Freeze: The initial stage of responding to potential danger involves freeze. Like a deer caught in the headlights, freeze involves the orienting reflex, an inborn impulse to turn your sensory organs towards a source of stimulation. Here the goal is to “stop, look, and listen” to better understand the situation and to determine if there is a threat. Your pupils will dilate as you turn your head towards the sound or sights that sparked your interest or concern. Most importantly, freeze occurs in preparation for action and is short lived.
Flight and Fight: The second and third stages of responding are maintained by the sympathetic nervous system in which you are mobilized into flight or fight responses. This process involves initial attempts to flee danger; however, if it is impossible to escape you will resort to fight. The sympathetic nervous system increases blood flow to the heart and muscles of the arms and legs accompanied by faster and deeper breathing. Simultaneously, skin will grow cold and digestion is inhibited.
Fright: As we look further into the progression of trauma responses, we see that the fourth stage sets in when flight or fight do not restore safety. When there is no escape a “fright” takes over with feelings of panic dizziness, nausea, lightheadedness, tingling, and numbing. According to Schauer & Elbert (2010), this stage is considered to have “dual autonomic activation” seen in abrupt and disjointed alternations between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system actions. It is in this stage that we see the initial symptoms of dissociation.
Flag: If there is still no resolution of the threatening situation you will progress into the fifth stage, “flag,” which is the collapse, helplessness, and despair that signals parasympathetic based nervous system shut-down and immobilization. Dissociative reactions dominate this phase. Voluntary movements including speech become more difficult, sounds become distant, vision blurs, and numbness prevails. The heart rate and blood pressure drop, sometimes rapidly, which in some cases leads to the sixth stage, “faint.”
Faint: The “faint” response appears to serve several purposes from an evolutionary and survival perspective. When the body succumbs to a horizontal position blood supply increases to the brain. Furthermore, fainting is connected to disgust; an emotional response which rejects toxic or poisonous material. According to Schauer & Elbert, experiencing or even witnessing horrific events such as forced physical or sexual violence can trigger vasovagal syncope (vagus nerve dysregulation) which promotes nausea, loss of bowel control, vomiting, and fainting.
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