Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn Reactions

Introduction

When people experience trauma, they may experience effects that change their cognitive functions and behavior. This occurs due to the brain’s activation of self-defense processes that serve to keep a person safe from the danger perceived by their mind. Such processes are called trauma responses. The fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses are some of the most popular types of reactions to trauma. They allow a person to recognize how trauma affects their life and to understand their actions.

What Are Trauma Responses?

Trauma responses refer to the automatic responses activated by the nervous system when a person perceives any kind of threat. They are an essential part of our evolutionary process and are unconscious reactions. Although the reaction may be useful in dealing with a genuine threat, it becomes harmful to a person when it is activated years after the experience occurred.

These are types of responses that allow a person to stay safe.

Fight Trauma Response

The fight response takes place when an individual faces a danger head-on. Stress hormones, including adrenaline, are released in this response, providing the body with more energy and awareness.

Indicators of the fight Trauma responses include the following:

• Anger and irritability

• Being aggressive

• Feeling defensive

• The tendency to control

• Talking back

Those who often have the fight response may feel the urge to defend themselves through dominance and confrontation. While this response is helpful when one is facing danger, it may prove to be difficult in their personal and professional relationships when they do not necessarily require it.

Flight Trauma Responses

In the case of the flight response, there is an escape from perceived threats. Instead of confronting dangers, people seek to escape from the situation, either physically or mentally.

Some common signs of a person who tends to have a flight trauma response are the following:

Anxiety and restlessness

Overt working or being constantly busy

Refraining from challenging situations or conversations

Worrying too much

Perfectionist tendencies

Those who experience the flight response typically try to feel safe through constant physical activity, hard work, and distractions. It might be tough for them to rest as their nervous system stays on high alert at all times.

Freeze Trauma Responses

When a person realizes that neither fight nor flight can be carried out, they tend to become overwhelmed. As a consequence, there is a temporary freezing of both physical and psychological activity.

Signs of having a freeze trauma response are the following:

• Figuring oneself as incapable of taking any action

• Numbness of emotions

• The inability to take a decision

• Dissociation

• Motivational deficit.

Fawn Trauma Responses

Not as popular as the other responses but also just as significant, the fawn response is about seeking approval to prevent conflict or injury. People that tend to use this strategy put the needs of others above themselves.

Characteristics of a fawn response include:

• Lack of boundary setting

• Being overly accommodating

• Fear of being abandoned

• Avoidance of confrontation

• The need for validation from others

Individuals can develop such a coping strategy when raised in an environment where they had to be peaceful at all costs in order to survive.

Importance of Recognizing Trauma Responses

The process of recognizing trauma responses is essential for achieving emotional wellness. People often think they are to blame for certain behaviors that are a reaction to difficult circumstances; however, such patterns may be helpful as automatic ways to survive.

People can utilize the assistance of therapy, mindfulness training, stress-management methods, and good relationships in order to regulate the nervous system and minimize trauma responses. When the help comes from the right sources, people have a chance to recover emotionally and develop new coping skills.

Conclusion

In any case, there is nothing wrong about people’s ability to protect themselves by using the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses. Although such patterns are beneficial while being in danger, they sometimes persist even when the danger is over. This information can be used for understanding oneself better and moving towards emotional recovery.