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The 4 Types of Trauma Responses

By Lifestance Health on January 5, 2021

You have likely heard the term “fight or flight” to describe what people do in response to scary situations. For example, you as face-to-face with a tiger. Are you the kind of person who takes a weapon and start swinging? Or do you run?

While these terms begin to describe people’s normal reactions to frightening situations, there’s more to the story. In today’s society, the scary situations people find themselves in are more likely to involve emotional trauma than a tiger.

What Are The Four F’s of Trauma Response?

The Four F’s of trauma response each describe a set of responses that someone may have when faced with threatening or abusive situations.

Sometimes, people learn these trauma responses as a means of survival in childhood, abusive relationships, or severe trauma. Then, every time the person faces anything they perceive as a threat, they default to the same types of responses.

The mental health community broadly recognizes four types of trauma responses:

Fight

Flight

Freeze

Fawn

Each of the four types of trauma responses has healthy and unhealthy ways of showing up. For example, a healthy fight response may look like having firm boundaries, while an unhealthy fight response may be explosive anger. Ideally, people are able to access healthy parts of all four types of trauma responses.

Understanding each of these types of trauma responses can help you understand your own behaviors. For many people, that is the first step toward changing their behavioral patterns and healing. Then, when faced with a difficult situation again, you can choose what kind of response works best at that moment, rather than defaulting to learned behaviors.

What is The Fight Trauma Response?

The fight response is self-preservation no matter who you hurt in the process. Sometimes, the flight response is helpful and healthy. For example, if a wild animal threatens you and you shoot or trap it, you have responded to a threat in an appropriate way. Similarly, if someone speaks to you in a demeaning or abusive way, you might say, “I won’t let you speak to me that way,” which is a healthy fight response.

When used in a positive way, the fight trauma response can help you:

Establish firm boundaries

Be assertive

Find courage

Become a strong leader

Protect yourself (and loved ones) when necessary

However, when someone has been exposed to prolonged or intense trauma, the fight response can become unhealthy. For some people, it’s like the threat of the tiger never went away. So they are always on high alert, ready to fight.

An unhealthy fight trauma response can lead to:

Controlling behaviors

Narcissistic tendencies

Bullying

Conduct disorder

Demanding perfection from others

Feelings of entitlement

Sometimes unhealthy fight responses turn inward. People can feel incredibly angry at themselves for seemingly no reason.

If you have had unhealthy fight responses in the past, take a moment to be compassionate with yourself. You may have learned these behaviors in order to survive and be safe. That’s okay. It doesn’t have to be like this forever. Therapy is an excellent tool for changing our behavioral patterns, even the ones that are deeply ingrained.

What is The Flight Trauma Response?

When the threat seems impossible to defeat in a fight, many people default to leaving the situation entirely. That is the flight trauma response. Like with the fight response, flight can be either healthy or unhealthy.

In healthy situations, a flight response to stress can help you:

Disengage from harmful conversations

Leave unhealthy relationships

Remove yourself from physically dangerous situations

Properly assess danger

The flight response is an important one to be able to access in a healthy way. After all, you want to be able to sense real danger and leave it when possible. However, people with unresolved trauma may perceive everything as a danger, leading to unhealthy flight responses.

When trauma is involved, an unhealthy flight response may lead to:

Obsessive or compulsive tendencies

Needing to stay busy at all times

Panic and constant fear

Perfectionism

Workaholic tendencies

An inability to sit still

Many of these responses are attempts to outrun or out-work the perceived danger.

What is The Freeze Response?

Though not as well-known as fight and flight, the freeze response is one with which many people are familiar. In nature, you might recognize it as “playing possum.” Instead of trying to fight the danger or run away, someone pauses.

When done in a healthy way, the freeze response can look like:

Mindfulness

Awareness

Full presence in the moment

As with the other stress responses, the freeze response can become unhealthy when trauma is involved. For example, a child who has an abusive parent may be as still and quiet as possible to avoid the parent’s wrath. Or someone may become so overwhelmed by fear that they cannot move.

When someone habitually reacts to stress with an unhealthy freeze response, it can cause:

Dissociation

Isolation

Frequent “zoning out”

Brain fog

Difficulty making decisions or taking actions

Perceived laziness

Fear of achieving or trying new things

Some people get stuck in this pattern of freezing because they fear the danger will still exist when they “thaw.” It’s important to learn healthy ways to deal with a real or perceived danger, rather than completely shutting down. A licensed therapist can help you learn to use the freeze response in a healthy way.

