Bullying and the Fight-or-Flight Response

July 10, 2025July 7, 202512 Comments

‘Want to know all about bullying and the fight or flight response? Here’s all the information you need to know.

When you suffer bullying, you automatically go into fight or flight mode.

Therefore, in this post, you will learn all about bullying and the fight-or-flight response so that you can use this as cause when you defend yourself from bullying.

Once you learn all about this crucial information, you will be able to speak on your own behalf when you are called to the principal’s office or charged by police after a fight with a bully.

This post is all about bullying and the fight-or-flight response, so that you can have a good reason to defend yourself against any bully who corners you and attacks you.

Bullying and the Fight-or-Flight Response

Bullying and the fight-or-flight response go hand in hand.

According to the Psychology Tools website, “The fight or flight response is an automatic physiological reaction to an event that is perceived as stressful or frightening.

The perception of threat activates the sympathetic nervous system. It triggers an acute stress response that prepares the body to fight or flee. These responses are evolutionary adaptations to increase chances of survival in threatening situations.”

Any time bullies target a person with relentless bullying at work or school over an extended period of time, they force that person into a constant state of high alert. Although useful in short, immediate circumstances, this hyper-vigilance is unhealthy if the person remains in this state for too long. As a result, it causes stomach issues, headaches, and fatigue, among many other ailments.

Even worse, facing continuous danger can also cause the person to overreact in response to certain occurrences.

The Fight or Flight Response is Innate. Every Creature on earth has it.

Every living creature has an innate and perfectly natural physiological reaction in the event of a threat or attack. Called the Fight or Flight Response, it protects us from harm in dangerous situations.

And it does so by releasing adrenaline. When adrenaline is released into the blood, it’s nearly impossible not to do either of two things: fight or flee.

When others are consistently bullying and abusing you, escape is usually not an option. Your bullies will corner and surround you.

With flight cut off as an option, what do you have left? Fight! Long-term bullying can cause a person to live on this adrenaline every day, all day long.

All your aggressors have to do is come around you, and they can put your body and mind on constant alert. It’s a horrible way to live.

Getting on the school bus and walking through the school’s entrance can feel like a death march. Moreover, horrible headaches and violent nausea will plague you.

You may shake uncontrollably, and your palms may sweat. Also, you may feel a lump in your throat. All of these are signs of being in fight-or-flight mode.

For example, you may feel that lump in your throat when your bully boss calls you into his office. Or, you may even feel nauseated. If you’re in school and your bullies come near you, you may begin to shake uncontrollably.

Again, it’s only adrenaline pumping through you, preparing you for a possible fight.

Bullying and the fight-or-flight response:

You live in a constant state of survival mode.

Even teachers can join the other kids against you once they hear enough rumors and falsehoods that bullies spread about you. This can place you in a very lonely and heartbreaking position.

As time passes, the fear of going to school or work and facing your bullies grows. It’s like an infected tumor that grows bigger with each passing day. Your stomach draws up every morning when you walk out of your house.

The next eight hours are like walking through a minefield. You never know when your next step could be your last. Others begin bombarding you with a torrent of taunts, insults, and names. Or, they may start hitting, kicking, and shoving you.

It is a situation that seems endless, and to say you are afraid is an understatement. You are petrified.

Unless you have experienced it firsthand, you can’t imagine the fear. Also, there are health consequences of living in a perpetual state of fight or flight. The impact on your physical health may not be immediately apparent. However, it may rear its ugly head later in life.

But this doesn’t only happen in school; it also occurs in the workplace. What people once believed only happened to children and teens also happens to adults in the workplace. Bullying knows no age group.

superiors usually blame you for defending yourself.

You may get into serious trouble when the bullying finally escalates and becomes physical. Every day, school staff unjustly suspend or expel innocent students for defending themselves against unjust actions. Moreover, managers in the workplace often terminate innocent employees for trying to protect themselves.

Bullying and the Fight-or-Flight Response:

But why do they usually punish you for self-defense?

