Everyone responds to trauma or stress in different ways. There is no right or wrong way to process difficult events. Most people are familiar with flight or flight responses to danger or trauma. However, fight, flight, freeze or fawn better encompasses people’s reactions to such events.
As a former therapist, I’ve learned that people react to trauma in different ways. In this article, I’ll break down the different types of trauma responses, including some lesser-known responses to trauma.
It is my hope that knowing about these differences will help you learn how to better cope with trauma. Becoming familiar with these trauma response types can help you understand why you react the way you do.
If you’re unsure what your trauma response type is, you can take a fight, flight, freeze, or fawn test online.
4 Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn
The four most common trauma response types are fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. Trauma responses are your body’s way of helping you prepare to handle a threat, whether actual or perceived.
Your autonomic nervous system and brain release hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which leads to physiological and psychological changes.
You can also review a fight, flight, freeze or fawn chart to learn more about the differences between each type.
1. Fight
The fight trauma response involves a release of hormones that prepare your body for action. Your body is wired to cope with perceived threats in a physically aggressive manner.
During this response, you may experience the following:
- Clenched jaw
- Grinding teeth
- Urge to punch something
- Crying in anger
- Adrenaline rush
- Heightened blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
Your brain also has a unique response to these threats. You may feel extremely angry and want to lash out. Many people yell or raise their voices, especially in an argument. Feelings of agitation and hypervigilance are also common.
Some people are quicker to give into a fight response than others. They may find themselves getting into arguments or physical fights more often. Although physical or verbal aggression is common with the fight response, other actions may also occur.
Some of these actions may include:
- Calling out those who have “wronged you” publicly on social media
- Yelling at your friend for accidentally spilling a secret
- Spreading rumors about coworkers who dislike or are critical of you
- Refusing to speak to your partner for weeks after they lose something of yours
Some people who always resort to a fight response may have trauma stemming from early childhood experiences.
While not everyone who typically responds with “fight” is diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, studies indicate that narcissists tend to have this fixed response to stress. [1]
2. Flight
Some people’s natural response to trauma is to escape. For many, this response is rooted in early experiences. [2]
Perhaps escaping to your room once helped you avoid your parent’s physical or emotional abuse. Flight can be literal or figurative, depending on the situation.
When we perceive a threat, someone using flight response may experience physiological changes, such as:
- Fidgeting
- Restlessness
- Increased heart rate
- Dilated pupils
- Numbness in feet and hands
During flight mode, you may suddenly feel trapped and have the urge to flee. You may get up and walk away from a conflict instead of trying to resolve it.
Another example of flight trauma response is staying at school longer to escape the emotional turmoil at home. Figurative flight may involve drowning out your parents’ arguments with music or occupying yourself with your studies.
As you grow older, a fixed flight response may be what you use to cope with difficult situations. For adults, this manifests in actions like:
- Trying to be perfect in all aspects of life so no one can criticize you.
- Ending relationships before the other person can break up with you.
- Avoiding conflict at all costs.
- Using school, work, hobbies, or substances to cope.
The flight response is characterized by panicked and avoidant behavior. You may push yourself to isolate away from the perceived threat. When there is a natural disaster or issues with public safety, flight response is the correct answer. In these situations, taking flight can keep you safe.
However, if the perceived threat is not a true threat and you continuously flee uncomfortable situations, it can negatively impact your relationships. Sometimes, flight turns into stonewalling, which is unhelpful and can damage communication with loved ones.
3. Freeze
The freeze response is a trauma response during which we become alert and on guard when there is no conceivable route to safety. This is essentially a stalling tactic the brain uses. It paces our behavior while we figure out the best course of action.
Some experts believe that the freeze response occurs before fight-or-flight. If either action does not seem feasible, we may resort to a “flop” trauma response, which will be discussed later.
During a freeze response, you may feel like you cannot move. Physical signs of the freeze trauma response include:
- Immobility
- Decreased heart rate
- Tunnel vision
- Feeling heavy or stiff
- Hypervigilance
- Dissociation
There is a genuine sense of dread for those who exhibit a fear response. Some people hold their breath, become non-verbal, and have trouble concentrating.
Many people who have experienced domestic violence or sexual assault may resort to the freeze response during traumatic or stressful situations. [3]
The freeze response may look different from person to person. Some of the most common ways it can present include:
- Becoming non-verbal under stress
- Depression or hibernation
- Brain fog, confusion, or forgetfulness
- Using a monotonous voice
- Having difficulty expressing emotion
- Struggling to stick to a plan
- Not communicating your needs to others
- Not answering the phone or any attempts to reach you
- Escaping reality through an addiction
By numbing your emotions and withdrawing from reality, you can detach from the present threat. Some compare the freeze trauma response to a deer in headlights.
For those with a fixed freeze response, it may seem like a natural and safe way to deal with threats. Unfortunately, this response may lead to passivity within toxic relationships.
4. Fawn
You may wonder, “What is fawn in fight, flight, or freeze?” Fawning is a lesser-known response to perceived danger.
It is a different type of response than fight, flight, and freeze. Sometimes, people have a difficult time differentiating between freeze or fawn. With fawn and freeze, you may not decide to fight or run away. However, they are two very different types of responses to a threat.
While freezing involves becoming immobile, the fawn trauma response involves attempting to appease a threat by complying with it. This may look like people-pleasing behavior, such as:
- Overly agreeing with everything someone says
- Giving someone constant praise even when it’s inauthentic
- Blaming yourself for other people’s behavior
- Attempting to be extremely helpful
When someone engages in a fawn response, their main concern is making the other person happy. The fawn response is common in those who have experienced childhood abuse.