What is The Fawn Trauma Response?

Fawning is the least known trauma response, and it is primarily related to people-pleasing. Individuals who spend a lot of time around toxic people sometimes learn to go above and beyond to make the toxic person happy, thus neutralizing the threat.

In some cases, fawning can be great. For example, if you throw a piece of meat at a dog that is chasing you, you just might distract them long enough to use your flight response and get out of the situation.

A healthy fawning response can facilitate:

Compassion for others

Compromise

Active listening

Fairness

Unfortunately, people who have been in some kind of relationship with a toxic person often develop unhealthy fawning responses.

The fawn response to trauma can cause:

Codependent relationships

Someone to stay in a violent relationship

Loss of self

People-pleasing to the point of destruction

Little or no boundaries

Do you recognize yourself in any of these unhealthy trauma responses? Even if you don’t think your past is “bad enough” to warrant therapy, you may benefit from it. The truth is that almost everyone has something they could work through in therapy! Learning to respond to stress in a variety of healthy ways can help you in many areas of life, including work, family, and relationships.

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The 4 Types of Trauma Responses

By Lifestance Health on January 5, 2021

You have likely heard the term “fight or flight” to describe what people do in response to scary situations. For example, you as face-to-face with a tiger. Are you the kind of person who takes a weapon and start swinging? Or do you run?

While these terms begin to describe people’s normal reactions to frightening situations, there’s more to the story. In today’s society, the scary situations people find themselves in are more likely to involve emotional trauma than a tiger.

What Are The Four F’s of Trauma Response?

The Four F’s of trauma response each describe a set of responses that someone may have when faced with threatening or abusive situations.

Sometimes, people learn these trauma responses as a means of survival in childhood, abusive relationships, or severe trauma. Then, every time the person faces anything they perceive as a threat, they default to the same types of responses.

The mental health community broadly recognizes four types of trauma responses:

Fight

Flight

Freeze

Fawn

Each of the four types of trauma responses has healthy and unhealthy ways of showing up. For example, a healthy fight response may look like having firm boundaries, while an unhealthy fight response may be explosive anger. Ideally, people are able to access healthy parts of all four types of trauma responses.

Understanding each of these types of trauma responses can help you understand your own behaviors. For many people, that is the first step toward changing their behavioral patterns and healing. Then, when faced with a difficult situation again, you can choose what kind of response works best at that moment, rather than defaulting to learned behaviors.

What is The Fight Trauma Response?

The fight response is self-preservation no matter who you hurt in the process. Sometimes, the flight response is helpful and healthy. For example, if a wild animal threatens you and you shoot or trap it, you have responded to a threat in an appropriate way. Similarly, if someone speaks to you in a demeaning or abusive way, you might say, “I won’t let you speak to me that way,” which is a healthy fight response.

When used in a positive way, the fight trauma response can help you:

Establish firm boundaries

Be assertive

Find courage

Become a strong leader

Protect yourself (and loved ones) when necessary

However, when someone has been exposed to prolonged or intense trauma, the fight response can become unhealthy. For some people, it’s like the threat of the tiger never went away. So they are always on high alert, ready to fight.

An unhealthy fight trauma response can lead to:

Controlling behaviors

Narcissistic tendencies

Bullying

Conduct disorder

Demanding perfection from others

Feelings of entitlement

Sometimes unhealthy fight responses turn inward. People can feel incredibly angry at themselves for seemingly no reason.

If you have had unhealthy fight responses in the past, take a moment to be compassionate with yourself. You may have learned these behaviors in order to survive and be safe. That’s okay. It doesn’t have to be like this forever. Therapy is an excellent tool for changing our behavioral patterns, even the ones that are deeply ingrained.

What is The Flight Trauma Response?

When the threat seems impossible to defeat in a fight, many people default to leaving the situation entirely. That is the flight trauma response. Like with the fight response, flight can be either healthy or unhealthy.

In healthy situations, a flight response to stress can help you:

Disengage from harmful conversations

Leave unhealthy relationships

Remove yourself from physically dangerous situations

Properly assess danger

The flight response is an important one to be able to access in a healthy way. After all, you want to be able to sense real danger and leave it when possible. However, people with unresolved trauma may perceive everything as a danger, leading to unhealthy flight responses.