It’s because bullies are talented at charming superiors and making them like them. They lie convincingly and make you look like the bad guy. Therefore, the higher-ups may punish you for nothing more than trying to protect yourself.

If, on the off chance, they do punish your bullies, they usually give them a mild reprimand. However, most bullies escape with impunity. This is because others typically side with the bullies, and you have no support whatsoever!

Just like all God’s creatures, you have this fight-or-flight instinct. And you have the right to defend yourself if you can’t run from an attack.

And when bullies are attacking you left and right, it’s up to you to take care of yourself. You cannot just stand there and let these creeps beat the living daylights out of you. You must fight back to keep from getting hurt!

Even animals have the fight-or-flight instinct.

For example, you corner a dog and kick it. And you keep kicking it. Sooner or later, that dog is going to bite you! It’s all a part of nature. Humans also have the right to self-defense.

People can’t expect you to roll over and let bullies have their way with you. They should expect you to fight back if you can’t run.

Bullying and the Human Stress Response go hand in hand. Why? Because bullying automatically activates this response in targets. Whenever bullies accost you, your body instinctively goes into survival mode.

Therefore, the automatic response is either to fight or flee. But what happens when your body stays in that state due to long-term bullying?

Bullying and the Fight-or-Flight Response:

the sympathetic nervous system.

According to the Cleveland Clinic website, “Your sympathetic nervous system is a network of nerves that helps your body activate its fight-or-flight response. This system’s activity increases when you’re stressed, in danger, or physically active.

Its effects include increasing your heart rate and breathing ability. It also improves your eyesight and slows down processes like digestion.

After so long, bullying can screw up your Sympathetic Nervous System. It can cause you confusion and emotional numbness.

Moreover, the constant bullying puts the fight-or-flight response into overdrive. After bullies have bullied you for so long, adverse changes in the victim’s brain begin to occur. Your brain rewires itself to prepare for a hostile environment.

You come to expect threats. Your first instinct is flight. If flight isn’t possible, then you go into fight mode. When this happens, the logical brain shuts down and the primal brain takes over.

And when that part of your brain is turned on all the time, your mind starts to decline.

what long-term bullying does to mental health

Long-term bullying affects your decision-making and emotional control the most. Why? Because your mind is in a constant state of survival mode.

Moreover, you lose your cognitive abilities, ability to control emotions, and ability to think clearly and rationally. Once this happens, it will blind you to any alternatives to your situation.

This is why you will often snap and do irrational things when the pressure of bullying builds to the breaking point. And, because children’s brains are still developing, kids stand a higher chance of damage to the mind and the sympathetic nervous system.

Bullying and the Fight-or-Flight Response:

People cannot thrive in a bullying environment.

Relentless bullying can cause a child or teen to lose the ability to discern and make choices to get them to safety due to their brain’s negative changes. Look up Pavlov’s dogs and you’ll see what I mean.

If this is happening to you at work, you must find a way to leave the toxic environment and find employment elsewhere. If you’re a parent and you know your child is being bullied, you must help them transfer.

A new learning environment will help their minds begin to heal and restore their ability to make good decisions. Moreover, their cognitive and reasoning abilities will also improve.

Remember that a plant cannot thrive in a climate of no sunlight or water. And neither can human beings grow in a hostile environment of bullying and abuse.

This post was all about bullying and the fight-or-flight response, so that you can use it to justify self-defense. This post will also help you to recognize when it’s time to TRANSFER YOUR CHILD, IF you are a parent of a bullied child.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. Self-Preservation Instinct: Defending Yourself from Bullies is Okay!

2. Fight Flight Freeze Fawn: 4 Stress Responses of Bullying Victims

3. The Bullied Brain: 7 Ways Bullying Effects Mental Health

4. Bullying Survival Mode: 5 Things Victims of Bullying Do Wrong

Your Gut Feeling: Reasons It Can Save You from Bullying

June 29, 2025June 28, 202511 Comments

‘Want to know why you should always listen to your gut feeling? Here are all the reasons to never ignore your instincts.

