Understanding the Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn & Flop How the Body Remembers, Reacts, and Recovers
Understanding the Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn & Flop How the Body Remembers, Reacts, and Recovers. By Phiona Hutton Trauma isn’t just an emotional wound, it’s a full-body experience. Long after a threat has passed, the body can remain in a state of hypervigilance or shutdown. The responses we commonly refer to as fight, flight, freeze, fawn , and flop are not choices we make consciously. Rather, they are automatic nervous system responses , deeply ingrained survival mechanisms governed by millions of years of evolution. What Are the Five Trauma Responses? These five responses arise from our autonomic nervous system (ANS) when we perceive danger. They are: Fight : Confront the threat aggressively. Flight : Escape the danger. Freeze : Become still to avoid detection. Fawn : Please or appease to avoid conflict or harm. Flop : Collapse or play dead, sometimes leading to dissociation. Each is adaptive in certain situations but can be...