Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn: What's Your Stress Response?

Today, we're revisiting what I call life’s number one skill, which we must learn early through responsibilities given by our parents or primary caregivers. While M. Scott Peck refers to this as discipline, I see it as our response to the constant demands of the moment—a response that can lead to physical and psychological stress as our brain initially reacts with fear.According to the most recent World Health Organization definition, our mental health is a continuous state of varying well-being, influenced by our adaptive or maladaptive coping mechanisms for everyday stressors. Research broadly categorizes these responses as Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn. Today's episode, as with my friend and client Ralph, explores how these responses shape his daily experience of stress.