Your gut feeling is that innate alarm system that warns you when danger is nearby. Your mind may play tricks on you and your heart may mislead you. However, your gut never lies.

At different times in your life, you will meet people your inner alarm tries to warn you about. You won’t be able to easily explain the feeling they give you. The only way you’ll describe it is that something seems to be “off” about them. Moreover, you’ll get a sinking, creepy feeling in the pit of your stomach. And, you will feel the bad vibes pour forth from these people.

This is your gut feeling warning you. Therefore, in this post, you will learn why you shouldn’t ignore your gut feeling but pay close attention to it.

Once you learn all about this important information, you will be compelled to listen to your gut and take steps to avoid dangerous individuals.

This post is all about your gut feeling so that you will pay more attention to it and protect yourself from potential human predators.

Your Gut Feeling

You will often mistake this feeling for paranoia and ignore it. This is something that a whopping majority of bully victims do.

However, if you learn to listen to your gut and avoid people who give you that creepy vibe, you will save yourself a truckload of trouble.

God gave us all that sixth sense. Most people call it your gut feeling or your instincts.

Never ignore this instinct!

Anytime you get a bad feeling in your gut about someone, you’re not being overly suspicious. No. What you are doing is picking up on negative energy.

Moreover, your inner alarm, your gut feeling is trying to warn you about a person or situation and keep you safe. Your inner alarm will warn you many times about someone’s personality. It will also warn you when someone is about to harm you.

If you’re a victim of bullying, you may not listen to this instinct because bullying and abuse fills you with self-doubt. Bullies may gaslight you and convince you to overlook your own intuitive abilities.

Therefore, you will mistake your inner warning system for paranoia. Or, you may go to the other extreme and not trust anyone, even those who love you and have your best interests at heart.

As a result, you will repel those who would otherwise be your true friends. And you will miss out on many opportunities for love and friendship.

No, you can’t trust everyone. However, putting up psychological barriers and shutting everyone out isn’t the answer either. This is another reason you should listen to your gut. It not only enables you to sense danger, it also helps you to spot those who are good and to trust the right people.

Your Gut Feeling:

Being bullied can destroy your ability to sense danger.

How? You may ask. Here’s how.

When you suffer bullying, your bullies constantly attack your judgement, decisions, and feelings. Bystanders may also negate and condemn them.

In that, they teach you that none of those things are valid. Or, they convince you that they’re wrong. Therefore, bullying diminishes your ability to trust and believe in yourself.

So, you won’t trust your gut either. When you endure bullying, it blinds you to danger because it dulls your senses of who’s for real and who’s fake. As a result, you won’t be able to avoid dangerous people.

If nothing else, know this! If bullies ridicule your instincts, know that you weren’t born yesterday. You’re not imagining things nor are you being overly-sensitive. And you are not mentally imbalanced or whatever else unsavory characters may call you.

When trouble is nearby, you feel it.

You know when something does not feel good. Not only will you feel it in your gut, but you’ll see it when certain people cut their eyes at you. Moreover, you’ll hear and see them talk through their teeth.

You’ll hear the short and cold tone in their voices. And you’ll sense the nasty vibes they exude. Put all these things together and you have a deadly mishmash of toxic goo! Therefore, eighty-six those people! Fast!

Again, never ignore this instinct. It’ll likely save you from so much trouble. It could even save your life!

Realize that you have more power than you think. Therefore, it’s up to you to listen to what your gut is trying to tell you and act on it. No one else can do it for you. You owe it to yourself to avoid anyone who gives you bad vibes.

Here’s the reason you should always heed your inner warning system.

Your Gut Feeling:

It helps you to pick up on dangerous people.

When you’re able to pick up on the vibes of the people around you, you have a gift. This can be a godsend if you suffer bullying.

Just imagine that you’re able to feel other’s energy and sense their moods and emotional states! It’s great because it warns you ahead of time that negative people are nearby.

