paralyzing anxiety

@patientRaspberries6102

I don't know about paralysing anxiety exactly. But it made me think of the "freeze" response. Many people have heard of fight and flight as fear responses. Some people consider that there are more than just 2, and include others like freeze and fiddle about. Rabbits are given as a classic example of the freeze response, because Rabbits will play dead when threatened. 

I see the freeze response in myself. I mostly tend to the flight/avoidance response. But if that is not possible eg, it would be considered rude to leave, I shut down when overwhelmed. I didn't even even realise I was doing it, because I just stop talking. No one else would realise either, so I relate to your "acting normal ".

The solution for me lay in identifying exactly what I was afraid of and dealing with that. It wasn't easy, because it took me time to recognise I was doing it and more time to realise (and accept!) that I was actually scared.

Does any of that relate to what you are experiencing?