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Acute Response
(Current Threat)
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Chronic Response
(Developmental Trauma)
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Cause
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- Immediate danger or prolonged current stress
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- Traumatic past experiences
- Childhood neglect, physical or emotional abuse, or unpredictable caregiving
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Trauma-Pattern
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- The fawning, submissive behaviour may be based on hypervigilance / threat avoidance strategies (i.e. PTSD symptoms)
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Current Trigger
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- Obvious current external threat (physical or social) / threatening behaviour of a perpetrator
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- No or only insignificant objective external triggers, i.e. relatively safe situations may still feel unsafe and trigger fawning.
- Internal triggers – typically imagined future situations, anticipation of triggers (often rather unconscious)
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Duration
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- Temporary – behavioural pattern fades when the threat is gone
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- Behavioural pattern seems to belong to the personality
- Behaviour can easily be triggered, even in the absence of a real threat
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Awareness
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- Behaviour may reflect a conscious effort to stay safe
- Feels unnatural and only occurs when forced
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- Unconscious, automatic interaction pattern
- Feels natural and normal to the person in the situation
- Only with hindsight, the person notices that the behaviour happened again
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