Here is a story to give you a sense of the intensity of flight/flight.
We were living in a two-story town home with a large sliding glass door that opened into a common grassy area.
It’s around 3am. Pitch black. My partner and I are both asleep upstairs. We hear this loud crash into our sliding glass door and our cat screeches. We shoot out of bed with our hearts racing.
While I am catching my breath, fumbling to find my phone to call 911, I watch in horror my partner races out of our room and hurdles over the banister down to 1st floor all while roaring like a bear.
That is fight/flight (the fight part).
His heart was racing, his body released stress hormones, he did not hesitate to think, he immediately acted to fight off the danger.
The best part–about 10 minutes later, after we realized it was just an animal jumping from the common area at our cat– my partner asked, what was that roaring noise?
I literally had to convince him that he made the noise.
So when you think about anxiety and panic, remember when fight flight is engaged it can be really intense.
