The 5 Fs: fight, flight, freeze, flop and friend (2024)

FAQs

The 5 Fs: fight, flight, freeze, flop and friend? ›

There are actually 5 of these common responses, including 'freeze', 'flop' and 'friend', as well as 'fight' or 'flight'. The freeze, flop, friend, fight or flight reactions are immediate, automatic and instinctive responses to fear. Understanding them a little might help you make sense of your experiences and feelings.

Whether you spring into fight, flight, freeze, flop, or even fawn, your survival mechanism is to avoid the danger and return to a sense of control. The stress response can trigger instantaneously, but how soon your body comes back to normal varies from person to person.

While we're familiar with the terms fight and flight – the response when faced with danger, preparing you for action – there are actually five 'fs': fight, flight, freeze, flop, and fawn.

It's common to see references to the basic human instincts of 'fight or flight' when faced with a traumatic situation. In fact, the brain is hardwired to deliver a wider range of reactions, which can be summed up as fight, flight, freeze, fawn and flop.

Key Takeaways: Everyone responds to trauma in a different way, and different kinds of trauma can have different responses in the same people. The six main types of trauma responses are fight, flight, freeze, fawn, fine, and faint. All reactions to trauma are valid, but trauma should always be addressed in therapy.

The fight-flight-freeze response is your body's natural reaction to danger. It happens through hormonal and physiological changes that allow you to act quickly so you can protect yourself.

The responses are usually referred to as the 4Fs – Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn and have evolved as a survival mechanism to help us react quickly to life-threatening situations.

There are actually 5 of these common responses, including 'freeze', 'flop' and 'friend', as well as 'fight' or 'flight'. The freeze, flop, friend, fight or flight reactions are immediate, automatic and instinctive responses to fear. Understanding them a little might help you make sense of your experiences and feelings.

In evolutionary psychology, people often speak of the four Fs which are said to be the four basic and most primal drives (motivations or instincts) that animals (including humans) are evolutionarily adapted to have, follow, and achieve: fighting, fleeing, feeding and mating (the final word beginning with the letter "M" ...

As we've communicated, it's not what the goal is; it's what the goal does. Goals are a means. The Five Fs: Family and Friends, Finances, Fun, Faith, and Fitness are simple categories to organize your goals. Using these five life categories for successful new year goals may make your 2023 the best year ever.

What are the 5 F's of hygiene? ›

The 5 F's, that infectious diseases are transmitted from one person to another are through food, finger, fluid, fomite, and faeces. A major public health concern is that infectious diseases affect children more frequently.

India's post. Food (contaminated), Fingers (unclean), Faeces, Fomites, and Flies.

The five guiding trauma-informed values and principles proposed by Drs. Maxine Harris and Roger Fallot are safety (physical and emotional), trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment.

The flop response is the human equivalent of an animal “playing dead.” People who experience the flop response may refer to it as an out-of-body experience. It's as though the traumatic event is happening to someone else, which can provide some semblance of protection for intense and unwanted experiences.

Fight, flight or freeze are the three most basic stress responses. They reflect how your body will react to danger. Fawn is the fourth stress response that was identified later. The fight response is your body's way of facing any perceived threat aggressively.

We actually have 5 hardwired responses to trauma: fight, flight, freeze, flop, and friend. In a moment of danger, these responses all happen automatically to try to keep us safe.

The fight, flight, or freeze response refers to involuntary physiological changes that happen in the body and mind when a person feels threatened. It can cause rapid breathing, flushed skin, tense muscles, and more. This response exists to keep people safe, preparing them to face, escape, or hide from danger.

A child may suffer from a trauma at a young age, and if not handled in the correct way, this can cause the symptoms of ADHD. You may have heard of the 4F's that we as humans are born with, in response to a threat. Freeze, fight, flee or fawn mode.

People with PTSD have been found to continue to produce high amounts of fight or flight hormones even when there's no danger. It's thought this may be responsible for the numbed emotions and hyperarousal experienced by some people with PTSD.

How to get out of freeze? ›

The Five F Responses — Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn and Flop — are an automatic physical reaction to real or perceived danger via a release of hormones in the body, such as adrenaline and cortisol. This happens when our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) swings into action.

F³ or the Fight-Flight-Freeze response is the body's automatic, built-in system designed to protect us from threat or danger. For example, when you hear the words, “look out!” you may be surprised to find how fast you move, and thankfully so, as you narrowly miss a flying puck sailing through your kitchen window!

The most common approach is to use five categories: strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, and strongly agree.

The 5 F's, that infectious diseases are transmitted from one person to another are through food, finger, fluid, fomite, and faeces.

When you are stuck in chronic fight-or-flight mode, you don't think clearly and are more easily distracted. Activities that provide temporary pleasure, such as eating junk food or drinking alcohol are unhelpful strategies that do not reduce the stress effects on our brain and body.

Breathing exercises and meditation stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (which calms down our stress responses so we can “reset”) via the vagus nerves, and reduce cortisol. A good cry can help too by releasing stress energy and increasing oxytocin and endorphins.