Trauma, Mental Health

Trauma Response and Complex PTSD: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Appease

What these really look like, and how to get help when you’re overwhelmed.

Photo by bady qb on Unsplash

You’ve probably heard of the three classic trauma/fear responses: fight, flight, and freeze. Another response has been delineated recently: appease. We’ll look at that one in a minute.

These responses are triggered by a cascade of hormones in our brains when we are put in potentially dangerous situations. This flash of hormones evolved from our earliest exposure as a species to predatory threats and enabled us to act immediately to save ourselves from harm.

Problems arise when the everyday stresses of modern life trigger those same hormonal cascades that are meant to prepare our bodies for life-and-death confrontations.

In her article Everything I Know About Fight or Flight, Aurora Eliam gives a succinct description of how these hormonal cascades work. As individuals, the emotions that accompany the confusion and helplessness we feel when we experience fear or trauma will vary. That said, the response to the particular emotion tends to be similar:

• If you feel anger or frustration when afraid, your likely response will be fight
• If you feel terror or alarm when afraid, you’ll probably respond by flight
• If you feel anxiety or desperation when afraid, you’ll likely freeze
• If you feel dismay or foreboding, you’ll try to appease

Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

People who have experienced long-term exposure to physical, emotional or sexual abuse often suffer from what’s referred to as complex trauma or c-PTSD. C-PTSD is a newer diagnosis and is not currently outlined in the DSM-5. It has many of the same symptoms as PTSD, but in most cases of c-PTSD profound changes in the brain have occurred that affect the way sufferers think. We’ll take a deeper look at c-PTSD in another article.

While the majority of people tend to respond to fear or trauma the same way each time they experience it, those who live with c-PTSD usually develop a series of responses that…