Beyond Fight and Flight

Most people know about fight-or-flight — the body's response to danger. But trauma responses extend far beyond these two reactions, and many of them are so subtle that you mistake them for personality traits rather than survival strategies.

You might describe yourself as "easygoing" when you are actually in a chronic fawn response — automatically accommodating others to avoid conflict.

Trauma responses are not character flaws. They are adaptations your nervous system made to survive threatening circumstances. The problem is that they persist long after the threat has passed, running in the background like a program you forgot to close.