Q: I tend to freeze up whenever I have to talk to more than a couple people at a time. Why do I sometimes panic and feel like a deer stuck in headlights?
A: This is a response called tonic immobility, and it's not be confused with the inability to walk out of a bar after a half-dozen vodka and tonics. The response is common in animals that are avoiding other predators. See, most animals will not eat meat that they didn't kill, so if you're caught and play dead, the hunter will pass by. This same instinct is sometimes stimulated by our autopilot nervous system to make us feel like a Volkswagen in two feet of mud—completely stuck and paralyzed, spinning our wheels trying to get out of the situation. |
