What would be your threat response....fight, flight or freeze?

[FuckKnowsMate]

Just curious about what other people think their body's response to threat would be?
I recall experiencing something when I was on medication and struggling to sleep and think I may have had an episode of 'exploding head syndrome'. I remember very vividly hearing loud knocking on my windows (I was downstairs at the time) and thought the house was about to get burgled and my immediate response was to completely freeze, rooted to the sofa without daring to breathe but could feel my heart through my chest! After calming down, I realised I was actually just experiencing something in the transition state between sleep and awake, however in that moment it felt SO real and I genuinely thought I was in danger......anyway, its now made me think I would be an absolute shitbag in any real danger situation and my response would be to freeze which is pretty useless :(

If you was in danger, do you think you would fight or flight or freeze like me :D

Fight usually although I have run before
I go weirdly calm in emergencies though, like if someone collapses I just start CPR and directing people
If it's something tiny like a leak at home though I get insanely stressed

Mine is fight, unfortunately put to the test a couple of times, looking back the outcome could have been so different and afterwards I was mortified of the danger I had put myself in instead of 'flight' like everyone else that was with me. I really really worry about being burgled because I know the sensible option is to just try to appease and get them out of the house but I also know what the response would be to having someone invade my children's safe space - it would send my adrenaline in to overload

Unfortunately I know it is exactly what happens when I am actually under immediate attack. If you do it in a crisis I would hazard a guess it would still happen

I was followed by a man walking many years ago, I knew he was following me and i was worried, when suddenly he started running at me.

My brain said just maybe he wasn’t following me he’s actually a late night runner, so I stepped back and stopped in the hope he would pass. Instead he pulled his fist back and punched me hard in the eye.

for a long time it wasn’t just the attack that bothered me it was my response, I found it hard to comprehend that I stood there and waited for it rather than running, screaming, anything useful. Knowing about fight, fight, freeze and appease is really helpful to be kinder to yourself I feel.

Fight, I used to work in a setting where I came into contact with aggressive people regularly and the only time I froze, rather than stand my ground, was when cornered and heavily pregnant with dd. I also practice a martial art so my instinct is to fight back

Sorry Op I'm not a fan of these type of threads because the truth is, you dont know how you will react.

I always thought that should I ever be attacked I would fight. I had all sorts of strategies like, kick him in the balls, scratch his eyes so on an on.

Like others, unfortunately this was put to the test. I froze.

Apart from all the physical and emotional trauma I had to go through, a large part was overcoming the fact I didn't fight.
I blamed myself for the attack,. Part of my thinking was it was my fault they raped me, because if only I had fought back, maybe they would have stopped.
I felt my body/brain "let" this happen to me. Surely all I had to do was kick them in the balls or scratch thier eyes

This is part of the problem women face. Of course we should always have strategies on what we will do if attacked.
But please never ever ever feel like you have let yourself down if you don't fight or flee.

There are five!
Screen shot is from working with adolescents but relevant.

mine is freeze and has unfortunately been tested too many times

Flight I assume - I had panic attacks as a child where I would run off

Freeze - as I’ve found out to my cost ☹️

On the whole, probably fight. Especially if it were to defend someone else.

There have been one or two occasions in my life when the red mist has descended and I have had to seriously restrain myself.

Fight 😂

I got followed straight to my front door once a few years ago, and I started screaming at him and he ran off.

Not so sure I'd be that confident now mind you!

Mine is to fight, been tested so many times. The funniest one was I was at traffic lights and I saw a man stop his car get out and walk to the car in front of him and he started swearing etc, I didn't realise what I was doing but I had toon my seat belt off and opened by door to realise they knew each other and was messing about. I had to close my door and I thought wtf was I thinking, but my response was to sort it out somehow. Some are a lot worse, childhood abuse etc but I did jump up and gave the Heimlich manoeuvre to my son when he was choking, adrenaline seems to take over with me.

I suspect your brain is clever enough to work out in a millisecond what to do. See a snake: freeze (probably correct response). Jumped on from behind: fight (if it's a sibling pranking you, they'll soon learn). Gunfire in the street: flight (surely?).

My DH forgot to tell me that a plumber was coming round so I got home from work and walked in the bathroom to find a man standing there.
my reaction still baffles me
I did a riverdance

The end to this caught me off guard so much I’m in tears🤣🤣🤣

I'd like to think I'd fight, I'm quite gung ho in conflict BUT I've never been tested in any real threat to life situations, so I'd probably end up running away while wetting myself.

From experience it’s fight. Man assaulted me, I had to call a taxi to take him to A&E, I broke his nose. Want to keep a straight nose don’t grab my boobs.

Me too. That’s so funny

I can’t remember which book, but I did read somewhere that only about 15% of people would react sufficiently quickly to get themselves out of an immediately life-threatening situation. The other 85% would await their fate.

Fight. I've always sad that if something were to kick off, I'm the one whose getting stabbed. Case in point, I have in fact been punched in the face (by a random man) in a bar fight. Dh is a freezer. So it's definitely going to be me getting my ass kicked.

I freeze. Then disassociate in very stressful situations. I was abused as a child and I learnt to disassociate when this was happening to cope.

I've recently been in therapy after a situation made me disassociate so much that I lost feeling in parts of my body leaving me paralysed.

So yeah I freeze

The riverdance is killing me.

Freeze, definitely. Years ago I was under the covers and the house was broken in to, my family was out. I was about 20. I missed the moment to leap out of bed and scream ''get out of our house!!!!'' so I just lay there, frozen and TERRIFIED while they strolled around saying ''will we take this?''. My heart was exploding. Honestly thought, how can they not hear my heart.

I think it will depend on the actual situation and circumstance.

When we were broken into and the thief was on the driveway in our car I went into fight mode. Ran at them screaming and everything- no idea what I would have done if they'd come at me.

Fight.

A friend once came up behind me as a prank, and I punched her 😐