When trauma is involved, an unhealthy flight response may lead to:

Obsessive or compulsive tendencies

Needing to stay busy at all times

Panic and constant fear

Perfectionism

Workaholic tendencies

An inability to sit still

Many of these responses are attempts to outrun or out-work the perceived danger.

What is The Freeze Response?

Though not as well-known as fight and flight, the freeze response is one with which many people are familiar. In nature, you might recognize it as “playing possum.” Instead of trying to fight the danger or run away, someone pauses.

When done in a healthy way, the freeze response can look like:

Mindfulness

Awareness

Full presence in the moment

As with the other stress responses, the freeze response can become unhealthy when trauma is involved. For example, a child who has an abusive parent may be as still and quiet as possible to avoid the parent’s wrath. Or someone may become so overwhelmed by fear that they cannot move.

When someone habitually reacts to stress with an unhealthy freeze response, it can cause:

Dissociation

Isolation

Frequent “zoning out”

Brain fog

Difficulty making decisions or taking actions

Perceived laziness

Fear of achieving or trying new things

Some people get stuck in this pattern of freezing because they fear the danger will still exist when they “thaw.” It’s important to learn healthy ways to deal with a real or perceived danger, rather than completely shutting down. A licensed therapist can help you learn to use the freeze response in a healthy way.

What is The Fawn Trauma Response?

Fawning is the least known trauma response, and it is primarily related to people-pleasing. Individuals who spend a lot of time around toxic people sometimes learn to go above and beyond to make the toxic person happy, thus neutralizing the threat.

In some cases, fawning can be great. For example, if you throw a piece of meat at a dog that is chasing you, you just might distract them long enough to use your flight response and get out of the situation.

A healthy fawning response can facilitate:

Compassion for others

Compromise

Active listening

Fairness

Unfortunately, people who have been in some kind of relationship with a toxic person often develop unhealthy fawning responses.

The fawn response to trauma can cause:

Codependent relationships

Someone to stay in a violent relationship

Loss of self

People-pleasing to the point of destruction

Little or no boundaries

Do you recognize yourself in any of these unhealthy trauma responses? Even if you don’t think your past is “bad enough” to warrant therapy, you may benefit from it. The truth is that almost everyone has something they could work through in therapy! Learning to respond to stress in a variety of healthy ways can help you in many areas of life, including work, family, and relationships.

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I wasn’t planning on crying today, and then...

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The 4 Main Trauma Responses & How to Recognize Your Dominant One + How to Use Self-Regulation & A Neurocycle to Heal Trauma

By Dr. Caroline Leaf on July 25, 2021

When we experience any kind of trauma, we can respond to the threat in various ways to cope. We are all familiar with the fight or flight response, but there are actually four main trauma responses, which are categorized as “the four F’s of trauma”: fight, flight, freeze and fawn. In this podcast (episode #302) and blog, I will talk about these different trauma responses, and how to manage them in the moment using self-regulation and mind-management techniques. Although recent research indicates there may be two more trauma responses common to human beings, I am just going to concentrate on the main four for this podcast.

These main trauma responses are actual neural structures that get built into our brain as “thought trees.” The experience triggers the response with all its memories, including the knowledge, data and emotions that are attached to the memories like branches and leaves on a tree. The more intense the experience, the more energy and strength the thought tree has.

When this happens, the brain sends a message to all the cells of the body about this thought tree, so the memory is stored in the body as well. The more this trauma pattern is activated/triggered, the stronger it gets. This means that when anything similar happens to us, the predictive pattern will “switch on” in our mind, brain and body, and we can automatically revert to it, which strengthens it further.

Knowing about these trauma responses can help you see how you are responding to trauma triggers, which will, in turn, help you recognize the warning signals of how they are showing up in your life and what they mean for you. This will enable you to reconceptualize (reimagine/rewire) them into a pattern that works for you and not against you. Over time, you can work on healing your trauma; you do not have to let it take up any more room in your life. You do not have to default to unhealthy trauma responses that keep you stuck.

As mentioned above, the four types of trauma responses are: fight, flight, freeze or fawn. You may have one or more of them at different times and under different circumstances:

The flight response can be defined as getting away from the situation as quickly as possible.

The fight response can be defined as pure self-preservation.

The freeze response can be defined as pausing instead of running.

The fawn response can be defined as keeping someone happy to neutralize the threat.

