While not meant to serve as a replacement for a mental health evaluation, the trauma quiz shown below will demonstrate what trauma response you most commonly use in daily situations.
Remember that no matter your most common response, you can heal and rewire old programming.
Interactive Trauma Response Quiz
Please note: This quiz is not a replacement for treatment from a mental health professional, nor is it a diagnosis of a mental health condition. If you believe you are struggling with a mental illness or are exhibiting symptoms of PTSD, please reach out to a mental health professional to learn more about possible diagnoses and your treatment options. By completing this self-assessment, you acknowledge that you’ve read and agree with this statement and agree to re-origin’s Terms & Conditions.
What is a trauma response?
Responding strongly to a traumatic experience is completely normal human behavior. It is how the brain responds to abnormal or life-threatening circumstances to keep us safe in the best way it knows how. These responses can be immediate, delayed, subtle, or obvious.
How each individual responds to a traumatic event is unique to the characteristics of the event, the extent of any past trauma (i.e. natural disasters, serious injury, etc.), overall brain chemistry, existing coping skills, and many sociocultural factors.
Two people can respond differently to the exact same traumatic situation based on their personal lives leading up to that one moment. For example, in the same situation, one person may exhibit a racing heart, sweaty palms, or feelings of anxiety (trauma symptoms), while another person might dissociate and feel numb.
Typical responses to trauma include:
- Flashbacks
- Negative thoughts
- Aggression
- Isolation
- People-pleasing behavior
- Dissociation (when a person disconnects from themselves)
- Substance abuse
If you feel you are exhibiting these or any other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), please call a healthcare provider.
Trauma responses can become unwanted or maladaptive, but their origins may have not been. The initial response to a traumatic event can actually be life-saving. For instance, if someone’s initial response to being robbed is to punch, kick, and scream (examples of the Fight Response), then they may be able to deter the criminal.
Even further, if someone lives in a dangerous neighborhood and has to walk to and from work alone at night, their flight responses can be an adaptive, appropriate response to the environmental stimulus.
However, trauma responses can become maladaptive when the behavior continues to be demonstrated in non-threatening situations. Unresolved trauma can lead to a dysregulation of the nervous system and the potential for an overactive response in normal situations.1
Childhood trauma can be one of the more pervasive types of trauma, as our brains are incredibly receptive to developing trauma-related coping mechanisms based on childhood experiences.
For instance, a child of a large family with two working parents may act out in order to gain the attention that they feel they are not getting. This may bring the child closer to a family member each time they receive attention through acting out, but it can cause a negative long-term impact. Perhaps they act out every time they don’t receive the attention they believe they deserve and fail to respect the boundaries of others. This can put a strain on future relationships and keep them from connecting to loved ones more deeply.
What are the four types of trauma response?
The four most commonly recognized types of trauma response are Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn. As we have seen, trauma responses can be healthy or unhealthy, depending on the situation.
The Fight Response
This occurs when we believe that we can only survive by fighting back. In order to get what we need or want in life, we must puff up our chest and potentially overcompensate in order to provide ourselves with what feels safe.
Healthy Fight Response: Assertiveness, setting boundaries, showing courage, and standing up for ourselves.
Unhealthy Fight Response: Aggressiveness, attacking or bullying others, crossing boundaries set by others, perfectionism, or workaholism.
The Flight Response
This happens when we believe that we can only survive by escaping the situation. In order to feel safe, we must avoid the things that make us feel uncomfortable.
Healthy Flight Response: Walking away when being disrespected or ending relationships that are not healthy.
Unhealthy Flight Response: Escaping responsibilities, coping through substance abuse, remaining in a comfort zone due to fear.
The Freeze Response
This is when we completely stop what we are doing. We don’t move in any direction, or we completely numb ourselves to any uncomfortable or threatening situations.
Healthy Freeze Response: Presence mindfulness—intentionally slowing down in order to admire the things around us to feel more at ease.
Unhealthy Freeze: Numbing and dissociation. This is where we detach from what is happening around us. We do not take in any stimuli and completely switch off in order to avoid absorbing the experience.
The Fawn Response
The response occurs as a people-pleasing behavior—we avoid speaking up for ourselves in order to minimize uncomfortable situations. A common example of this is Stockholm Syndrome.
Healthy Fawn Response: Showing compassion and empathy for others. Selflessness. Supporting, validating, and listening to loved ones.
Unhealthy Fawn Response: Sacrificing our own needs to meet the needs of others, involved in codependent relationships. Staying in situations involving domestic violence, physical abuse, or other dangerous situations.2
One’s trauma response can vary from situation to situation, but most of us have a general response to which we most commonly revert. This is based on programming that has been laid in the brain since childhood. Fortunately, our brains are incredibly malleable and can change at any age, so the way we respond to trauma is not permanent!
How do I start to heal from an overactive trauma response?
Traumatic events are often guaranteed to change our lives, but the way we approach our healing can decide whether that is for better or worse. Brain retraining is powerful in healing from an overactive trauma response and learning to shift how your brain responds to stressful situations.
It includes creating intentional thought processes and actions that support building new neural pathways that lead to more adaptive behaviors in the face of non-traumatic events.
To learn how to retrain your brain to transform your ingrained trauma responses, join the re-origin program.
