Elisa Donovan

But what they're forgetting is that there's actual neurological changes that occur in your brain, right?

There's actual cognitive changes that occur in your brain that make it impossible to see otherwise.

Right.

So what, like in Elizabeth Smart's case, she was captive for nine months.

So what happens psychologically when somebody is controlled for that long?

Yeah.

So one is your fight or flight response, right, which is what we have to innately keep us alive and survive.

When you're in those types of environments, you kind of go into this freeze mode, right?

And it's a form of self-protection.

And so when you're in that freeze mode, you don't act.

And so we see that a lot, unfortunately, in sexual assaults.

Right.

When people don't fight back, it's their body literally does what their body thinks is the best thing to do to protect them in that moment.

And so when you have that response coupled with if you leave, I'll kill you.

Your family doesn't love you.

Nobody's looking for you.

You're so limited in your response options.

And then neurologically, your brain starts to reset itself for survival.

It's all you can do.

And so you're basically resetting yourself for survival.