Most people have heard of the fight-or-flight response, but even if you haven’t, you’ve more than likely experienced it. Yet what most people don’t realize is that there are actually four of these responses.
Alongside the well-known fight and flight, there’s also freeze and fawn, with each one presenting differently depending on the person and their specific experiences.
For people who’ve experienced trauma, these responses can become stuck, firing in situations that don’t call for them. This can affect how the person goes about their day-to-day life, long after the perceived danger has passed.
This page explains what trauma responses are, what they look like, why they can get stuck, and what treatment can do to help. It explores:
We’ve all had moments where a loud noise catches us off guard, and we feel as though we’re about to jump out of our skin. Or perhaps there’s a real danger, like an aggressive person moving towards us, and we feel a surge of energy.
If you think back to moments like these, you’ll likely realize that none of these reactions happened because you planned them. When the brain picks up on something it perceives as dangerous, it doesn’t wait for you to think it through.
This is because an area in the brain called the amygdala triggers an automatic response that has one purpose, which is to keep you alive. Here, the nervous system activates before your conscious mind has any say on the matter.[1]
This is where trauma responses come from. They’re survival mechanisms that are hardwired into the body’s defence system, and have kept humans alive for thousands of years.
In a healthy system, the process is temporary. The loud bang scenario we mentioned earlier is a good example of what a healthy response system looks like. You hear the noise, feel an initial surge of energy, but a few moments later, you’re back to your normal self.
But for those with trauma, this system can get stuck as the brain continues to detect danger in situations that aren’t actually threatening. The body is still responding to the event and the surroundings as if the threat is still present.[2]
Research into the neuroscience of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) has shown that the amygdala becomes hyperreactive after trauma, while the parts of the brain responsible for rational assessment become less active.[3]
This change creates a nervous system trauma response that switches on too easily and too intensely, without any form of a break that would usually bring things under control.
So now, responses that were designed by nature to help you survive in a life-threatening situation start appearing in everyday life. For example, a room full of strangers might kick the response into action, making the room feel threatening or unbearable to be in.
But, of course, with something as complex as trauma, there isn’t one blanket response for everyone. In fact, there are four recognized trauma response types, each with different symptoms and behaviors. These responses are:
These trauma coping mechanisms were designed to protect you, but understanding which one your nervous system defaults to can be the first step toward changing how it affects your daily life.
The fight response in its healthy form is what allows you to stand your ground when something threatens you. But as a trauma response, fight can look completely different. The nervous system stays locked in a state of readiness for confrontation, and behaviors like the following may be observed:
Research has identified these types of behaviors as part of the hyperarousal symptom cluster seen in PTSD.[3]
Remember, if you, or the people around you, react in this way, you’re not choosing to. Your nervous system is reading the world as unsafe and responding in a way that feels completely justified.
In its simplest terms, the flight response is the opposite of fight, and can be described as the urge to escape danger.
When the body detects what it thinks is a threat, it mobilizes energy to get you out of the situation as quickly as possible, whenever the opportunity presents itself.
For those with trauma, the flight response doesn’t typically look like this. Instead, it can present as:[4]
The people stuck in a flight response may fill every minute of their day as much as possible because slowing down and sitting with their own thoughts means they have to face what they’re feeling. Busyness, then, becomes an avoidance strategy.
The freeze response is what happens when the nervous system has decided that fighting or fleeing won’t help you in a particular situation. So, instead of resorting to action, the body shuts down.[1]
Research states that this freeze is the fight-or-flight response being put on hold. This results in the body becoming immobilized, and in more extreme cases, the person may experience what’s known as “tonic immobility.” This is a state of physical and mental shutdown that the literature describes as a last resort response to an inescapable threat.[1]
The freeze response might manifest as:
This response is closely linked to dissociation and has been identified as part of the body’s parasympathetic shutdown when lines of defense have failed.[5]
The term “fawn response” was first coined in 2003 as the fourth survival response, alongside the three previously mentioned.[4]
The fawn response is when a person manages a threat by becoming whatever the threatening person needs them to be.
Psychologists observed this in survivors of chronic childhood trauma, where fighting back would likely have made things worse, but running away wasn’t an option.
In such scenarios, the child learns that the safest strategy is to comply and then prioritize the needs of the person who holds power. Sadly, without intervention, by the time the child reaches adulthood, the response becomes built into their daily life.
In adult life, the fawn response can include:
One study that focused on the roots of this behavior described fawning as a co-regulatory strategy rather than simple people-pleasing. This means that the person is subconsciously trying to regulate the emotional state of the person they view as dangerous in order to keep themselves safe.[6]
AMFM is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
A way to make sense of all four trauma responses is through a concept known as the “window of tolerance.” It describes a zone of emotional arousal in which a person can function and engage with the world around them without the nervous system taking over.[7]
In other words, when you’re inside your own personal window of tolerance, you can handle the difficult emotions life throws at you.
