Katie Perry
9/19/19
Blog Post 1
Professor Joshua Wede
During the fall, Halloween season, it is always fun to go to haunted trails or houses. What is better than paying to be scared out of your mind? This past October, I went to a haunted trail with two of my friends. It was safe to say that was one of the times I had been most afraid. I experienced the ‘fight-or flight’ response that night. When one of the characters had heard my friends say my name, a creepy “murderer” with a scary mask and fake axe had heard and came up close to me and began singing my name. Even though I knew that it wasn’t real, and I was safe, the two thoughts in my head were to either sprint away screaming or to stay and get ready to fight. I choose the flight response and my friends and I took off the other way. Fight or flight response is when the body’s sympathetic nervous system becomes active when hormones are released. Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, and Breathing rate increase because of this rush of adrenaline in response to acute stress. Other reactions may be dilated pupils, pale and flushed skin and trembling of the body. I took the haunted trail character as a threat, so my body went through these reactions as I decided between running or fighting. Fight or flight is important because it plays a role on how we deal with threats or immediate stress. The tensing of muscles prepares the body to act against the danger, if it needs to start running or beginning to fight. This stress from the potential threat can help you be prepared in a situation when you need to run or act quickly to because your body has already begun to go through physiological reactions. I remember my heart had been beating rapidly the entirety of the walk through the trail. This was because my body was automatically beating rapidly to provide energy and oxygen to the body in case I either had to run or fight. The fight or flight response overall prepared me when I was in a time of fear to be ready to react if I needed to. My body went through the fight or flight response when I was in fear and through this reaction I was prepared in case I had to act quickly.
Hi Katie,
I find the way we have the fight or flight response fascinating. Most of the time our sympathetic nervous system is able to kick in and react within milliseconds of what we want to do. Often, the fight or flight response are the only two options talked about but sometimes it is referred to as fight-flight-freeze response. There was one time I very specifically remember having this freeze response. I was camping and my friend and I decided to go for a short walk/hike through this field. It was very dark but we wanted to see if we could do it without a flashlight. Shortly into the the hike we hear this loud thumping noise and feel the ground shake. It sounded as if someone was running right at us, and then it stopped. I froze still and after staying quiet I said in a very shaky voice “hello?”. With no fear in my friend’s voice and slightly annoyed he says “turn on your flashlight”. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Sure enough, about 50 feet away was a deer. Nothing to be afraid of.
I think about this time and wonder why I didn’t have more of a reaction. I was certainly scared but I did absolutely nothing. It was as if I was just waiting to collect more information so I could decided whether I did want to fight or flight. I found this interesting article that talkes about the “freeze” response and how it relates to the sympathetic nervous system. If you are interested in this I would highly recommend reading it!
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-the-self/201507/trauma-and-the-freeze-response-good-bad-or-both
Best,
Matt
I also find the way in which out bodies react in a fight or flight situation to be fascinating. I was very interested in the fight-flight-freeze reaction you discussed, as I had a personal connection to that as well. One time I was driving and a deer jumped out into the street out of nowhere. I immediately slammed on my breaks and missed the deer by a hair. I experienced the freeze response following the fight reaction. I sat there in the middle of the road with my hands on the wheel, and my heart was racing. I finally pulled over into the gas station a few feet away and sat in my car trying to collect myself. I think your experience regarding the freeze response is very interesting because there is another way that your body can respond, and it is not always talked about when discussing the sympathetic nervous system or fight or flight responses.