Jennifer Beall, LCPC, LCADC
You’ve heard about “fight or flight” responses. An animal, faced with danger, will fight if it can, or run away if fighting is not an option.
Fight or flight responses come from the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is part of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which controls involuntary processes in the body.
The sympathetic nervous system is complemented by the parasympathetic nervous system, which is also part of the ANS. The freeze response, a third response to danger, is a function of the parasympathetic nervous system.
If an animal is unable to fight or run away, it might freeze and play dead. Many predators are only interested in live prey and will leave an apparently dead animal alone.
(There is a fourth response to danger, “fawn,” that I’ll talk about in my next post.)
An essential part of the parasympathetic nervous system is the vagus nerve, which goes from the brain down through most of the vital organs and then back up to the brain. The vagus nerve contributes to the body’s “rest and digest” functions.
The vagus nerve is central to polyvagal theory, which was developed by Dr. Stephen Porges. An important aspect of polyvagal theory is neuroception, which is the involuntary and unconscious process of scanning the environment for signs of safety or danger. This includes, among other things, analysis of people’s facial expressions, body movements, and tones of voice.
The vagus nerve plays two different roles regarding safety and danger. The ventral vagal system pays attention to safety cues. The dorsal vagal system pays attention to danger cues.
People are sometimes in situations where the fight, flight, or freeze instincts are triggered and then immediately resolved, like when encountering a bear while on a hike. More often, though, people experience ongoing stresses that don’t lend themselves to immediate resolution, which can contribute to both mental and physical illnesses.
You can imagine what fight or flight might look like in a person’s day to day life. A person might get into a physical (or, more commonly, verbal) fight with someone when they’re under stress. They might “fly” by leaving the room, or maybe by leaving a relationship or a job.
Fighting with someone, or leaving a relationship or job, may not be a great idea. If that’s true, and fighting and “flying” aren’t choices a person can reasonably make, stress may build up, with seemingly no available outlet.
Then there’s the freeze response. What does it look like for people? While a person might physically freeze in place, it’s more common for the freezing to be internal. This might mean shutting down emotionally. It might be a sense of despair or hopelessness. Or it might be dissociation. These responses to triggers help people to survive traumatic situations, but they’re detrimental long-term.
Each person’s life experiences will affect what feels safe or dangerous to them. Traumatic experiences can make situations that feel perfectly safe for one person feel dangerous to another.
You never know what might trigger someone’s trauma. I remember, years ago, having a conversation with someone and, to be humorous, pronouncing a particular word as if I were British. The person I was talking to told me that someone with whom they’d had a years-long traumatic relationship pronounced the word that way, so without realizing it, I was triggering them!
There are practices that can calm the nervous system of someone who is in fight or flight mode, and exercises that can help someone come out of dorsal vagal shutdown. Therapy can help to resolve trauma that leads to feelings of danger when there is no threat present. If the aftereffects of trauma are interfering with your life, I’d love to help you to heal. You can get in touch with me by filling out a contact form, booking a consultation, or calling or texting me at 410-888-0590.