Therefore, it gives you the cue that you need to steer clear of them. Therefore, it gives you the chance to avoid harm before it happens.

those sensations may not feel so good.

However, physically, they may not feel so good. In life, you’ll pick up some really yucky vibes from the people around you.

You’ll notice that something just doesn’t sit well when you meet them. These feelings and sensations are always physical. Moreover, you usually feel them in your body, particularly, your stomach.

Your body is like a radio tower that picks up frequencies. In other words, that tower is your body and the frequencies are the energy and vibrations that others put out.

When you pick up negative energy, you’ll get that sick feeling in your stomach. You may feel a lump in your throat. Sometimes, you even get that cold, creepy shiver up your spine.

Also, you may feel the hairs standing up on the back of your neck.

However, though it may not feel good, it is a good thing because it enables you to sense danger so that you know that it’s time to either run or fight.

Your Gut Feeling:

What’s best for you doesn’t always taste good.

Paying attention to these not-so-good feelings is like taking a spoonful of medicine when you’re sick. No, it doesn’t taste good. In fact, many kinds of medicine taste downright nasty.

However, if you’ll just hold your nose, put the spoon in your mouth, and swallow the concoction, you’ll feel so much better later.

In other words, pay attention to those bad vibes instead of ignoring them. And you’ll be able to excuse yourself from the encounter and avoid a potential attack. You’ll also be able to better avoid the suspicious person in the future.

Then, once you’re away from them, you’ll feel so much better. And, you’ll feel safer. Also, you’ll feel so proud of yourself knowing that you likely dodged a bullet.

When you begin listening to your instincts, you’ll notice Patterns and Details that most people don’t.

When you listen to your gut, you’ll also notice tiny patterns and details too. You’ll be surprised at just how much you pick up on that most others don’t. And, not just from other people, but your surroundings.

For example, as a child, I noticed things that other people never paid attention to. At school, I was often accused of not paying attention in class because I was distracted by other things. These were things like the black mold in the upper corners of the classroom walls.

The school building was old. It had been built during the 1940s. I would also notice the spider’s web in one of the light fixtures, or a red wasp that flew through one of the partially opened windows.

Maybe I would notice the loud roar of a plane flying overhead, or the squeak of a mouse trapped in the classroom waste can. Or maybe I had the displeasure of seeing the butt-crack of the fat boy sitting in front of me, who had a terrible habit of not pulling his pants up.

Whatever it was, and no matter how tiny the detail, I noticed it. Moreover, I’m pretty sure that others were threatened by that.

However, maybe there were reasons they were so threatened. Maybe, they saw the likelihood that I might see through all the bullshit they were trying to shovel. Or I’d notice the “fine print” in the stories and narratives they tried to sell me.

When you begin listening to your gut feeling, you’ll ask many questions.

In fact, you will go deep and tried to dissect everything you see or hear. And others will hate that about you. However, as annoying as it may be, what they’ll really hate is the likelihood that you’ll expose some true motives and hidden intentions.

Why? Because it’s only when you dissect something and go deep, you find the real malignancies underneath. The devil really is in the details.

In closing

Trusting your gut is one of the most important things you can do. Not only will you avoid bullies, fake friends, and other shady people, but you will also pick up on patterns and details such much quicker.

You see? Your instincts are like your muscles. If you don’t use them, you lose them. However, if you start trusting and paying attention to your gut feeling, it only gets stronger and more accurate.

So, exercise your instincts and you’ll only get better and better at spotting evil and avoiding it.

This post was all about your gut feeling and why you should pay attention to it so that you can more easily spot and avoid bullies and other nefarious people.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. People with Negative Energy: How to Protect Yourself from Them

2. Fake Friend: 11 Easy Ways to Spot One with Bad Intentions

3. Knowing Yourself: Why it’s the First Step in Building Confidence

Fight Flight Freeze Fawn: 4 Stress Responses of Bullying Victims

September 11, 2024September 10, 20242 Comments

Do you want to know all about fight, flight, freeze, fawn stress reaction? Here is a detailed description of these responses that you need to know.

