How to Control Your Fight-or-Flight Response

Your brain’s fight-or-flight response is triggered in stressful and potentially threatening situations. But what determines the decision between fighting or fleeing? Why do some people rise to challenges and others avoid them?

The ability to engage with difficulties and stress in a positive way has been described as the biggest factor for success in life — more significant than IQ, physical health, social networks, or socio-economic background.

Whether you fight or flee; see an obstacle or an opportunity, can be boiled down to this: “learned helplessness.” When encountering a difficult situation, people who respond with “helpless” behavior (giving up or fleeing from the situation) have “learned” that response from a past experience. Your future actions are dictated by your past experiences. For example, if you’ve been bitten by a dog in the past, you’ll have a stress-induced flight response the next time you see a dog — even if it is a chihuahua (or maybe, especially if it is a chihuahua). This pattern of “learned” avoidant behaviors has been linked with low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and poor physical health.