How to Combat ‘Flight, Fight, and Freeze’

There are simple ways to short-circuit the body’s response to stress

Illustration: Qieer Wang

Stress isn’t just an emotional experience — it’s a physiological process. Whether you’re nervously preparing to give a presentation at work or having a full-on panic attack on a plane, the physical symptoms that come with stress can range from inconvenient to totally overwhelming, especially when the body’s defensive reaction feels out of proportion to the stressor.

The stress response — also known as the fight, flight, or freeze response — is the nervous system’s way of ensuring a person survives danger. The process begins when the brain perceives a threat through the five senses. For example, if you hear someone scream, your amygdala (basically, the brain’s security system) sends a message to the hypothalamus, the brain’s command center. The hypothalamus then triggers a cascade of hormones that cue the body to fend off the threat. This is when the physical symptoms of stress start to kick in.

The fight and flight responses usually involve a process of ramping up to get moving — think a racing heartbeat, faster breathing, and tingling extremities, all of which contribute to the urge to physically fight or run. In the freeze response, panic can cause feelings of being paralyzed or numb.