These trauma responses can show up in either a healthy or unhealthy way. For instance, an unhealthy fight response may result in increased aggressive behavior, while a healthy fight response may be the desire to set and maintain healthy relationship boundaries. An unhealthy flight response, on the other hand, may be to become a workaholic to avoid confrontation, while a healthy flight response may be to exit an unhealthy relationship.

Unhealthy flight responses can include obsessive or compulsive tendencies, needing to stay busy all the time, panic, constant feelings of fear, perfectionism, workaholic tendencies, and the inability to sit still. Healthy flight responses can include being able to disengage from harmful conversations, leave unhealthy relationships, remove yourself from physical danger, and properly assess danger.

Unhealthy fight responses can include controlling behaviors, narcissistic tendencies, bullying, conduct disorder, demanding perfection from others, and feelings of entitlement. Healthy fight responses can include establishing firm boundaries, being assertive, finding courage, becoming a strong leader, and protecting yourself and loved ones.

Unhealthy freeze responses can include dissociation, isolation, frequent zoning out, brain fog, difficulty making decisions, difficulty taking actions or getting things done, fear of achieving, or fear of trying new things. Healthy freeze responses can include mindfulness, awareness, and full presence in the moment.

Unhealthy fawn responses can include codependent relationships, staying in violent relationships, loss of self, destructive people-pleasing, or few or no boundaries. Healthy fawn responses can include compassion for others, compromise, active listening, and a sense of fairness.

The first step in managing any response awareness—we must feel to heal. Often, these four types of trauma responses, if they manifest as unhealthy responses, can keep us stuck. But, by becoming aware of them, we can understand them and learn how to make them work for us and not against us. We can start doing this by switching them from unhealthy to healthy trauma responses through the process called reconceptualization, which I describe in detail below.

When you learn how to mind-manage a trauma response when triggered, you can choose what will work best for you to help you get through the situation. This will give you a sense of agency and control, which will further empower you to take control of your life. To this end, I recommend doing a Neurocycle, which is the 5-step mind-management system I have developed over the past 38 years, and is based on my research and practice. The 5 steps are:

1. Gather awareness of your trauma response.

What are your emotional warning signals?

What are your physical warning signals?

What are your behavioral warning signals?

Which of the four f’s of trauma, or what combination, are you in?

2. Reflect

What is the pattern you have developed to cope with your trauma? What are you doing and how are you responding specifically?

Does your response serve you well in your relationships?

Do you need to change it?

Where is the trauma that this response is coming from? (It’s ok if you can’t answer that now, it’s good enough to know it’s a response to an underlying cause. You can work on this separately over 63 day cycles to find the roots of the trauma and embrace, process and reconceptualize them).

3. Write

Write what you have gathered and reflected on to help organize your thinking.

4. Recheck

Look at what you have written, and see if you can reconceptualize the trauma response, - that is, shift it to a healthy response - by finding what I call the “antidote”. For example, you can say something like “This place still makes me sad, but it doesn’t hurt anymore; I don’t see myself as the one who is always being left; rather, I am the one who was willing to stay.”

5. Active reach

What is an anchoring action or statement you can quickly do and say to yourself when a trauma response is triggered? For example, you can say something like “I am going to put on my imaginary suit of armor, practice deep breathing to control my panic, and then I am going to stop pacing, sit down and assess the situation to see what has made me panic. I will ask someone I trust to help me, like a therapist or counselor.”

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Types of Trauma Responses

When you experience trauma in life you’re likely to also have trauma responses. Trauma is the response to a deeply distressing event that occurs and may cause an individual to not have the ability or tools they need to cope appropriately.

Trauma can cause a long list of emotions and reactions that may trigger a sense of confusion and hopelessness. There are some common reactions or trauma responses you should know about so you can identify them should you ever need to now, or in the future.

What Is A Trauma Response?

After a traumatic event occurs you’re likely to have a trauma response. There may be long-term reactions that take place such as physical symptoms like headaches or unpredictable emotions and flashbacks. It might not only take a toll on you mentally and physically but also on your relationship. These reactions and feelings are all normal but may cause you to have trouble moving on with your life. How someone reacts to trauma or the trauma responses that may occur depends on many factors such as the severity of the event, other stressors, and the amount of support available.

The Different Trauma Responses

There are different types and some common reactions to trauma to note and dive a bit deeper into such as the following list of trauma responses. There are four, in particular, that you should know and learn more about as it relates to this matter.