Bullying can often force victims into the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response to save themselves from danger. So what is this response?

In this post you will about this reaction so that you can recognize it in yourself and know that it is a normal human reaction to danger. Moreover, if you’re a teacher, supervisor, or police, you must know more about it so that you can better recognize it in students, subordinates, and everyday citizens- particularly, victims.

Once you learn all about these responses, you will be better able to see them in yourself and others.

This post is all about the fight, flight, freeze, fawn stress reaction so that you can be able to recognize it more and tell who the victim is, even if it’s you.

fight, flight, freeze, fawn

These are the four components of the Human Stress Response.

Examples of the Human Stress Response:

1. Slamming on your brakes when another car pulls in front of you.

2. Jumping back when an attacker jumps at you from behind a bush.

3. Flinching when you hear a car backfire.

Again, there are four components to the HSR. However, back in the days of old, there were only two parts to it.

People called this human stress response the fight or flight response, which is the innate and ingrained physiological reaction to the threat of danger.

Humans have had this natural reaction since the dawn of time. During stressful, alarming, and dangerous situations, the sympathetic nervous system releases adrenaline into the body. Therefore, you either fight when cornered or flee when you see a chance to run for your life.

This is an inborn survival mechanism that works to keep you alive.

Later, experts added a third component, renaming it fight, flight or freeze. They have since added a fourth one, fawn.

Hence, the four F term of today.

History

During prehistoric times, humans often encountered dangerous beasts like lions and tigers. Therefore, this activated the fight or flight mechanisms within them so that they could either fight the animal, or run from it to survive.

When the term “freeze” was added to fight and flight, experts acknowledge that people also tended to lose the ability to move or act during threatening situations. And when you can’t move, you cannot defend yourself against the threat.

Introducing, fight, flight, freeze, fawn

The fourth component, “fawn,” is when you do everything you can to please someone who is threatening you and keep them from hurting you.

For example, victims of bullying do this to either keep bullies from harming them or to avoid conflict. And so, the four components represent the response to overpower, escape, or decrease the threat to restore peace and safety.

Fight

In fight mode, you prepare to physically fight your bully, who is either physically attacking you or threatening to do so. Moreover, you fight when you believe you can overpower your opponent.

The adrenaline your sympathetic nervous system releases gives you a burst of extra strength to ensure that you successful fight, overpower, and contain the threat.

For example, a man pulls into his driveway at night and a robber approaches him. He successfully fights the robber and overpowers him to keep from being robbed and possibly murdered.

Here’s another thing to note here:

When it comes to bullying, the Fight Response is the most effective of all four components of the Human Stress Response. Why? Because it shows the bullies that you aren’t afraid to fight back. Remember that bullies only respond to strength and power.

Flight

If you don’t think you can win against your bully in a physical altercation, you go into flight mode and run like the blazes. The same adrenaline helps you to run faster and for longer distances than you normally could.

An example of this would be a situation after school when five bullies approach a smaller boy as he’s walking home from school. The small boy knows that there’s no way he could possibly take on five bigger boys by himself. Therefore, he runs to escape them.

Fight, flight, Freeze, Fawn

Freeze

This is when you feel paralyzed and can’t move during the threat of danger. Therefore, this is the worst of the responses. This happens when you don’t think you can fight your bully nor run fast enough to get away.

An example of freeze is when a deer is crossing a busy highway at night and a speeding car barrels toward it. The deer freezes as he sees the bright pair of headlights coming right at him. Therefore, freeze is the most dangerous and least affective of the four components.

Fawn

This reaction happens when all else fails. In other words, your attempts to fight, flee, and freeze have all been unsuccessful. Therefore, you do and say everything the bully wants you to in order to keep them from harming you.

This is a trauma response in that it typically occurs in people who either presently live in or grew up in abusive homes.

Moreover, fawning hides the stress you’re feeling and prompts you to do what you must to appease your bullies. Your objective is to get them to calm down and leave you in peace. Therefore, it’s a survival tool for many.

