Fight, Flight... Freeze or Fawn?
Most of us know of the adrenal response - the fight or flight. Less people know that's not a comprehensive list, which is funny, because most of us would freeze in response to danger anyway. A lot of training in jobs that expect you function in dangerous situations involves retraining your adrenal response. Some people don't have an adrenal response at all, which is also exciting.
If you see people talking about what They would do if they were there during some event, you can just smile knowing they would probably do nothing, just like everyone else.
Fight
One of my siblings has this as their adrenal response. Let me set a scene: you're walking home. It's night time, and you're alone, listening to the click of your heels on the pavement. It takes a while, but you notice there is a second set of footsteps, just behind yours, following. Adrenal races through your system.
You stop walking. You grip your keys like a weapon, ready to stab for the eyes. Your breath is steady, your hands are steady, your mind is clear.
This is the fight response. It's the one we like to watch in action movies, because that's what we like to think we'd do in a dangerous situation. It's like wish fulfillment. In a less combative situation, the fight response can have someone lifting cars.
Flight
Flight is a pretty good response to a dangerous situation. If we take the above situation, but the person's natural response is flight, what would happen is their breath might catch and fear would race through them until they broke into a run to get away. The brain becomes a little more clouded in flight than it does in fight - though neither will get you to a diplomatic solution. You might not make the best decisions in your running path, but the adrenaline will give you more power to run than you would usually. The only thought in your mind is to Get Away.
Freeze
This is the one I have. :/ This response comes from the fact that if you were able to stay still and silent, danger might pass over you. Think a child hiding under the bed during an attack. The body becomes heavy and hard to move. The mind becomes a lot more clouded. It feels like there's a hand on your throat that keeps you from speaking.
I disparage this one because it is shitty to go through something simply not being able to protect yourself. It's the opposite of our hero fantasy of what we would do in a situation. I tell people there's no point in me learning self defense because in a dangerous situation, I would be lucky to scream.
So what does a freeze response do in the situation outlined above? Well, there's a few options. They may go through the flight response until they get caught and then freeze. They may try to walk normally because they're not sure there is danger yet. The freeze response is something you go into completely when you're Actively In Danger, whatever that means for your brain.
Fawn
The last one, fawn. People who have a fawn response generally develop it as children, and usually in response to a care taker. To fawn is to try to please the person hurting you so they don't hurt you anymore. It comes out as anticipating peoples moods and state of mind. People pleasing and 'doormat' behavior comes from the fawn response. This isn't going to come into play with natural danger, and is instead more of a social response.
Like the freeze response, in the situation above, you may try to run first and go into fawn once you're Actively In Danger.
No Adrenal Response
Funnily enough, I know one of these. Some people simply don't have that same flood of adrenaline, or the same response to it at any rate. They will be level headed when facing down danger because their heart isn't beating quickly and their breath isn't coming in gasps.
In a car crash, you would calmly cover your head to protect yourself, and then calmly call for help afterward, maybe even continuing on with the day as if it wasn't a large concern. In the scenario above, you may choose to fight, if you have the ability, or you may try to lose the person, but whatever is done will be done calmly.
