Fight, Flight and Freeze

I spent most of the day today playing with snakes.

Half the people reading just stopped reading, those of you that got past the header picture.

Half the people reading just went, ‘you go girl’. 

This post isn’t about snakes perse, it’s about me, experiencing fear. Really feeling it and processing it in the moment. Hence being able to understand just that little bit more when I have a client that has, experienced it, and more importantly is experiencing when with me as a counsellor. 

I have been blessed with a relatively easy life. I only really been in situations where I felt fear on a few occasions.  Most of those have been because I’ve be doing things through choice; a bungee jump for example. The one time I genuinely feared for my own life and safety was when I arrived in Nigeria for work and I was picked up at the airport by people with guns driving black SUVs like you see in the movies. I convinced myself I was being kidnapped. I wasn’t, clearly. 

Every single time in the past, I’ve had a Fight response.  In Nigeria, I insisted on keeping my bag with me. When I found a man in my house ‘casing the joint’ I screamed at him and chased him down the street (he came back and stole everything from the shed when I was at work two weeks later).

Today I was on a course to learn how to safely remove snakes from places they aren’t wanted, aka; people’s backyards, front yards and anywhere around people, generally. There were several of us learning and we were outnumbered by trainers and snakes. It was as safe as it could be.

We started the day with first aid and what to do if bitten (it's important).  Then we were taught how to use the bag as a shield and proper technique for manoeuvring the bag once it has a snake inside. The snakes came out about 30 minutes after we started. Learning how to get the snake to go in the bag is the first and easiest way to retrieve a snake. Snakes are not, as we are led to believe as children, aggressive and they really don’t want to kill us. After all, most Australian snakes aren’t big enough to eat us, so why waste their venom on us, that stuff take a good meal and valuable calories to make. Each snake that came out the bag where it had been comfortably snoozing would sit on the grass, sussing out it surrounds and catching some rays. When offered a bag, it tested it out a bit, and in most cases, just helped itself to the safety of the dark space it was being provided with. My heart rate increased a little the first time presented with a Red-bellied Black, but I showed it some respect, I remembered to breath and I was OK, even when the sucker decided to do a U-turn and come back out. 

The same with the Tiger. It really only wanted to be in the bag. I gave it a helping hand with the jigger (the stick thingy) but it went in OK with a minimum of fuss. On a side note, Tiger snakes: really pretty :)

Later in the day, we got our first taste with Brown Snakes.

When it was first released from the bag it just sat in the sun for a few minutes. I stood in awe, looking down at it, my bag in front of me, thinking ‘Pwetty’. We were told it’s name was Furnley (because it was found on Furnley Drive) then it started to move and all my reason and ability to think logically went from my brain. A little voice started screaming at me, ‘What the f*ck are you doing?’ ‘Move away now!’ Something else went, ‘You ain’t going anywhere!’ and my Freeze response kicked in, for the first ever. My feet rooted themselves to the ground.

Thankfully, fairly quickly I think, I was able to respond to my traitorous amygdala and tell it to settle down, mainly because Furnley decided he wanted to explore hiding places on the other side of the circle. I stood there and started:

5 things I can see …grass, trees, people, bag, building (I managed to ignore Furnley, even though I was acutely aware of exactly where he was)

4 things you can touch …handle, jigger, leg, ground (the ground was still under me)

3 things you can hear …voices, birds, cars (I was starting to be able to make out what the voices where saying)

2 things you can smell … warm grass, eucalypt (feeling much better)

1 thing you can taste …my lunch (ahh…yes, we just ate lunch)

Time came back to me. This simple but magnificent grounding technique worked for me. Just as it has for clients. This was the first time I’d ever used it myself in a real situation.

Furnley turned and started heading towards me. I did all the things I had been taught earlier in the day. He started going into the bag, I consciously made myself breath, then he decided it was far to lovely a day to be in the dark and he’d explore. He slipped under the bag and around, passing my feet.

If you stand still a snake will think you’re a tree and just keep moving. If you move, you’re a danger to it (or a potential food source) so we’re taught to either to drop the bag and back up and stand still until you can safely retrieve said bag, or just stand still, as I needed to do in that moment. In that moment when his head appeared under the bag and right next to my foot, I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to.  I would have won any mannequin challenge at that point.

