The most recent addition to these categories is the “fawn” response. Read a research study exploring the freeze response for more information.
In humans, the freeze response might look like being frozen and unable to move when a mugger demands valuables or locking up entirely during a sexual assault. If you’ve ever seen a nature video in which a lion turns to defend its limp, freshly killed dinner, and that animal jumps up and flees while the lion is distracted, that’s an example of the “freeze” response. In animals, the freeze response can be seen in many species. Initially, researchers noticed that living organisms would default to either fighting back or running away when confronted with a life-threatening threat.Īs our understanding developed, biologists and human brain researchers documented a “freeze” response. Our understanding of the fight or flight response continues to expand as researchers learn more about the vagus nerve that runs through our body and controls these responses. The fight or flight response has been documented in animals and humans for over 100 years. They act as if they unconsciously believe that the price of admission to any relationship is the forfeiture of all their needs, rights, preferences and boundaries.What are these categories of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn? O n his website he wrote:įawn types seek safety by merging with the wishes, needs and demands of others. What Is the Fawn Response?įawning is perhaps best understood as “people-pleasing.” According to Walker, who coined the term “fawn” as it relates to trauma, people with the fawn response are so accommodating of others’ needs that they often find themselves in codependent relationships. “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.
“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. 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. It’s important to remember no one response is “better” or “worse” than the others. Before 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.
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