TRIGGER WARNING … I had a traumatic experience and I am going to talk about it. Irish people seem to have a problem with talking about their feelings but that’s my whole personality. Anyway, we are here to talk about fright, flight, fight and freeze. These quick reactions occur when something frightening happens and stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and your body goes into survival mode to survive the danger and each person reacts differently.
Three weeks ago, I was standing with two friends outside a government building on Merrion Square. We were standing there, talking, deciding where we were going to go, how we were going to get home when all of a sudden these two men charged behind us and snatched my bag. I was holding onto the straps … and well to my surprise I didn’t let go.
Not comprehending what was even going on I pulled my bag off him with all the force in my body. No one was going to take my DKNY bag, my first and only designer bag that my mom had bought me last Christmas. The man and I were fighting for the bag as if we were back in primary school playing tug of war. I lost my balance and fell back, slamming my hip against a lamp post. I sat on the ground, clutching my hip, groaning in pain while my friend ran towards him and grabbed the bag off him. Then he sprinted away. Girl Power, yes! Don’t worry, I am okay, I have the scar to show off my bravery though.
It happened so fast, as quick as a flash of light.
So, my friend and I reacted in the same way … fight! But my other friend had frozen. Afterwards, in shock she stood and watched us hug and she was pale with shock asking us ‘what even happened’, ‘I completely blanked’. Not a lot of people associate freeze as one of the main natural reactions, but it is an important one.
It is interesting because, yes I have a lot more of a high maintenance personality which you would associate ‘fight mode’ with but my two other friends are quieter and one of them had the same reaction as me. Science tells us that when you suffer with anxiety, which I do, you generally go into flight or fight mode.
Now, if you were to ask me before that situation had happened, ‘what way would you react?’. I would have said that I would let him have my bag, safety first, objects are replaceable, but you are not! But I’m a fighter, afterwards knowing that made me scared because I don’t want to put myself in danger if I was ever in that position again. But thinking about it clearly and positively now, that quick natural reaction is the reason why I still have my bag and my pride.
This was a very interesting psychological experience that taught me more about my friends, but more importantly it taught me more about myself.