Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn: The 4 Trauma Responses
Integrative Life Center
February 18, 2026
Your body remembers what your mind tries to forget. When something overwhelming happened—whether in childhood or later in life—your nervous system made a split-second decision about how to survive. Fight back. Run away. Shut down. Make yourself small and agreeable. These four trauma responses—fight, flight, freeze, fawn—aren’t conscious choices. They’re automatic survival mechanisms hardwired into your nervous system. And while they once kept you safe, they might now be keeping you stuck. Understanding your dominant trauma response pattern is the
