10 Explanations For Those Strange Things You Do All The Time
9. Why Do I Freeze Up In Confrontation, And Think Of Everything I Could Have Said Later In The Shower?
God, isn't that just the worst?
Whether you just stand there gaping when someone cuts you up in a queue, or you end up repeating the same stupid thing over and over again in an argument with your partner, the ability to properly express ourselves always seems to vanish just when we need it the most.
This reaction is due to the latest addition to the "Fight or Flight" response, now known as "Fight, Flight or Freeze". The "freeze" action occurs in stressful situations when fighting or running away isn't an option. Seeing as it's probably not appropriate to run away or lamp someone for pushing in the queue, your brain opts for freeze instead. This is the instinct that causes animals to play dead when under attack and it's the reason you might hold your breath without realising when something stressful happens.
The freezing action isn't just physical though, it also causes your brain to jam and dampens the activity in your nervous system; This could be to protect your mind from a potentially traumatic experience. Very helpful when you're being savaged by a grizzly bear, not so much when you want to give someone a piece of your mind in Tesco.
As for your shower arguments, this is due to the fact that the shower is probably your happy place.
After the stress of a confrontation, your brain can take a while to "unfreeze" and the memory of it coupled with your inability to react will probably be enough to keep your sufficiently stressed out about it.
It is well known that people get their best ideas in the shower and this is due to the perfect creative storm that a good hot shower generates. It is a small, safe space where you can switch your actions over to autopilot. A shower will usually trigger a release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that will make you feel happy, and serotonin, which will make you feel relaxed. This allows you to finally properly process your thoughts and come up with those zingers that you wish you could have said at the time.