Jim the trainer was great (that's Jim in the yellow). I’m not sure if he picked up where my head was at, but he told me I was doing well, that staying still was perfect technique. He then, very gently moved Furnley’s head away from the temptation to explore the hem of my jeans.

I’ll be honest, after that it took me a while to ground myself again. I didn’t get to bag a Brown.

My very first experience of a Brown was when my ex-husband and I owned an Internet craft shop warehouse in South Australia (F’Arty Crafts). I was minding my own business at one end and suddenly an ear piecing scream had me running to the other end. Yvonne, our packing girl, was standing on the packing table and Puss was playing with a ‘rubber band’. Wearing only flip-flops, shorts and t-shirt, I continued jogging, scoped up the cat and chucked him in the bathroom.  I then threw a box over the extremely p*ssed off snake. It had a hole in the bottom (think fruit box), so I got a larger box and put that over the first, also had a hole. So, I got one of the large wooden platers (used for decoupaging) and covered the hole. Yvonne was still on the table screaming and about 30 secs had passed. Later the snake catcher had berated me for being an idiot ‘You could have died’. At the time, my Fight kicked in and I knew I didn’t want it getting into the pile of boxes in the corner. I was taught Brown Snakes are to be feared, through the actions and words of others, all my previous reading flew from my head.

Today. I went through the five things several times after encountering Furnley, even though at no point was it of any danger to me.

I eventually left the circle in flight, it was subtle and slowly, but it was safer for me and the others, and had a chat with another of the Trainers (Andrew). We talked about the amygdala and hypothalamus for about twenty minutes while I got my head back in the game and my heart out of my mouth. 

Being presented with a Highland Copperhead (they are the only snake to live above the snow line and really pretty) a little later was OK. Rosemary was very placid. She just sat on the grass, let me approach slowly before I placed the jigger very gently under her mid-section and slowly lifted her into the bag. I did that twice and I was BACK!

BB the Red-bellied black (pictured in the header and to the left) was the last snake of the day. I got to practice a technique I buggered up before lunch and that was ‘tailing’. Red-bellied Black do not hold the same power over me. Don’t get me wrong, I respect them and their ability to do great damage if they feel like it, but experience has taught me and hard-wired primitive brain that they aren’t to be feared. I moved in slowly, lined myself up and took control of the nearly 3kg, six-foot snake by taking it in my hand and lifting it into the waiting bag. On this occasion my body flooded with happy feelings and a great sense of achievement.

I did that twice.

As it turned out the bigger danger of the day was the sun. The backs of both my hands are red, sore, and itchy. Fight, flight, and freeze completely ignored that danger!

Finally a few tips:

1. If you see a snake, do not attempt to catch it yourself.
2. Depending on where you live you can contact someone to come and do it for you. Find out by doing a Google search or looking on your local community notice board.
3. Learn what to do in the event of a bite, it might save yours or someone’s life.
4. Consider doing a snake handling course. You'll learn groovy things about them.
5. Remember snakes aren’t interested in you, leave them alone and they will leave you alone. 
6. If you see one when out and about and it moving, move away from it slowly. If it’s close, stand still until it has passed you by. Don’t panic.
7. Appreciate them for what they are…really pretty but deserving of respect, not fear.
8. Don’t panic…if you do, take a deep breath in and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

Today, as with every time you’ll encounter a snake, Brown or otherwise, it just wants to be left alone to go about it’s business.  Mostly it just wants to be safe…

… they’re a lot like us in that way.

.

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I attended a course run by Wildcare Queanbeyan, where I volunteer for as a counsellor for the carers and now as a snake retriever (as long as it's not a brown ;)).

Photos were taken by Wayne Alford, the snake coordinator (he also ran the course).

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Frances Carleton is a change management consultant and counsellor that operates private practice in Jerrabomberra, NSW. She has specialist interest in sexual health, grief and loss, and trauma. She predominately uses narrative therapy incorporating writing and artistic expression.