Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn. Keeping Us Vital, or Making Us Sick?
You may be familiar with these responses, as they have been popularized in our culture as of late. They are very important responses that are instinctive, even reflexive, and are meant to keep us safe and out of harm’s way. The trouble is, our current hyped up, fast paced lives have our feet on the proverbial gas pedal most of the time….keeping these responses at the ready, or even fully active, for much more time than is good for our bodies.
But first, let’s break things down. I want to talk about the neurological and physiological mechanisms that are involved, as well as making sure that you have an awareness of what’s happening, and how to help yourself in (or around) those moments.
Why are these responses on overdrive for so many of us?
There are several reasons for this. Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn are reactions that are meant to keep us safe, and help us to survive. They can be stimulated by an environmental threat (think a car almost hitting you when you cross the street), or even a thought or memory (think, PTSD).
There are several reasons why we are on overdrive with our responses:
Modern Day Living: not enough fresh air, outside time, relaxation, and physical movement or exercise. Too much time sitting. Convenience foods are packed with processed ingredients that can negatively impact our physiology. We are a go, go, go, go, go culture that is addicted to work, crammed schedules and hustle culture. This adds up to too much stress on the body.
Childhood or Adult Trauma: Trauma has a massive impact on how we handle stress, and our stress responses. Unprocessed trauma (even to the extent of memory suppression) takes a toll on our nervous system, and keeps us at the ready to move for survival purposes, even when there is no evident threat.
Generational Inherited Trauma: Yes, that’s right. According to Epigenetics, we can inherit the stress responses of 10 generations in our DNA. We are literally coming in hot.
What exactly is the stress response?
The stress response is a very quick cascade of events that occur. This is a very basic description of what happens in the brain and body during acute stress.
Amygdala Stimulation: The amygdala in the brain is the alarm bell that gets activated with an external threat, or thought or memory.
Hypothalamus Stimulation: The amygdala sends signals to the hypolthalamus.
Sympathetic Nervous System Stimulation: The hypothalamus stimulates the sympathetic system, which acts as the GAS pedal. It gets the body into gear to protect itself.
Adrenaline Rush: the hypothalamus stimulates the production of Epinephrine (Adrenaline).
Glucose Release: the adrenaline releases glucose stored in your organs into your bloodstream, increases blood pressure and heart rate, suppresses appetite, and stimulates greater lung capacity.
Increased Lung Capacity: causes more oxygen to flow to the brain, and creates heightened sensory sensitivity.
Breakdown of Reactions
People may experience all of these reactions from time to time, but there is usually 1 or 2 that are the main patterns of reaction.
FIGHT: this can include physical fight, yelling, argumentative behavior, destruction of physical things, or the need to scream and engage in rage. An argumentative nature, and bullying are lesser shades of this response. Associated with a primitive reflex called Moro (Startle) reflex.
FLIGHT: this can include the need to run, get to safety, abandon, flee. Avoidance, procrastination, and even “ghosting” are lesser examples of this response. Also associated with the Moro (Startle) reflex.
FREEZE: this includes a literal freeze—no movement, holding of the breath, and eyes wide. Immobility, and inability to respond immediately. “Playing dead”. This is associated with the Fear Paralysis Reflex (FPR).
FAWN: This is when you compliment, check in on, or make sure someone who is being threatening has their needs met. Their needs become more important than your needs. This is often tied to a trauma. You learn how to “read the room” and scope out any potential danger or threat, and then make sure that the threat is very comfortable.
Why Get Regulated? Isn’t That Just What the Patriarchy Wants?
It is so very important to get regulated, for a number of reasons that I will outline. First of all, it is very important to feel and express all of the difficult feelings: fear, avoidance, anger, rage, grief, and sorrow (to name a few) before you seek regulation, and sometimes as you are revisiting the memory. You just have to watch getting stuck in a loop. Emotional expression is very important. We are here to feel emotions! Self-regulation activities just help to put the brakes on (the parasympathetic system), which helps us heal and recover. It’s not good for our health to always have the foot on the gas pedal (sympathetic system). Here are some suggestions:
Feel your feelings. Journal, punch or scream into a pillow, throw a pillow repeatedly on the ground. Talk to your therapist.
Move your body. Go for a walk or run (great to do when processing difficult feelings), lift weights, dance, shake your body. Sitting still provides you with no outlet to move all of the glucose and other adrenaline responses from the initial stress response.
Practice daily lymphatic drainage. This keeps things flowing from your body and boosts your immune system. You can use a dry brush, or your hands. It’s great to shake afterwards.
Breathe. Focus on your breath. You can practice square breathing (inhaling for 4 counts, holding for 4 counts, exhaling for 4 counts, holding for 4 counts) until you feel relief. Yogic breathing is very supportive.
Ground your energy. Eat nourishing, grounding foods like root vegetables, meats, and even dark chocolate. Go barefoot on the grass or sit on a blanket in the park. Meditate and imagine growing roots into the Earth. Take walks in nature.
Bilateral movements. Yoga, bike riding, sports, all help with regulation of the nervous system. Actions like crossing the midline of your body, crawling (yes!), tapping a hand or elbow to the opposite knee, and simply engaging both sides of the body stimulate both hemispheres of the brain, which elicits a calming response from the parasympathetic nervous system. Try bilateral drawing—holding a marker or pencil in each hand and drawing (think abstract not exact).
Eye Movements. Look at something near, then look at something far. Repeat several times. Track your finger vertically, horizontally, and diagonally without moving your head.
Find Community. You may seek out a yoga class or sound bath, a grief circle or a breathwork class. An art class or other creative endeavor is another wonderful suggestion, to tap into your creativity. It is important for us all to lean into community, versus isolating. We offer a variety of classes at our studio The Energetic Heart in Atlanta, including a nervous system RE SET class, which I facilitate.
And of course, please seek out help in any way that feels good to you. This may include talk therapy, salt baths, hiking, earthing, or energy healing. Try to eat well, limiting processed convenience foods, and get sufficient sleep. If sleep is compromised, try magnesium over melatonin. Stay hydrated, and ground your energy.
If you’d like to read about what this looks like in children, follow this link to my blog post in AboutPlay.
