This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen continue their trauma response series with a deep dive into the flight response: what it is, how it shows up, and why it can feel so productive while still being avoidant. Unlike fight or freeze, flight often looks subtle in daily life: staying busy, overworking, changing the subject, scrolling, researching, or emotionally distancing when things feel intense.

They explore how the flight response is a nervous system survival strategy, why society often rewards it, and how it can quietly prevent intimacy, resolution, and emotional depth. Listener questions cover flight during conflict, overworking as avoidance, the urge to fix instead of feel, and how avoidant attachment patterns often overlap with flight behaviors.

Em and Jen also discuss why unhealthy coping feels better in the moment, how collective trauma keeps our nervous systems activated, and how understanding your response helps you make choices aligned with your values, not just your survival instincts.

Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 6 minutes to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content.

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Trauma Responses: Understanding The Flight Response