Four Fs of Stress and Trauma: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn Explained

Have you ever found yourself reacting to stress in ways that seem out of your control? Those automatic responses can get you in trouble! They can mess with your relationships, work life, and personal well-being.

You are probably aware of the fight-or-flight emergency stress response concept, but may not know that the 2-only list of instinctual reactions has been expanded.

As the list has grown, the F alliteration has remained. The expanded list includes Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn. 

I added freeze to my stress response explanations to clients many years ago, but I resisted the idea of growing the list beyond three until I investigated fawn recently for a writing project and got excited about how well it explained some of what I have witnessed in client stories.  

Recognizing the Four Fs stress response can help you understand your reactions when you get triggered. It can also help you understand what's going on for people around you when they get stressed. And, it can empower you to manage stress better and make healthier choices in challenging situations.

Let’s break down the Fight-Flight-Freeze-Fawn stress response and see how it plays out in everyday life. (And, learn about several other automatic responses that continue the F alliteration, including one my witty client suggested.)

What's in This Post

When Does Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn Get Triggered?

Ideally, the personal emergency response system only gets triggered in genuine emergencies, but it can be triggered by anything that stimulates fear. 

What actually triggers the emergency response in an individual depends on the person, their past experiences, reinforced methods of response, and current circumstances. 

Any emotional pain or discomfort—disappointment, rejection, betrayal, guilt, etc.—can stimulate fear and the survival response.

If you are overreacting, disappointment that you didn’t get to watch your favorite TV show can turn into a life-or-death emergency equal to a mortal threat.

Panic, anxiety, nervousness, and worry are various levels of fear. They are often associated with a fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response.

It doesn't take big trauma for the Four Fs to get triggered. It just takes a perceived threat. 

Automatic Brain Responses to Stress and Trauma

Before getting into the specifics of the Four F stress responses, here's a quick explainer for what happens in your brain when you perceive a threat.

Two parts of your brain—the amygdala and the cerebrum—have different roles. One initiates a fast, automatic reaction to potential danger. The other takes time to think through response options.

The amygdala is a small area of your brain that plays a crucial role in emotional processing, particularly in the creation and storage of emotional memories and the detection of threats.

The amygdala perceives a threat and stimulates an automatic survival response based on animal instincts. 

That's great in true life-and-death emergencies when seconds count, but unfortunately, this 5-alarm-fire response happens far too often in non-emergencies where a more thoughtful reaction would serve you better. 

The cerebrum is a large part of the brain where you process information, consider options, and make plans.

To give yourself a chance for a thought-out response to whatever is going on, you have to interrupt the automatic fight, flight, freeze, or fawn amygdala response. 

The Amygdala and Cerebrum Can Work Together

We can train our brain so that the amygdala and cerebrum work together for better results. 

Given a chance, the cerebrum’s logic can balance the amygdala's emotional response.

The more we strengthen this connection, the easier it becomes to handle tough situations with greater awareness and control.

Adrenaline, Cortisol, and Norepinephrine

Adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine are important hormones released by the body in response to danger.

Cortisol is often referred to as the stress hormone, while adrenaline and norepinephrine are known as the fight-or-flight hormones.

These hormones kick things into high gear—boosting heart rate, blood pressure, and alertness—so we’re ready to act in threatening situations and survive the danger.

But, when we overreact and these hormones fire off too easily from false alarms, they can drive destructive behaviors that get in the way of your health and happiness.

In order to act rather than react to situations, we need to learn to recognize overreactions and calm the stress hormone surge they stimulate.

What is Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn?

When we are in survival mode, we can have quick, impulsive reactions.

• If we choose fight, we can become aggressive.

• If we choose flight, we can compulsively remove ourselves physically or mentally.

• If we choose freeze, we can go deer in the headlights, not knowing what to say or do.

• If we choose fawn, we can become submissive and overly accommodating to the perceived needs and desires of others.

There is a kernel of good in each of these four options.

They are not entirely without merit in challenging non-emergency situations if they are conscious decisions delivered in a logical, thoughtful way.

Then, fight involves tackling the fear stimulus in a systematic way, flight is thoughtfully changing course, freeze could be pausing until you have more clarity, and fawn could be choosing to put someone else's wants and needs above your own after reflecting on the details of the situation and weighing their wants/needs and yours. 

These responses are problematic when they are hasty, reflexive, automatic, compulsive, impulsive reactions to non-emergencies. 

More Than Four Fs: Flop, Faint, Friend, and Fridge

Other potential stress responses that get mentioned occasionally are flop, faint, and friend. 

"Flop" and "faint" both describe going physically limp. Certainly, it is a possible symptom of a panic attack, but I don't see it as a common response to stress. The four Fs discussed in this post happen much more frequently. 

"Friend" is mentioned in some trauma response lists, but I don't see it as an automatic action. It is defined as reaching out for support, forming alliances, and engaging in nurturing behaviors. To me, those seem more like thought-out coping strategies rather than automatic emergency reactions. 

