“Freeze looks like spacing out or feeling unreal, isolating from the outside world, being a couch potato … difficulty making and acting on decisions,” Walden said. The freeze response may also refer to feeling physically or mentally “frozen” as a result of trauma, which people may experience as dissociation. Survivors who tend toward the freeze response are often mistrustful of others and generally find comfort in solitude. “Flight can look like obsessive thinking or compulsive behavior, feelings of panic or anxiety, rushing around, being a workaholic or over-worrying, unable to sit still or feel relaxed,” Walden said. They may believe “being perfect” is a surefire way to receive love and prevent abandonment by important people in their lives. Survivors who tend toward the flight response are usually chronically busy and perfectionistic. He also noted that while we typically associate the fight response with men, women can also struggle with anger, though in many cases they direct their anger inward at themselves instead of toward others. Related: Survivors Celebrate the End of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation After 27 Years “Fight looks like self-preservation at all costs,” Walden told The Mighty, adding that this trauma response can manifest in explosive outbursts of temper, aggressive behavior, demanding perfection from others or being “unfair” in interpersonal confrontations. Survivors who tend toward the fight response innately believe power will guarantee the security and control they lacked in childhood. If you find yourself “stuck” in one of the stress responses, and it’s affecting your quality of life, we encourage you to seek the help of a trauma-informed specialist. It’s important to remember no one response is “better” or “worse” than the others. With the help of trauma-informed treatment specialist, Patrick Walden, LICSW, we’ve defined each below.Īs a note, most trauma survivors tend to lean toward one stress response. Related: Why I Don't Want to Be Successful in Spite of My Traumaīefore we get too deep into the fawn trauma response, let’s make sure we have a good grasp on the other three commonly-recognized trauma responses: fight, flight and freeze. These are classic examples of fight, flight and freeze due to trauma, but did you know there’s actually a fourth response? It’s called “fawn” and is a term coined by Pete Walker, a C-PTSD survivor and licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in helping adults who were traumatized in childhood.
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