What best describes the fight response?

• A. In this stress response you are in a position of fighting for your life or someone else’s. You are already programmed to destroy the threat by any means possible. Your autonomic nervous system prepares for battle and to minimize damage.
• B. You freeze and do nothing.
• C. You run away from the threat.
• D. It only happens during intense physical combat.

Answer: (A)

The fight response is the body's immediate mobilization to confront a threat. When danger is perceived, the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system kicks in, gearing the body for action: heart rate and respiration increase, muscles tense, and energy is released to power quick, decisive movements. The idea is to be ready to confront and neutralize the threat for self or others, so describing this as being prepared to destroy the threat by any means captures that immediate, decisive intent, along with the automatic system-wide adjustments to reduce harm. The other responses describe alternative reactions—freezing, which is a temporary withdrawal from action; fleeing, which is the flight response; and the notion that fighting only happens in intense physical combat is too limited, since protective fighting can occur in a range of threatening situations beyond just actual hand-to-hand combat.