Fight

The fight response is one of the types of trauma responses that when used in a healthy manner can help set boundaries and ignite assertion. However, as it relates to a trauma response then it may come off as reacting with anger and aggression. It comes from a state of fear and an urge to get back control. It may be displayed as physical fights or crying and clenching your teeth.

Flight

The flight response is another type of trauma response to uncover in greater detail. It involves avoidant behavior and may cause you to isolate yourself. It may look as if you’re running away or avoiding others and situations.

Freeze

You might also experience the freeze response to trauma. When you’re in a healthy state it can help you assess a situation carefully and step back so you can respond appropriately. However, when it comes to being a trauma response, it relates to dissociation and immobilizing behaviors. You may literally freeze and soon feel detached from reality. It’s your way of trying to prevent further stress and anxiety.

Fawn

Finally, there’s the fawn response to a traumatic event or instance. You may begin to engage in pacifying behaviors or try to please others. You’re acting to diffuse any potential conflict and also trying to receive approval. It’s all about putting others above your needs and all else. You may not feel seen by others eventually or get to a point where you abandon yourself and your needs entirely. The first step in not engaging with fawning is to be more aware and to start putting up boundaries to take up space.

The reality is that you may experience one or more of these types of trauma responses. It’s all about what state you’re in and how you are triggered at the time.

How These Happen or Occur

You’ll eventually move past the initial shock of the traumatic event into your response mode. There are common responses that will happen or occur such as repeated memories, nightmares, intense fear, mood shifts, and maybe isolation. You’re going to want to try to make sense of the traumatic event which may cause you to respond with mental, emotional, physical, and behavioral reactions.

You may soon find yourself trying to make sense of all that unfolded and wondering why and how it happened and why you feel the way you do. It’s all about recognizing what you’ve been through, accepting what occurred and taking care of yourself, and getting the help you need to recover. While trauma responses are normal and are likely to occur, you may want to seek professional help if they become chronic and ongoing.

Conclusion

There’s a lot that you can do to cope and recover from trauma and better deal with your reactions and responses. You should always consider seeking professional help if you don’t feel better or normal within three to four weeks after the incident. Avoid bottling up your feelings and get them out in the open so others can help you. You must learn relaxation techniques and express your feelings as they arise. Learning to respond to stress and trauma in a healthy way can help you in several areas of your life, including family, work, and relationships.

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10 Common Reactions to Trauma

This form describes some of the common reactions that people have after a trauma. Because everyone responds differently to traumatic events, you may have some of these reactions more than others, and some you may not have at all.

Remember that many changes after a trauma are normal. In fact, most people who directly experience a traumatic event have severe problems in the immediate aftermath. Many people then feel much better within 3 months after the event, but others recover more slowly, and some continue to experience debilitating symptoms. The first step toward recovery is becoming more aware of the changes that you have undergone since the trauma. Some of the most common problems after a trauma include the following.

Anxiety and fear. Anxiety is a common and natural response to a dangerous situation. For many people it lasts long after the trauma ended. This happens when views of the world and a sense of safety have changed. You may become anxious when you remember the trauma. But sometimes anxiety may come from out of the blue. Triggers or cues that can cause anxiety may include places, times of day, certain smells or noises, or any situation that reminds you of the trauma. As you begin to pay more attention to the times when you feel anxious, you can discover the triggers for your anxiety. In this way, you may learn that some of the out-of-the-blue anxiety is really triggered by things that remind you of your trauma.

Re-experiencing of the trauma. People often “re-experience” the traumatic event. For example, you may have unwanted thoughts of the trauma and find yourself unable to get rid of them. Some people have flashbacks, or very vivid images, which can feel as if the trauma is occurring again. Nightmares are also common. These symptoms occur because a traumatic experience is so shocking and so different from everyday experiences that you can’t fit it into what you know about the world. So in order to understand what happened, your mind keeps bringing the memory back, as if to better digest it and fit it in with your experiences.

