When we think about ADHD, it’s easy to jump straight to images of hyperactivity, distraction, or impulsiveness. But beneath the behaviors and beyond the brain chemistry, there’s something deeper happening, a conversation between the body and the nervous system that’s often overlooked.
What if ADHD wasn’t just about focus or attention, but also about how the body responds to stress and the world around it?
Let’s take a closer look at ADHD through a somatic lens, and find out how the classic stress responses of fight, flight, freeze, and especially fawn may be playing a hidden role.
What Is the “Fawn” Response?
Most of us are familiar with the “fight or flight” reflex. It’s our nervous system’s way of protecting us in the face of danger. “Freeze” is another well-known response, think of a deer caught in headlights. But there’s a lesser-known fourth response: fawn.
The fawn response involves people-pleasing, over-accommodating, or suppressing one’s needs in order to stay safe, accepted, or liked. For many people with ADHD, fawning can become an automatic way of navigating overwhelming environments.
ADHD and the Nervous System: More Connected Than You Think
Living with ADHD can mean constant sensory input, emotional intensity, and a deep internal pressure to “keep up.” Over time, these conditions can put the nervous system in a near-constant state of alert. A child who feels constantly corrected at school might fawn by becoming overly agreeable. An adult who struggles with time management at work might freeze when overwhelmed. Someone who’s been misunderstood for years might default to flight by avoiding new challenges or difficult conversations.
These reactions aren’t just personal quirks or bad habits. They’re physiological responses, patterns the body has learned to survive. Recognizing that connection can shift how we relate to ourselves and others.
Somatic Awareness: Tuning In to What Your Body Knows
This is where Somatic Therapy becomes a powerful tool. Somatic approaches invite us to pause and pay attention to what’s happening inside, not just in our minds, but in our bodies. When we slow down enough to notice tension in the jaw, shallow breathing, or a tightness in the chest, we begin to see how stress lives in us physically.
Simple practices like body scanning, grounding with breath, or taking slow, mindful walks help bring awareness back to the present moment. They remind the body that it is safe. Somatic work gently shifts us out of fight, flight, or fawn responses and into regulation. From that place, we can move with intention instead of reaction.
Instead of asking “What’s wrong with me?”, somatic work invites a softer question: “What is my body trying to protect me from?” That shift alone can open the door to more compassionate, connected healing.
Curious About ADHD?
If this resonates, if you’ve ever wondered if your struggles with focus, overwhelm, or emotional regulation might be something more, consider exploring ADHD testing. Testing can be a helpful first step toward clarity. But it doesn’t stop there. Pairing that insight with body-based awareness allows for a more holistic, empowering understanding of how you move through the world.
ADHD isn’t just something happening in the brain. It’s a whole-body experience shaped by years of coping strategies, emotional adaptations, and nervous system responses. Recognizing that helps us approach ADHD with more patience, more tools, and more grace.
You’re Not “Too Much”—You’re Tuning In
Understanding the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses doesn’t mean something is broken, it means your body has been trying to help you survive in the best way it knows how.
With the right tools, the right support, and a deeper connection to your body’s wisdom, you can move from reactivity to resilience.
Because healing isn’t about fixing what’s “wrong,” it’s about reconnecting with what’s real.