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Trauma responses are involuntary reactions that happen naturally. While a lot of people are probably familiar with the fight-or-flight response, there are two other forms of trauma responses.

When the body recognizes something as a threat, the amygdala -- the brain's anxiety switch -- kicks into its primal survival instinct and responds to protect the person. This results in any of the known trauma responses.

Fight 

The fight response causes a person to be in combative mode. For people whose initial instinct is to fight, it does not matter who they hurt in the process, as long as they can protect themselves.

The fight response does not necessarily have to involve physical fighting, but it can manifest as defensiveness. For example, the fight response is active when someone is closed off to suggestions, someone who instinctively resists change, or someone who struggles to listen to reasonable arguments.

Flight

The second most popular form of trauma response is the flight response. This can be shown as walking away instead of facing confrontation. For some people, it can manifest as constantly keeping busy to the point of hyper-independence. In this case, a person resorts to taking on too much, saying no to help, and having trouble delegating tasks. 

Freeze

People who resort to the freeze response tend to do so as a result of feeling helpless, being unable to either fight or flee. They then get into a state of tonic immobility, which is otherwise counterintuitive for humans. In adults, this can manifest as shutting down or various forms of dissociation, such as zoning out and emotional numbness.

Fawn

The least known of the trauma responses is fawning, which therapist Pete Walker describes as an unconscious response that aims to please, appease, or pacify the threat to keep a person safe from further harm. This can manifest as people pleasing or playing the victim.