Fight, Flight, Freeze, & Fawn: Understanding the Trauma Response

What Is the Fight, Flight, Freeze, & Fawn Response?

The fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses occur after individuals encounter stressful, traumatic, or dangerous situations. When a person experiences stress, the autonomic system makes a split decision to address the stressor. Various factors contribute to how someone ultimately responds, including past experiences, personality, and the type of stressor.

Fight Trauma Response

We respond to threats aggressively when the body activates the fight response. This reaction is often a last resort, as our autonomic response system believes we cannot overcome the adversary.

Signs and symptoms of a fight response include:

• Urge to punch something
• Hostility
• Tension in the jaw or grinding teeth
• Desire to stomp or kick
• Attacking the threat
• Feeling hot or a burning sensation
• Crying

Flight Trauma Response

The flight response occurs when the brain thinks we can avoid a threat by running away. For example, you may instinctively duck or move aside if someone kicks a soccer ball at you. The body responds by increasing your heart rate to prepare you to flee the situation.

Signs and symptoms of a flight response include:

• Dilated pupils
• Darting eyes
• Fidgeting
• Restlessness
• Numbness in hands or feet
• Increased heart rate

Freeze Trauma Response

The freeze response (tonic immobility) is when we become rigid, alert, and on guard in situations without a feasible escape route. During this response, we involuntarily become immobile and feel frozen. Our minds and bodies work to conserve resources until we see a possible moment of escape. Research shows individuals with higher levels of anxiety-related traits are more likely to experience immobility when perceiving a threat.

Signs and symptoms of a freeze response include:¹

• Feeling stiff or heavy
• Immobility
• Heart rate fluctuations
• Tunnel vision
• Dissociation
• Alert/hypervigilance

Fawn

The fawn response (appeasement) is when a person responds by attempting to pacify a threat. For example, a person may give into the emotions or wants of the aggressor despite their feelings toward them. This response can occur in abusive relationships (i.e., between a child and their caregiver or a female and their partner), coercive situations, or after sexual assault.⁵

Signs and symptoms of a fawn response include:⁵

• Being overly helpful
• Being agreeable
• Submissive
• Smiling/laughing
• Flattery
• Seeking approval
• Dissociation

Understanding the Acute Stress Response

The acute stress response refers to how the sympathetic nervous system reacts to a perceived threat. The body produces adrenaline and noradrenaline that prepare us to deal with the stressor, whether by fleeing, fighting, freezing, or fawning.

Signs and symptoms of an acute stress response include:

• Changes in circulation: Vasoconstriction is when blood vessels are constricted in certain areas to decrease blood flow to the digestive system and increase blood flow to skeletal muscles and other organs.²
• Vision changes: Stress hormones dilate the pupils to allow in more light when encountering a stressor.⁶
• Heightened hearing: While experiencing a threat, our hearing can become heightened.
• Racing heart: The heart rate fluctuates and can cause palpitations during the acute stress response.
• Increased energy: The liver works to produce glucose to provide more energy.⁹
• Rapid breathing: The body works to open up airways to receive more oxygen, causing rapid breathing.⁹
• Impaired cognitive functioning: The amygdala activates the sympathetic nervous system when we encounter stress. Doing so shuts down the frontal lobe responsible for cognitive functioning, as rational thought is often not quick enough to make potentially life-saving decisions.
• Muscle changes: Blood flow is either increased or decreased to the muscles to cause immobility or prepare individuals to run or fight back.
• Reduced pain sensations: The body is less likely to feel pain until after the traumatic event because of higher adrenaline levels.
• Pale skin: Skin turns pale in response to stress as blood is redirected to other organs to prepare for fight, flight, or freeze.⁹

Why Is the Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn Response Important?

Our fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response is crucial to survival because we automatically respond to potential threats before recognizing the danger. Our acute stress response is constantly analyzing our environment to ensure an appropriate response. As we receive small doses of stress throughout childhood, paired with support and guidance, we learn to handle and respond to difficult situations.

Can the Fight Flight Freeze Fawn Response Be Harmful?

Our fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response helps us survive but can also be harmful. When individuals experience childhood trauma or abusive relationships, their defenses can become overactive due to a constant need to protect themselves. Unfortunately, a dysregulated response, combined with a lack of support or an inability to cope, can turn into toxic stress and a constant cycle of “wear and tear.”⁴

Our nervous systems become accustomed to high stress, which can manifest as hypervigilance or an inability to feel safe and secure in our environment. Having this form of acute stress can lead to anxiety disorders, phobias, and panic disorder. Studies show the freeze response, or tonic immobility, is predictive of adult depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).³ Toxic stress can also contribute to medical issues like heart disease, autoimmune disease, and liver cancer.⁴

How to Calm the Fight, Flight, Freeze, & Fawn Response

Learning to regulate the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response is essential for promoting well-being. Allowing the body to stay in defense or survival mode can negatively impact overall health, so individuals should prioritize using skills to decrease stress and overwhelm and learn how to get out of survival mode. 

Here are 10 ways to calm the body after the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response:

1. Use grounding techniques: Grounding techniques bring our attention to our five senses and immediate surroundings. Being mindful of what we smell, hear, and see can help us get out of our mammalian brain (where our automatic responses are) and into our cognitive functioning. Some examples are the 333 rule and the 54321 method.
2. Try journaling: Journaling for mental health allows us to get things out of our minds and see things differently.
3. Hold a frozen orange or ice pack: The cold sensation can snap us out of being stuck in our defense mechanisms and bring us back into the moment. This trick can be helpful when feeling dissociative or slipping into our freeze response.
4. Splash water on your face: Cold water cools us down, promotes regulation, and allows us to bring our attention back to the here and now. 
5. Seek connection: Reaching out to people we trust and care about promotes oxytocin, a love hormone and an antidote to the stress hormone cortisol. Being with loved ones allows our nervous system to feel safe.
6. Sip on water: When our autonomic stress responses are activated, our digestive system shuts down to conserve energy for when we need to run or fight. Sipping on water, chewing gum, or biting into something sour can activate our salivary glands and digestive system, letting our body know we are safe to rest.
7. Practice butterfly tapping: Cross your arms, interlocking your thumbs with your fingers fanned out facing toward your chin. Begin alternating tapping back and forth on your chest. The butterfly tapping technique promotes grounding and relaxation.
8. Try yoga: Yoga promotes relaxation, connection, and grounding. Practicing yoga encourages staying present in the moment while listening to and being aware of your body.
9. Use progressive muscle relaxation: Progressive muscle relaxation encourages tensing and relaxing each muscle in your body individually to release tension.
10. Practice square Breathing or deep breathing: When we engage in mindful breathing, we tap into our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for down-regulating our body.

When to Seek Professional Support

A trained clinician can help you manage and alleviate symptoms if you experienced trauma or have already been diagnosed with a mental health disorder. An overactive stress response can impact your ability to function, but therapy can assist you in learning to better regulate your stress response. 

You can use an online therapist directory to find a clinician specializing in trauma and co-occurring mental health conditions, such as anxiety disorders, depression, or phobias. Online support can offer a convenient and more accessible form of relief. There are even  online psychiatrist options.