caused you to feel so afraid then you can take small steps towards reintergrating as a valued and important member of society that I know you definately are.
Good luck with your healing it is long but well worth it
I understand entirely xxx