How Do I Know If I'm Having a Trauma Response?
You're experiencing both physical and emotional symptoms. You haven't quite felt like yourself lately. Recently, you've called in sick a few too many times from school or work. Days come and go. You keep wondering when this will pass. This has gone on for far too long. You're running out of excuses. You're running out of time. These thoughts and feelings won't seem to go away. No matter what you do, nothing seems to be working. You've spent your free time researching what could be wrong with you, but you still haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet.
Here's how to know if you're having a trauma response.
What is a Trauma Response?
Trauma response is exactly that: a response to trauma. Trauma response is the way that your body and brain react to trauma. Sometimes after a trauma, parts of your body and brain can become overly active and defensive, even in non-threatening situations. Trauma response occurs when your brain is trying to keep you safe from certain situations it may perceive as threatening or harmful to you. There are four common trauma responses that typically happen in the instance of trauma, no matter the exact cause.
1. The Fight Response
At first glance, this may seem like a negative response, but the truth of the matter is that it can actually be healthy and unhealthy, depending on how you're feeling at the moment. A fight response when healthy allows for setting and sticking to boundaries. When unhealthy, the fight response happens in a more reactive instead of a proactive way. This can bring on feelings of anger or aggression to the fear that you may be feeling with confronted with a threatening situation.
A fight response can look a lot like the following:
Arguing
Crying
Destruction
Throwing things
Physical fighting
Yelling
2. The Flight Response
When healthy, someone with a flight response can remove themself from a situation. In an unhealthy state, individuals become more avoidant, taking it as far as isolating themselves instead.
These are commons signs of a flight response:
Avoiding people
Running away
Staying busy
3. The Freeze Response
When in a healthy state, the freeze response can help you stop and think before reacting to the situation at hand. In an unhealthy state, your body may feel like it's immobile or frozen. An unhealthy state can even cause someone to feel like they're not really there due to their brain and body going as far as disassociating.
A freeze response can look like the following:
Emotionally numb
Hard time staying present
Loss of words
Spacing out
4. The Fawn Response
And last but not least: The fawn response. Fawning over someone isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially in a healthy state. Unfortunately, in an unhealthy state, fawning over someone can be used by individuals to diffuse conflict, especially when seeking approval or validation from someone.
These are some of the common signs of a fawn response:
Lack of personal boundaries
Not considering your own wants and needs
Not wanting to be seen
Recovering from Trauma
If you or a loved one is dealing with signs and symptoms from past trauma, there is help available to you. There are things you can do on your own to help cope with how you're feeling. Seek support from a loved one. Start a journal to track your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Start to learn about your behaviors and work towards finding ways to self-soothe.
You're not alone in your feelings. Recovering from any type of trauma takes time, and it's not easy to do it on your own. The good news is that you don't have to go through this alone. It may be time to reach out for additional support. Reach out to me today to set up a consultation for trauma therapy. I'Il work with you to get to the root of your trauma and put a plan in place so you can get back to living your life again.
