Fight or Flight Types

 

We feel safe in our ventral vagal state, in which we can co-regulate with another.

The first thing that happens is responding to a novelty cue.

Then if we need to, we flee.

An alternative strategy is called Fawn.

If we can't flee, we will fight.

If we cannot flee or fight, we freeze when overwhelmed.

This can lead to a dorsal vagal collapse or shut down.

Another response is to faint, which is also a dorsal vagal response of ove-rinhibition.

Antidotes to some of these states are: