The Fight Trauma Response

Episode 56

“…anger is a very natural response. It is part of our emotional landscape, it triggers our fight and flight response, and it developed as a protective mechanism. When we had to be able to react quickly to protect ourselves against animal attacks throughout our human evolution. This is one of the tools that was developed, and everybody has this inside of us. When people violate our boundaries, when we feel helpless, when we feel the need to protect ourselves, anger is a very healthy and normal reaction to that.” 

– Elisabeth Kristof, Founder of NeuroSomatic Intelligence Training and Brain- Based Wellness 

How are you expressing anger? Maybe you experience road rage or find yourself yelling at people. Do your friends feel like they are walking on eggshells around you? Maybe you harm yourself. Perhaps you’re passive aggressive. Or maybe you’re internalizing it and it’s showing up as eczema or an autoimmune disease. 

What if your Fight was your nervous system’s way to protect you? What if you could see this anger from a different, more scientific angle? 

This week we’re having a vulnerable discussion about Fight Response. It’s one of the four reflexive trauma responses we all experience as humans. If you’re someone with complex trauma it may be showing up in your life in big ways, maybe for a long time.

We’re talking about Fight as a trauma response, as an emotion, and how it shows up in our lives today. We share our personal stories, because we want you to understand that your feelings are not abnormal. The point of the four F series is for you to hear how other people’s nervous systems are responding and see if that is a reflection you have internally felt too. We hope our stories encourage you to learn how to create safety in your own body so you can process big emotions and live a big, self expressed life.

Highlights Too Good to Miss:

• We describe how Fight feels in our bodies and how it’s changed using NSI tools
• Elisabeth explains how Fight is a reflexive and protective trauma response
• A scientific step-by-step explanation of what happens in the nervous system and brain when anger is triggered
• Deep dive into why the best thing that we can do is to understand when Fight gets activated is to sit above it and understand how to move through it, how to discharge it, and then continue to move into the world safely
• Why suppressing anger is so damaging 
• The 4 different kinds of anger
• The role childhood trauma and abuse plays in Fight response
• Elisabeth describes her Fight triggers, how it feels in her body and what she does to move the anger through her body
• Jennifer shares how her Fight was dismissed as her astrological sign
• How to move anger through your body in healthy ways 
• The role Forgiveness plays in the Fight response

Listen to more episodes of Trauma Rewired HERE