➕ After reading this post, one of my clients had a brilliant idea: "Fridge" should be added to the automatic stress trigger responses to represent stress eating. Many people do stress eat in an automatic, uncontrolled way when triggered. 

I'll stick with the Four F's, but these others provide worthy food for thought. (Pun intended :) 

How to Better Manage Your Response to Stress

Understanding and managing the stress responses of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn is essential for personal well-being, happy relationships, and successful work life. Each response is a natural reaction to perceived threats, but when triggered too frequently or inappropriately, they can lead to unhelpful or destructive behaviors.

Here are some general strategies to help manage your stress response effectively.

1. First, awareness of the Four Fs is key.

Recognize the signs and symptoms of each stress response in yourself. Whether it's the anger and impulsivity of the fight response, the anxiety and avoidance of flight, the paralysis and numbness of freeze, or the excessive people-pleasing of fawn, being aware of your reaction pattern is the first step toward managing stress in a healthy way.

2. Identify Your Triggers.

Awareness of your triggers is also helpful. It can help you prepare for triggering events so you don't overreact, and also help you make other mitigating plans.

🟢➜ To explore how triggers develop and learn how to identify your own patterns, you can read my guide on emotional triggers here.

3. Use Quick Grounding Reset Techniques. 

When you feel overwhelmed, grounding exercises can help you quickly reset, stay present, and calm yourself down. They provide a crucial pause for interrupting the automatic stress response and allow your rational brain time to consider options.

Techniques such as deep breathing, focusing on physical sensations, or using mindfulness exercises can bring you back to the moment and reduce the intensity of the stress response.

🟢➜ Check out this post for more resets that can be performed in 2 minutes or less: 5 Grounding Techniques for Anxiety and Emotional Distress. 

4. Stop Negative Rumination.

Thought Stopping is a method for stopping the knee-jerk overreaction to a perceived threat, getting negative thoughts to stop spinning, and making room for you to address the underlying issues logically.

It is a simple 4-step process:

• Notice you're getting triggered.
• Stop.
• Reset your mind to a calm state.
• Challenge the negative thought to see if it's based in reality and whether there is a more realistic, logical view of the situation. 

See the "Resources for Managing Your Stress Response" section below for Thought Stopping instructions and worksheets. 

5. Practice Assertiveness. 

Assertiveness is the balanced area between the aggressiveness of fight, and the passiveness of flight, freeze, and fawn. When you are assertive, you can express your honest thoughts and feelings while delivering them in a respectful way. 

See the Resources for Managing Your Stress Response below for links to my 

My Building Skills to Uplevel Life: Silver Lining Emotional Intelligence Workbook includes many tips and worksheets for assertiveness training and anger management. See the "Resources for Managing Your Stress Response" section below for details. 

6. Set Healthy Boundaries.

Setting healthy boundaries is essential, especially for those who tend to fawn. Learn to take your own needs into account and say no when appropriate. Start with small, manageable boundaries and gradually expand them. This helps in reducing feelings of overwhelm and maintaining your well-being.

7. Reduce Your Stress Load.

How reactionary we are can be influenced by our stress baseline. Stress-relieving activities may give you less of a hair-trigger stress response. 

For example:

• 20 minutes of moderate exercise can improve your mood for up to 12 hours. 

• 20-30 minutes in nature reduces cortisol. 

🟢➜ For more ideas: 15 Ways to Manage Stress and Reduce Anxiety.

8. Consider Professional Help.

Therapists can help you explore the underlying causes of your stress responses and develop effective coping strategies. Whether it's through cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), the healing of old wounds, mindfulness-based stress reduction, or other therapeutic approaches, professional guidance can provide valuable insights and tools for managing stress. If you'd like to discuss working with me, complete the form on the contact page. 

Resources for Understanding and Regulating Your Reaction to Stress

I have created many books, workbooks, journals, worksheets, and other products to help you calm anxiety, overcome depression, build emotion skills, improve your relationships, and boost your well-being. Several of them include information and worksheets for learning to use Thought Stopping to de-escalate your stress response. 

Downloadable PDFs

My Etsy shop, AnnSWellnessDigitals, offers a series of CBT Coping Skills downloadable PDF worksheets and short single-topic workbooks that can be printed or used digitally on your devices. 

Three of the topics covered by this series of PDF's are directly related to the things we've been talking about in this post:

• The 4-Step Thought Stopping CBT Coping Skills Workbook includes a fight-flight-freeze-fawn explanation page and worksheets for helping you interrupt the automatic response. 
• 12 Two-Minute or Less Quick Resets: Grounding Techniques Coping Skills Workbook
• Identifying Your Triggers Worksheets

Books and Print Workbooks

For a full list of my print books (with descriptions and links), click here.  

Here's more info on my latest workbook that has lots of tips and worksheets that can help you learn to deal better with emotions—including anxiety and anger—and build skills like tact and assertiveness: 

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