The Four Faces of Fear: Navigating Crisis Responses
Think back to a moment when you felt scared, maybe you were walking outside and noticed a dog without a leash, or you were on the way to work when a car moved too close to yours. How did you react? How did your body respond? What were some thoughts coming up at that moment? Think back to that moment and notice what comes up for you. When we encounter a crisis or threatening events, our bodies and minds are adapted to automatically respond by either defending ourselves, running away, stopping, or reconciling. The way we react occurs quickly and instinctively to protect ourselves from danger. As someone who has an intense fear towards large dogs, my response might have been to run as fast as I can in the opposite direction of the dog.
What is a crisis?
Let’s start by first understanding what it means to be in crisis. Being in a crisis means that we are overwhelmed by a specific situation when our coping skills are not effective, and we are unable to make decisions or take actions. People respond differently to a crisis, and we react differently to a traumatic situation, but there is no “right way” to react. As a person who is in a threatening situation, your reaction is to make the best of a tough situation, and it is not the time when a person feels calm, relaxed, and able to analyze choices.
Some examples include getting in a car accident, being affected by a hurricane, or being a victim of a crime. All three scenarios can trigger the body’s natural fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response to help us survive stressful or life-threatening situations.
By understanding the four responses and what happens to our mind and body, we can increase our awareness of our emotions and are able to regulate them more effectively. Let’s talk about the differences for each crisis response…
The Four Types of Crisis Response
Fight Response: Our body will try to ward off danger which involves standing up to the threat in an attempt to defeat it.
This response may look aggressive through physical or verbal altercations.
Heart rate and breathing rate increase
Muscles tense up.
A feeling of intense anger may arise.
Our mind will focus on the danger and ways to defeat it.
Flight Response: If the brain feels as if it will not be able to fight off the danger, it may decide to escape or avoid the threat by triggering the flight response.
The body prepares by releasing adrenaline.
Heart rate and breathing rate increase
Muscles tense up.
Feeling fidgety, tense, or trapped
In our mind, thinking becomes quicker and attention is focused on escape routes.
Freeze Response: Our body may decide to hit the pause button when neither fight nor flight is an option by becoming immobilized in response to the threat. This may feel like being in a state of paralysis or being unable to move during the crisis.
Feeling stiff, heavy, cold, and numb
Decreased heart rate.
Pale skin
A pounding heart
Fawn Response: To avoid harm during a crisis, an individual may instinctively decide to reconcile the threat if it is another person. This response may look like…
People-pleasing behaviors, giving them what they want, begging, or submitting to reduce the danger.
The mind focuses on options that reduce the immediate threat.
The body adopts a submissive body posture like, body cringes to appear smaller, head bowed, and eyes averted.
Benefit of Understanding the Four Responses
By knowing what the four responses may look like, we are able to develop awareness when the response is activated and be able to bring ourselves back to baseline by noticing and managing our emotions. We are also able to notice other areas in our lives that a crisis response may be activated when it is not entirely necessary. Depending on past stressors or traumas we experienced, our mind and body may start to trigger a crisis response during non-threatening situations and may not be differentiating from real, imagined, or perceived threats.
Now think back to a moment when you felt scared or stressed right before a class presentation or a job interview. How did your mind and body respond? Was a crisis response triggered? Situations like giving a class presentation or preparing for an interview are not dangerous, but they could trigger a crisis response, and the mind and body may react as if it were a crisis.
This happens because crisis responses are the body’s natural physiological reaction to stress or fear which activates the sympathetic nervous system by releasing hormones and preparing the body to either fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. If crisis responses become frequent and chronic to psychological or mental stress, or an individual has been living in a prolonged state of high alert and stress, physical and mental health may be negatively impacted leading to anxiety or depression.
Learning how to manage and cope with stress can help with noticing when an event is not a true threat or danger. Here are some coping strategies to manage daily stressors…
Deep Breathing exercises
Practicing relaxation exercises
Getting regular physical exercise
Talk to a friend.
Ensuring you are getting good quality sleep.
When to Get Help
The fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response has a clear purpose and function when faced with a crisis, but it is not necessary every day when faced with stressors. If you are having trouble managing stress and it is impacting your quality of life, it may be helpful to talk to a mental health counselor to learn stress management techniques and to help you gain a more balanced state as you feel more in control of your daily life.
Written by Laura Nava, LPC Associate, Supervised by Jenai Tidwell, LPC Supervisor
