Why Do I Feel Like I Have to Do Everything Myself?
Many trauma survivors feel uncomfortable asking for help, relying on other people, or allowing others to support them. They may feel like they have to handle everything themselves, even when…
How Did Hypervigilance Help Someone Stay Safe in Dangerous Environments?
Hypervigilance can help someone stay safer in dangerous environments by keeping them alert for possible threats. Some environments change quickly and without warning from calm or safe to dangerous. In…
How Could Dissociation Help Someone Survive Trauma?
Dissociation can help someone survive trauma by creating distance from overwhelming fear, pain, emotions, or memories. When physical escape from a situation isn’t possible, dissociation makes mental escape possible. When…
How Did People-Pleasing Help Someone Survive Trauma?
People-pleasing can develop as a survival response in unsafe, unpredictable, or critical environments. A child may learn that keeping other people happy reduces the risk of anger, punishment, rejection, conflict,…
How Did DID Help Me Survive Trauma?
Dissociative Identity Disorder develops as a way for a child to survive overwhelming trauma by dividing it up into smaller, less overwhelming pieces. Different parts of the self hold different…
Perfectionism as a Survival Strategy
Perfectionism is often treated as a personality flaw: something rigid, excessive, or self-defeating. But for many trauma survivors, perfectionism didn’t start as a preference. It started as a way to…
Distrust of Self as a Survival Strategy
Why You Don’t Trust Yourself (And Why That Made Sense) Many trauma survivors doubt their thoughts, second-guess their decisions, or feel like they can’t rely on their internal experiences to…
Avoidance as a Trauma Survival Strategy
Why avoidance gets misunderstood Avoidance is typically viewed as a problem and something to “fix.” People may judge themselves as procrastinating or be use harsh self-talk such as, “I’m avoiding…
Difficulty Trusting Others
Difficulty Trusting Others: A Trauma Survival Strategy What this pattern can look like A person who has difficulty trusting others usually expects betrayal, unreliability, and hidden motives. These expectations are…
People-Pleasing as a Trauma Survival Strategy
People-Pleasing as a Trauma Survival Strategy (Why It Develops and Why It Persists) What this pattern can look like People-pleasing can come in many forms. For example: Prioritizing others’ needs…