Fight, Flight or Freeze©

 

 

Did you ever notice how in times of stress, crisis and emergency people respond differently?

 

Many people run from the emergency, some run towards the emergency, and some freeze.  I first noticed this back in the early 1980’s when at wrestling practice one evening, a piece of the gym wall broke free and took off the back of the custodian’s, Mr. Franks, head. 

 

It is important to understand this phenomenon, especially if you are ever in a crisis situation.  In fact, your life might depend on it someday, you might be injured and everyone else around you either freezes or runs away in panic!

 

In emergencies or other stressful situations, responses are often automatic and instinctive.  These automatic reactions are adaptive mechanisms developed over millions of years to ensure your survival in the face of danger.  

 

People often know this phenomenon as the classic “fight or flight” response, but there are four more reactions besides fight or flight, there are also freeze, fawn, and flop responses.

 

Fight, Flight or Freeze...

 

“Fight or flight” describes the first two basic responses that your body immediately weighs to respond to a dangerous situation -- either you make a quick escape, or you respond to the emergency or fight back.  During a fight or flight response, the body releases the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into the body, this will prime the body for action by increasing your heartrate and breathing rate, dump glucose into the body from the liver, increase your visual acuity and auditory perception, and slow unneeded body functions, such as digestion.

 

In the above example, from the devasting series of tornados that struck nine southern states on March 21, 1952, researchers found that few people exhibited panicked flight.  However, this could be because they were already in what they thought of as their safety zone, their home, when the tornado struck.

 

Interestingly, with regards the percentages noted by J.S. Tyhurst, writing in the American Journal of Psychiatry, in 1951, about individual reactions to community disasters, it seems like the 80/20 Rule (also known as the Pareto Principal) is at play. 

 

Fight

The human fight response is described as a readiness to confront a perceived threat or emergency head on.  Often, the fight response appears as aggression, anger, or a strong urge to defend oneself, however it can also be seen as an urge to protect others.  Tyhurst showed that 15% of people reacted in an organized way and faced the threat.

 

Flight

Flight, on the other hand, is marked by the desire to escape or avoid a threatening situation.  Flight aims to physically remove you from the danger or threat to a place of safety and security.  Tyhurst’s study noted that 70% of people responding to an emergency showed some type of disorganized behavior, such as flight, or not knowing what to do, or otherwise acting disorganized.  Disorganized behavior and thoughts can give way to panic.  However, people who are demonstrating disorganized behavior will often be able to respond in an organized fashion, if they are given a job or a specific instruction, such as “You in the red shirt, call 911”! or “You in the yellow dress, bring me that first aid kit”!

Depending on the circumstances, sometimes flight is the correct response to a threat.

 

Freeze

The freeze response involves is the body's way of playing dead, hoping that the threat will pass if one remains motionless.  This is a common response when the threat or danger is too overwhelming to confront or escape from. 

 

During a “freeze” response, your body’s parasympathetic nervous system will dump large amounts of ‘recovery hormones’ into the body.  This sudden increase of ‘recovery hormones’ during an unsafe situation will have the opposite effect of the “fight or flight” response, leaving the individual in a state of panic unable to act quickly.  Freezing can be useful in some situations because sometimes the correct response is to stop moving, for example if you come face-to-face with a dangerous predator, or you must remain still in order to hide from an attacker; however, in other situations it can render you defenseless when faced with an attacker head on.  Tyhurst’s study showed that 15% of people in a disaster completely froze, could not react, and suffered from shock during the emergency.

 

Training to reduce panic...

 

The best way to learn to cope with emergency situations is to train for them, whether that that training is in self-defense, first aid or survival training.  Training in how to deal with dangerous situations is a form of exposure therapy and it will allow a trained individual to respond to the specific type of threat that they have trained for in a more conscious, prepared and controlled manner.  Untrained individuals, or those who have been overwhelmed by the threat, are not able to respond in a thinking and controlled way to an emergency, this is why training is critical! 

 

Whether the decision is a conscious, trained one or not, your brain does a fast calculation, based on your past experiences, your training, and your physical condition, to determine which decision is best for you, based on the emergency you find yourself in.  Hopefully, you and the people around you can cope with an emergency if it presents itself.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

 

dela Paz, Johann, PT, DPT, MS; “Understanding the 5 Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, and Flop”, November 7, 2023, [© 2024 PT MEAL Podcast], https://www.ptmealpodcast.com/blog/understanding-fight-flight-freeze-fawn-flop/, accessed August 17, 2024

 

Fader, Jonathan; “Fight, Flight or Freeze”, January 16, 2018, [© 2024 Urban Tactics Krav Maga], https://utkmblog.com/2018/01/16/fight-flight-or-freeze/, accessed August 17, 2024

 

Quarantelli, E. L.; “The NORC Research on the Arkansas Tornado: A Fountainhead Study”, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, November 1988, Vol. 6, No. 3, pages 291-293, https://udspace.udel.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/914f74cd-8f8d-48fe-9e86-f5a05fb082a8/content, accessed August 17, 2024

 

United States Federal Aviation Administration; Aviation Instructor's Handbook, FAA-H-8083-9A, 2008, https://books.google.com/books?id=UtT_jMq7_kYC&pg=SA1-PA9&dq=%22fight+or+flight%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjnqqzJhf2HAxXPAHkGHbCODBw4KBDoAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=%22fight%20or%20flight%22&f=false, accessed August 17, 2024