AccountFight, flight, freeze, fawn
Fight, flight, freeze and fawn are the four broad ways a nervous system responds to perceived threat: confronting it (fight), escaping it (flight), shutting down in the face of it (freeze), or appeasing it (fawn). All four are protective reflexes: useful in danger, costly when they become everyday defaults.
In plain language
In modern life the "threats" are emails, conflicts and expectations, so the responses wear disguises: fight looks like irritability, flight like busyness, freeze like procrastination and numbness, fawn like chronic people-pleasing. Naming which one is running is often the first step to loosening it.
What it can look like
- Snapping over small things (fight) or never sitting still (flight).
- Going blank or numb under pressure (freeze).
- Reflexively agreeing and accommodating to keep everyone happy (fawn).
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