But when something pushes you above this emotional comfort zone, the nervous system moves into hyperarousal, and this is where the fight-or-flight responses become involved.[7] However, when you drop below this area, the nervous system moves into hypoarousal, and this is where the freeze and fawn responses come into play.[7]
After trauma, the window of tolerance can shrink, which means that situations that wouldn’t have bothered you before now push you out of your comfort zone entirely. Now, the survival responses tend to kick in faster and with a lot less provocation.
For example, a small disagreement might send you into flight mode, or a moment of awkwardness might drop you into freeze mode. The point of these two examples is to show you that the window of tolerance can become so narrow that everyday interactions have the ability to push you out of it.
This is exactly why the goal of trauma recovery is to widen the window of tolerance so that your nervous system has more space to absorb what life puts in front of you.
Trauma therapy works by helping the nervous system learn that a perceived threat has passed, and it’s safe to come out of the survival mode it slipped into automatically. The aim isn’t anything to do with the removal of the responses that your body, at its core, needs to survive. Instead, the aim is to retrain the system.
This process can vary from person to person and depend on the type of trauma involved. Regardless, the evidence base suggests that some types of therapies may be particularly effective, as well as the form of environment in which they are carried out.
PTSD treatment-wise, some of the strongest evidence bases are in:
Evidence from a meta-analysis shows that these three therapies produced significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, and EMDR specifically showed the strongest results in the short term. However, CPT performed the best across longer-term outcomes.[8]
Each of these therapies works in its own way, but they all share a common principle: they help the brain process traumatic memories in a way that reduces their emotional impact. Of course, the aim is not to delete the memory that causes problems. Instead, it’s to reprogram that memory as non-threatening so it doesn’t kick off a survival response.
Complex PTSD stems from prolonged, repeated, or multiple traumatic events. When this is the case, trauma responses can become ingrained across multiple areas of a person’s life. For people with these complex symptoms, intensive treatment programs have shown promising results.
For example, a study of an eight-day intensive program combining prolonged exposure, EMDR, and psychoeducation found that over 85% of participants with a complex PTSD diagnosis no longer met the criteria after completing the program.[9]
These results suggest that even the most deep-seated trauma responses can change when the right treatment is applied in a structured way.
Residential trauma treatment also provides the kind of environment where a deep level of focus is possible. For example, if you live in an environment where the same situations keep activating your survival responses, it can be very hard to work on preventing them.
Residential treatment gives you a chance to hit the pause button on those responses and concentrate on ways to reset the nervous system.
It also allows for daily therapeutic work to be carried out, something that an outpatient setting might not be able to provide.
A Mission For Michael (AMFM) provides treatment for adults experiencing various conditions. Trauma support is a phone call away – call 866-478-4383 to learn about our current treatment options.
See our residences in Southern California’s Orange County & San Diego County.
Take a look at our homes on the east side of the Metro area in Washington County.
View our facilities in Fairfax County, VA within the DC metro area.
If you’ve recognized any of the trauma responses that have been described on this page, and they’re affecting your day-to-day life, professional support can help.
AMFM (A Mission For Michael) Mental Health Treatment provides a range of treatment programs, including inpatient and outpatient trauma-focused therapy, designed to help your nervous system move out of an unnecessary state of survival.
Our approach addresses the root cause of these responses, with the goal of widening your window of tolerance and your capacity to handle what life puts in front of you. Our team of expert clinicians believes in treatment persistence so you can achieve lasting, life-changing outcomes.
We also offer support for those managing mental health conditions where trauma survival responses serve as a central part of the experience, including:
If any of the information on this page has made you reconsider the way you respond to the world around you, this might be enough of a reason to have a conversation about it.
Our locations in California, Minnesota, and Virginia accept insurance and are in-network with most major providers. To check your insurance coverage for mental health care, simply complete our confidential online verification form or call us at 866-478-4383.
Reach out to us, and a member of our team will be happy to discuss the options available to you. There is no obligation or cost to have a helpful conversation with one of our caring team members.
100% Confidential
No Commitment
Instant Results
At AMFM, we strive to provide the most up-to-date and accurate medical information based on current best practices, evolving information, and our team’s approach to care. Our aim is that our readers can make informed decisions about their healthcare.
Our reviewers are credentialed medical providers specializing and practicing behavioral healthcare. We follow strict guidelines when fact-checking information and only use credible sources when citing statistics and medical information. Look for the medically reviewed badge on our articles for the most up-to-date and accurate information.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate or out of date, please let us know at info@amfmhealthcare.com
