Responses to Childhood
Trauma: Fight-Flight-or Freeze
Alyssa Hill, MA
Topics in Childhood Development
According
Children:
Each
Psychological Trauma
Psychological trauma is the unique individual experience
of an event or enduring conditions, in which:
1.
2.
+
Childhood trauma increases the
risk of
Social Problems
School failure
Victimization
Anti-social behavior
Teenage pregnancy
Neuropsychiatric
Dissociative disorders
Conduct disorders
Medical problems
Heart disease
Asthma
(Perry, 2003)
Survival Strategies
Hyperarousal
Hypervigilance
Anxious
Reactive
Alarm Response
Increase heart rate
Freeze: Fear
Fight: Panic
Flight: Terror
Dissociation
Detached
Numb
Compliant
Decrease heart rate
Suspension of time
De-realization
Mini-psychoses
Fainting
(BD Perry MD, PhD,
2003)
Dissociation
Behaviorally impulsive
Hypervigilant
Hyperactive
Withdrawn or depressed
Sleep difficulties
Anxiety
(Perry, 2003)
In summary
References