Increased vigilance is also a common response to trauma. This includes feeling “on guard,” jumpy, jittery, shaky, nervous, on edge, being easily startled, and having trouble concentrating or sleeping. Continuous vigilance can lead to impatience and irritability, especially if you’re not getting enough sleep. This reaction is due to the freeze (e.g., deer in the headlights), fight or flee response in your body, and is the way we protect ourselves against danger. Animals also have the freeze, fight or flee response when faced with danger. When we protect ourselves from real danger by freezing, fighting or fleeing, we need a lot more energy than usual, so our bodies pump out extra adrenaline to help us get the extra energy we need to survive.(p. 139) People who have experienced a traumatic event may see the world as filled with danger, so their bodies are on constant alert, always ready to respond immediately to any attack. The problem is that increased vigilance is useful in truly dangerous situations, such as if you are in a war zone or you are being robbed. But increased vigilance becomes harmful, when it continues for a long time even in safe situations.

Avoidance is a common way of trying to manage PTSD symptoms. The most common is avoiding situations that remind you of the trauma, such as the place where it happened. Often, situations that are less directly related to the trauma are also avoided, such as going out in the evening if the trauma occurred at night, or going to crowded areas such as the grocery store, shopping mall or movie theatre. Another common avoidance tactic is to try to push away painful thoughts and feelings. This can lead to feelings of numbness or emptiness, where you find it difficult to feel any emotions, even positive ones. Sometimes the painful thoughts or feelings may be so intense that your mind just blocks them out altogether, and you may not remember parts of the trauma.

Many people who have experienced a traumatic event feel angry. If you are not used to feeling angry, this may seem scary as well. It may be especially confusing to feel angry at those who are closest to you. People sometimes turn to substances to try and reduce these feelings of anger.

Trauma may lead to feelings of guilt and shame. Many people blame themselves for things they did or didn’t do to survive. For example, some assault survivors believe that they should have fought off an assailant, and blame themselves for the attack. Others who may have survived an event in which others perished feel that they should have been the one to die, or that they should have been able to somehow prevent the other person from dying. Sometimes, other people may blame you for the trauma. Feeling guilty about the trauma means that you are taking responsibility for what occurred. While doing so may make you feel somewhat more in control, it is usually one-sided, inaccurate and can lead to feelings of depression.

Grief and depression are also common reactions to trauma. This can include feeling down, sad, or hopeless. You may cry more often. You may lose interest in people and activities that you used to enjoy. You may stay home and isolate yourself from friends. You may also feel that plans you had for the future don’t seem to matter anymore, or that life isn’t worth living. These feelings can lead to thoughts of wishing you were dead, or doing something to try to hurt or kill yourself. Because the trauma has changed so much of how you see the world and yourself, it makes sense to feel sad and to grieve for what you lost because of the traumatic experience. If you have these feelings or thoughts, it is very important that you talk to your (p. 140) therapist. Your therapist is trained in how to handle these thoughts and experiences and will help you get through this.

Self-image and views of the world often become more negative after a trauma. You may tell yourself, “If I hadn’t been so weak this wouldn’t have happened to me.” Many people see themselves in a more negative light in general after the trauma (“I am a bad person and I deserved this”).It is also very common to see others more negatively, and to feel that you cannot trust anyone. If you used to think about the world as a safe place, the trauma may suddenly make you think that the world is very dangerous. If you had previous bad experiences, the trauma may convince you that the world is indeed dangerous and others are not to be trusted. These negative thoughts often make people feel they have been changed completely by the trauma. Relationships with others can become tense, and intimacy becomes more difficult as your trust decreases.

Sexual relationships may also suffer after a traumatic experience. Many people find it difficult to feel intimate or to have sexual relationships again. This is especially true for those who have been sexually assaulted, since in addition to the lack of trust, sex itself can be a reminder of the assault.

Many people increase their use of alcohol or other substances after a trauma. Often, they do this in an attempt to “self-medicate” or to block out painful memories, thoughts, or feelings related to the trauma. People with PTSD may have trouble sleeping or may have nightmares, and they may use alcohol or drugs to try to improve sleep or not remember their dreams. While it may seem to help in the short term, chronic use of alcohol or drugs will slow down (or prevent) your recovery from PTSD and will cause problems of its own. Fortunately, there are treatments, such as this one, that can help you recover from PTSD and experience long-term relief from symptoms without the use of alcohol or drugs.

Many of the reactions to trauma are connected to one another. For example, a flashback may make you feel out of control, and will therefore produce anxiety and fear, which may then result in your using alcohol or drugs to try to sleep at night. Many people think that their reactions to the trauma mean that they are “going crazy” or “losing it.” These thoughts can make them even more anxious. As you become aware of the changes you have gone through since the trauma, and as you process these experiences during treatment, the symptoms will become less distressing and you will regain control of your life.

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