Fawning behavior is a trauma response that can cause confusion for someone experiencing it. Also, fawning often occurs within abusive relationships as the person being abused tries to satisfy their partner.
You may not understand why your instinct is to placate your abuser even though you’re being treated poorly. Fawning behavior may lead to:
- Being easily manipulated and controlled
- Struggling to put up boundaries
- Continuous approval-seeking behavior
An adult who was once a child with narcissistic parents may chronically live in fawn mode as a primary response to trauma. If you continuously default to the fawn trauma response, you can lose your sense of identity. You may even develop codependency issues.
Lesser-Known Trauma Responses Types
Many people are familiar with the trauma responses of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. However, there are other lesser-known responses you may not have heard of before.
Flop
Some people may “flop” as a response to trauma. Flop may occur after freezing and determining there’s no way out of the situation. In response, you may go limp, dissociate, or even faint.
While not exactly beneficial, flopping does serve several purposes:
- By passing out, you cannot experience the perceived trauma directly.
- Dissociating may make you feel mentally disconnected. This makes it difficult to fully remember details later on.
- By going limp, the person attacking you may use less force or completely lose interest. This makes it easier to escape to safety.
While these may all sound like good outcomes, they can make it impossible to move or cry for help. Dissociating may seem helpful as a way to block traumatic memories. However, these memory gaps can cause significant emotional distress later on.
Hyper-Independence
While being independent and capable of handling your own affairs is a good thing, some people take it to the extreme. Hyper-independence is a lesser-known trauma response that occurs in some people after experiencing trauma.
A person who is hyper-independent may feel a need to remain completely independent in every aspect of their lives, even when it’s detrimental to their well-being. They may need genuine help or support from others but refuse to reach out or accept assistance.
Some signs of hyper-independence include:
- Refusing to ask for help
- Remaining guarded in close relationships
- Reluctance to share personal information
- Deep mistrust of other people
- Very few close or long-term friendships
- Dislike of others relying on them
Hyper-independent people are often overachievers. They may overcommit at work until they are unable to manage the load.
Even then, they will rarely, if ever, ask for help. Because close relationships are interdependent, their relationships suffer.
Hyper-independent people find it difficult to let down their walls, making it difficult for them to form friendships and romantic relationships.
Trauma Dumping
Trauma dumping means inappropriately sharing personally traumatic experiences in an inappropriate (and overwhelming) manner. Usually, trauma dumping occurs without consideration of the impact it has on the listener. A person may engage in this behavior in an effort to elicit sympathy, validation, or attention from others.
Unloading emotional baggage without respecting boundaries or consent is harmful. It is also a lesser-known form of trauma response. The person who is trauma dumping is seeking relief from the emotional burdens they are experiencing.
Trauma is overwhelming, and it can be stressful and isolating to keep these emotions inside. While it may bring temporary relief to the person doing the “dumping,” it can be extremely harmful to the person on the receiving end.
The other person may feel the burdens of the trauma being shared and may actively avoid the person who continues to talk about these events.
What Triggers Trauma Responses Like Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn and Flop?
Perceived threats to personal safety trigger trauma responses like fight, flight, freeze and fawn. Whether these threats are real or imaginary, they cause your brain to shift into survival mode.
Perceived threats or events can include:
- Stressful situations (public speaking, conflict, and high-pressure situations)
- Personal triggers (smells, sights, and sounds that remind you of a traumatic event)
- Past traumatic experiences (neglect, violence, abuse, or loss of a loved one)
- Direct threats to safety (accidents, assaults, war zones and natural disasters)
- Emotional threats (verbal abuse, rejection, abandonment, criticism, and humiliation)
Everyone reacts to trauma in their own way. You may exhibit a mix of different responses that depend on the specific situation.
When these responses are frequently triggered, it can negatively affect your daily life and mental health. They may even impact your close relationships and make it difficult to manage stress.
How To Cope With the Aftermath of Fight or Flight or Freeze or Fawn
While these trauma response types are your body’s way of keeping you safe from perceived threats, it’s important to learn how to regulate them. Allowing your body to remain in any of these modes can negatively impact your health. [4]
Fortunately, there are skills you can learn to calm your mind and body when you encounter a difficult or stressful situation.
- Deep breathing exercises
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- Journaling
- Sipping water or chewing gum
- Splashing cold water on your face
- Connecting with loved ones
- Yoga
- Butterfly tapping techniques
If you have difficulty regulating your trauma responses, you may want to seek professional counseling. A counselor can work with you to identify the root of your issues and provide additional ways to help you cope. They may suggest therapy, medication, or a combination of both.
Sources
- Loeffler, L. A. K., Huebben, A. K., Radke, S., Habel, U., & Derntl, B. (2020). The Association Between Vulnerable/Grandiose Narcissism and Emotion Regulation. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 519330. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.519330
- Kozlowska, K., Walker, P., McLean, L., & Carrive, P. (2015). Fear and the Defense Cascade: Clinical Implications and Management. Harvard review of psychiatry, 23(4), 263–287. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000065
- Norman B. Schmidt, J. Anthony Richey, Michael J. Zvolensky, Jon K. Maner Exploring human freeze responses to a threat stressor, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, Volume 39, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 292-304, ISSN 0005-7916, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2007.08.002
- Stress System Malfunction Could Lead to Serious Life Threatening Disease, NICHD Archive, 2009
