Discover your primary stress response. Are you a fawner, fighter, flighter, or freezer? 10 questions reveal the survival strategy running your relationships.
Everyone has heard of fight-or-flight — but therapist Pete Walker identified two additional survival strategies that are just as common: freeze and fawn. These four responses are your nervous system's automatic reactions to perceived threat, shaped primarily by your early experiences.
People-pleasing, self-abandonment, conflict avoidance. "If I make everyone happy, I'll be safe."
Confrontation, control, taking charge. "If I stay in control, nothing can hurt me."
Escape, busyness, avoidance. "If I keep moving, I don't have to feel."
Shutdown, numbness, paralysis. "If I become very still, the threat will pass."
Yes. Most people have a primary response but access others depending on context. For example, you might fawn at work but fight with your partner. The quiz identifies your dominant pattern, but you may recognize yourself in multiple results.
Not necessarily in the way most people think of trauma. These responses can develop from subtle, chronic stress (emotional neglect, unpredictable parenting) as well as acute events. If your nervous system learned that certain behaviors kept you safe, it will keep running that program until you consciously rewire it.
This quiz is for self-reflection purposes only. It is not a clinical diagnosis or substitute for professional help.
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