All animnals have a basic Fear Reflex, sometimes referred to as the Fight Flight Reflex. This fundamental basic solution to any problems is optimised to keep the animal alive, but not necessarily happy. This page is a basic primer on this system, which is often referenced by other systems when a “problem” is detected or expected. In an emergency, the Fear Reflex keeps us alive and that is good, but when it is invoked when it isn’t an emergency, or if our emergency reflex is not suitable, it can cause significiant problems.

For a full exploration of Fear, check out the page Understanding Fear.

The Emergency Fear Response – 4 Fs

The higher our assessment of fear is, the more our bodies ramp up. There is a threshold where our minds stop focusing on the problem with clarity, and shift to focusing on the problem with 1 of 4 emergency solutions – freeze, fawn, flight and fight, in that default order.

Freeze

Freeze is all about hoping not to be noticed by the predator. Running could draw the attention of the predator and there is no point fighting if the predator just goes away. We have co-opted this response for some other problem management, which is part of what drives denial and bargaining for loss and change; passive and passive aggressive for anger. Our bodies get ready for freeze to fail, so our bodies ramp up ready for either flight or fight. Freeze should be the first response to a tangible immediate threat, but sometimes we skip it.

Fawn

Fawn is our effort to appease the predator, or solve the threat without having to fight, hide or flee.

In modern situations, this is the prime mover for negotiation – finding a way through a problem/threat without having to give power over to the source of the problem. Fawn can become People Pleasing and or Rejection Sensitivity if Social Anxiety is too pervasive, leading to low self esteem and a sense of powerlessness.

Flight

Flight is the desire to get out of here, even before the threat shows up. The biological logic of this is that if you aren’t there, then the threat can’t kill or harm you. Avoiding a problem is a survival strategy, but it doesn’t always promote good outcomes, just good enough ones. Anxiety coopts this response for running away from unknown threats, which has the consequence of not allowing you to challenge your fear. We also frequently avoid our responsibilities in the false belief that if we don’t try, then we can’t fail – but failing to act is still failing.

Fight

Fight is a head on direct confrontation of the problem. Often this is an aggressive act and taps into the anger response system. However our fight might be a desperate act with little aggression. A fight doesn’t have to be physical, it could be verbal, social and cognitive attacks. Aggressive fights are about doing the most damage to win, often escalating to dangerous levels, and as such we accept harm to ourselves in order to survive or win. Defensive fights are about creating an opportunity to flee. While this should be the last measure against a threat, if we have been in continual violent situations, including non physical violence, this frequently becomes our first port of call and we are frequently told we have anger management issues.