It is this fawning that breeds people-pleasing behavior, approval seeking, caring too much about others’ opinions, co-dependency, and allowing bullies to manipulate and control you.

In other words, you appease their wants and needs, rather than taking care of your own first. However, fawning is damaging to your mental health because, in being too agreeable, you lose your sense of identity.

Put simpler, you lose your personhood. Why? Because no one will allow you to be a person- a separate human being with thoughts, feelings, and desires of your own.

Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn: What happens when you must live in survival mode for too long?

Sadly, if a situation of bullying and abuse persists over a long period of time, your survival instincts will reset to default. In other words, you’ll likely have anxiety disorder and by default, live with it even long after the trauma is over and things have returned to normal.

Therefore, this anxiety will trigger the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response even under circumstances that aren’t necessarily threatening or dangerous.

For example, students who have “Math Anxiety” are a perfect example of this. These students will study their assignments faithfully. Moreover, they do well and make high marks on homework assignments and even during in-class quizzes.

However, when test day rolls around, their survival responses overwhelm them, shutting down the logical portion of their brains and they fail the test.

This often occurs in abused children and adult survivors of child abuse. Moreover, it happens in long-term victims and survivors of domestic abuse. This is also an issue in victims and survivors long-term bullying.

Events that are normal and healthy stressors will too easily trigger these survival mechanisms. These events could be a college exam, a deadline for a work project, or your sister’s upcoming wedding.

The ease of these triggers is determined by your nature, past experiences, and the type of threat you face. Therefore, long-term bullying tends to cause victims’ human stress response to go into maximum overdrive.

Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn: What are the effects of an overactive human stress response?

An Overactive Fight Response

For example, an overactive fight response can trigger someone to get overly angry too quickly. In other words, the person seems to go from zero to one hundred in a split second. Many bullies themselves have this issue, especially physical bullies who use physical violence as the answer to all their problems.

This puts these victims at risk of being suspended from school, fired from their jobs, or going to jail.

An Overactive Flight Response

An example of an overactive flight response could be someone always running from conflict. People notice this and label this person a big chicken. Therefore, it only prolongs the bullying until the victim is in a situation where he can’t run. Then, he end up being injured or worse.

An Overactive Freeze Response

An overactive freeze response causes you to shut down during conflict. This is the worst of the responses because it endangers the victim of physical beating or dying from a physical attack.

An Overactive Fawn Response

The victim agrees to do what he’s told and agree with the bully to avoid conflict and the possibility of getting hurt. However, this only prolongs the bullying. Why? Because it satisfies the reward center of the bullies‘ brains. Therefore, they come back for more rewards later.

What Does the Human Stress Response and it’s four components have to do with bullying?

Bullying automatically puts the victim in survival mode and causes the release of adrenaline. Therefore, it activates the Human Stress Response and either one or more of it’s components.

This adrenaline interrupts the normal, rational area of the brain. As a result, it stunts the development of the logical part of the mind. In other words, because the victim’s mind is already preoccupied with the threat of bullying, they can’t concentrate on anything else.

This is why kids who suffer bullying in school often have grades that plummet. Moreover, the job performance of bullied adults at work are also likely to suffer.

This is how bullying affects the brain and why it’s so terribly unhealthy for victims. Bullying can affect all aspects of your life. It impacts not only your physical and mental health, but also your relationships outside the bullying environment, your finances, your love life, your chance opportunities… everything!

This post is all about the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses and their relation to bullying so that you can recognize and better talk about your experiences.

Related posts you’ll enjoy:

1. Bullying is Abuse: 9 Ways Bullying and Abuse are The Same

2. Stop Victim Blaming: 8 Reasons People Blame Targets for Bullying

3. How to Stop Being Too Nice: 5 Powerful Changes that Win Respect

4. How to Stop Being a People Pleaser: 5 Powerful Steps

5. Setting Boundaries: 3 Powerful Practices to Hold Your Ground