The Fight-or-Flight Response: Everything You Need to Know
positivepsychology.comdownload our three Stress & Burnout Prevention Exercises (PDF) for free. These science-based exercises will equip you and your clients with tools to better manage stress and find a healthier balance in your life.Our need to survive has shaped how we respond to the environment and the threats we face.
Our fight, flight, and freeze responses help us to face up to perceived threats, run away, or stop moving. The freeze response “involves being rendered immobile when confronted with a potential threat” with fight and flight on hold (McCabe & Milosevic, 2015, p.
180).For much of our 21st-century life, fight and flight responses are becoming less helpful, albeit still common. According to Harvard Health Publishing (2020), chronic activation of this survival mechanism is commonplace and damaging to our physical and mental wellness.Science has long known that long-term chronic stress – the repeated activation of the stress response – takes a profound toll on psychological and physical health, both directly and indirectly, with some of the following results (Harvard Health Publishing, 2020; Khazan, 2019): Here’s an example: when we realize we have stepped in front of an oncoming car, information from our eyes and ears arrives at the amygdala, where images and sounds are processed.
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