There’s no denying that pushing yourself too hard for too long can lead to burnout. But burnout is only the final stage of three stages in the stress response cycle. This means even if you don’t have the symptoms of full burnout – you could still be headed there.

The stages leading up to burnout

1. The first stage is chronic stress.
   At this stage we’re starting to see some symptoms like aches and pains or some problems sleeping but there’s no burnout or issues with the nervous system yet.
2. The second stage is called functional freeze
   Functional freeze is a maladaptive stress response where you can still complete your tasks but you feel stuck in a kind of “freeze mode.” You feel a sense of heightened anxiety but you don’t have the desire or energy to do anything. 
3. The third and last stage is burnout
   This is where we feel exhausted by small tasks, easily overwhelmed by our work or kids, and our nervous systems are completely depleted.

Burnout has become very mainstream over the last few years but not many people know about the middle stage, functional freeze, which can be just as debilitating.

In today’s email I want to help you understand the symptoms, causes, and cure for functional freeze so you can break free from the tired, wired cycle.

If you’re ready to go even deeper and you want to learn my 3-step system to heal anxiety and exhaustion, register for my next masterclass right here.

So what are the signs of functional freeze? 

✅ Ongoing low-level anxiety: waking up with a sense of dread or feeling that something is going to go wrong in your day

✅ Nervous energy: Feeling tired but wired. Relying on caffeine to keep you going  through the day and wine and chocolate to bring you down at night.

✅ Not showing your emotions: Being triggered internally but not showing it on the outside.

✅ Sleep issues: Either trouble falling asleep or frequently waking up in the middle of the night.

✅ Withdrawing: Canceling social events, avoiding hanging out with friends and family, letting things pile up because you just can’t deal with them.

What causes this stress overload?

These are the same factors I talk about all the time, [Name]. Things like viral overload, chemical toxicity, poor digestive health, and mental and emotional stress.

And all these issues lead to inflammation in the body, which makes us feel tired and sick. 

The inflammation lynchpin 

When we have too much inflammation in the body our cells will switch from producing energy to activating defence mechanisms, which is why we end up feeling tired and sick. 

And inflammation is caused by three things: physical trauma, microbial infections, and psychological stress.

But here’s the kicker: Psychological stress can actually override the other systems in our bodies, stopping our bodies from clearing out the toxicity in our air, food and water, and lowering our immunity leading to even more infections.

This just shows you how important our mental and emotional wellbeing is to our overall health.

Addressing Functional Freeze

If you’ve been reading this and thinking this is definitely you, here are some small achievable steps to rectifying this problem:

1️⃣ Reduce toxins: Focus on a healthy diet – cut out processed foods, sugars, alcohol and chocolate where possible. Eat regularly and prepare your food at home as much as possible.

2️⃣ Address underlying infections and gut health: Treat any underlying infections and also look at your gut health because so much of our immune system is located in our gut.

3️⃣ Reduce mental and emotional stress: I understand this is easier said than done but I normally start by asking my clients what they dwell on the most and this helps identify the patterns that are activating the stress response. Other things that help getting out in nature or having a massage which helps you be more present (without using things like Netflix to numb out).

👉 Remember that the main aim here is to signal to our bodies that we are safe at a cellular level and this starts to change our biology so we can cope with our everyday demands and thrive.