The Four Trauma Personality Types
When people experience significant trauma in their lives, there tends to be four different traits in their personality that shift to accommodate that protection-mode the body goes into when facing trauma. A trauma response is a reflexive action the body takes as a way of coping with extreme stress or traumatic events. This response can look very different for many people. Each person has a different response to extreme stressors and trauma, the four responses that are most common are the fight, flight, fawn, and freeze. The first trauma response, fight, is characterized as facing the stressor head on and using aggression to protect oneself. For example, a person with the fight response would more likely confront someone in an argument rather than not engage. They may also have a tendency to take everything personally and think of feedback as a personal attack. Now, the flight response is the complete opposite. A person with the flight response will be more naturally inclined to run away from the stressor, they tend to be non-confrontational and would rather avoid any “danger” . The freeze response can be described as almost a mix between the fight and flight responses because the body wants to run away from the stressor but the mind doesn’t allow the person to move, so they are essentially stuck in the situation and are unsure of what to do. An example of this would be if someone who tends to freeze in any uncomfortable situation is experiencing a high stress, traumatic event, they will tend to not be able to remove themselves from the situation and feel stuck. The last response is the fawn trauma response. This is characterized as people-pleasers, individuals who, when confronted with a stressful situation, try to cater and please whoever they assume they’ve upset. The fawn response is more closely related to childhood trauma because it involves a situation where an adult or authority/parental figure is the aggressor. There are many ways to recognize when one is in a fawn trauma response situation. Most commonly, when people have the fawn response, they tend to look to others to make their decisions and have a difficult time identifying emotions or forming a solid sense of identity, normally adapting to whatever the aggressor or abuser wants.
Other situations that trigger extreme trauma responses would be in people that are diagnosed with Complex PTSD. The most common response associated with this mental illness is the fight reaction. However, the fight response can look different in each person. For instance, having trouble in forming and maintaining relationships. Using the aggression as a form of self-isolation, people who have the fight trauma response create their own bubble and rarely let real intimacy happen in their lives. The same principle of variety goes for the other responses as well. A flighty person would tend to be more involved in their work or projects as a form of avoidance when faced with issues. People who are more prone to the freeze trauma response tend to isolate by hiding in what they have designated as their safe spaces like their rooms or an enclosed space. Fawn trauma response brings out more of emotional avoidance and putting others before themselves through taking care of everyone else before looking at their own needs.
Treatment of these trauma responses requires working with a trauma based therapy and potentially with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy which helps people learn more from their past and unlearn or re-form the coping mechanisms that they adapted to during the time of their trauma. Everyone has a different response to a stressor or a trauma, it affects personality and how one copes with challenges in life. Through the use of different mindfulness, grounding, and self-compassion, individuals can learn to either overcome or better employ their reactions to stress.
-Written by Kylie Hamacher, Undergraduate Intern
References:
Frothingham, M. B. (2021, October 6). Fight, flight, freeze, or Fawn: What this response means. Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn: How We Respond to Threats - Simply Psychology. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/fight-flight-freeze-fawn.html#:~:text=Fight%3A%20facing%20any%20perceived%20threat,please%20to%20avoid%20any%20conflict.
Julie Nguyen mbg Contributor Julie Nguyen is a writer. (2021, September 13). Fight, flight, freeze, Fawn: Examining the 4 Trauma Responses. mindbodygreen. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/fight-flight-freeze-fawn-trauma-responses
Mahaney, E. (2021, March 30). Understanding fight, flight, freeze and the fawn trauma response. South Tampa Therapy: Wellness Counselor, Marriage & Family Specialist ElizabethMahaney@gmail.com 813-240-3237. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://southtampacounselor.com/blog/2021/2/5/understanding-fight-flight-freeze-and-the-fawn-trauma-response
MSc, D. H. (n.d.). Childhood trauma recovery. childhoodtraumarecovery.com. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://childhoodtraumarecovery.com/all-articles/trauma-responses-fight-flight-freeze-or-fawn/