When Our Body & Brain’s Safety Mechanisms Start to Interfere with Our Lives: Overthinking, Perfectionism, Anxiety, and Freezing Through a Trauma-Informed Lens
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When faced with trauma or overwhelming experiences, our brains and bodies are remarkable at finding ways to protect us. Survival mechanisms like overthinking, perfectionism, anxiety, and freezing aren’t just random responses—they’re carefully crafted tools your brain has developed to keep you safe. While these patterns might feel frustrating or overwhelming now, understanding them through a trauma-informed lens can help you make sense of why they show up and how to move forward.
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Why We Develop Survival Mechanisms
At its core, the brain's number-one job is to keep us safe. When faced with danger, your nervous system kicks into gear, activating survival responses. These responses often fall into the categories of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Over time, repeated exposure to stress or trauma can hardwire these responses into your brain, even when the original threat is no longer present. That means that far long after the trauma or stress experience is over, our brain is still kicking into that gear, thinking it has to protect us from something that may not actually be present. Here is how overthinking, perfectionism, anxiety and freezing can often be a trauma response.
Overthinking: A brain stuck in hyper-vigilance often tries to "think" its way to safety. If you’ve been in unsafe situations, overanalyzing every detail might have been your way of avoiding danger. This can often look like constantly “reading the room”, being the middle-person, or trying to make sure everyone is “always happy”.
Perfectionism: For many, perfectionism is about control. If you grew up in an environment where mistakes weren’t tolerated or you felt responsible for keeping others happy, striving to be perfect might have felt like the only way to stay safe. This can often show up as our brains way of trying to remain “perfect” with now missteps, so that we can stay ahead of the curve.
Anxiety: Anxiety is your nervous system on high alert. It’s the result of a brain and body scanning for danger—even when there’s no actual threat in the present moment. The brain is focused on taking in as much information as possible, leaving you feel on edge and worried you missed something with a feeling of impending doom.
Freezing: Sometimes, the brain decides that doing nothing is the safest option. Freezing can feel like being stuck, unable to make decisions, or paralyzed by fear. This can be frustrating as you battle anxiety and overwhelm only to feel paralyzed.
While they may not sound like it, these responses are adaptive—they helped you survive through a time that was either traumatic or stressful or possibly both. But when they linger long after the threat is gone, they can impact your ability to live fully in the present.
How These Patterns Show Up in Daily Life
Survival mechanisms often seep into our daily routines, dictating how we work, connect, and care for ourselves. Here are a few ways they might show up:
At work: You might find yourself obsessively checking emails, doubting your decisions, second guessing yourself, or overpreparing for tasks to avoid potential criticism.
In relationships: You may avoid conflict, prioritize others' needs over your own, or struggle to set boundaries out of fear of rejection or disapproval.
In your body: Chronic tension, headaches, digestive issues, or insomnia may be signs of an overactive nervous system stuck in survival mode.
In decision-making: Freezing can make even small decisions feel overwhelming, leading to procrastination or self-doubt.
These patterns, while rooted in safety, can leave you feeling exhausted, stuck, and disconnected. The good news? Awareness is the first step to change.
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Why Awareness of These Patterns Matters
Recognizing these survival mechanisms is key to interrupting them. When you understand that your overthinking isn’t a personal failure but rather your brain’s attempt to protect you, it shifts the narrative. Instead of judging yourself, you can approach these patterns with curiosity and compassion.
Awareness also creates space for new choices. When you notice perfectionism creeping in, for example, you can pause and ask, “What am I trying to protect myself from right now? Is this still serving me or was this just serving me in the past?” This shift allows you to start rewriting the survival scripts your brain has been running for years.
How EMDR Therapy Helps Reprocess Trauma and Transform Defense Mechanisms
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy can be a powerful tool for processing past trauma in a way that our brains and bodies often don’t in the moment when it happens. EMDR can help us step out of the wounds that drive these survival mechanisms and start moving towards a healthier adaptive version of ourselves. At its core, EMDR therapy helps your brain make sense of past trauma and update the outdated survival responses keeping you stuck. Whether you’re looking for EMDR Therapy Tempe or EMDR Therapy Phoenix, this approach offers a path to healing and transformation.
Understanding Your Defense Mechanisms
During EMDR, you’ll work with your therapist to explore how patterns like overthinking, anxiety, and perfectionism developed. Often, these mechanisms are tied to specific memories or experiences. For example, you might uncover that your perfectionism stems from growing up in a home where mistakes were punished.Reprocessing Trauma
Through bilateral stimulation (eye movements, taps, or sounds), EMDR allows your brain to reprocess traumatic memories in a way that feels safe. This process helps “unstick” the emotional charge tied to past experiences, so they no longer trigger survival responses in the present.Creating New Pathways
As you reprocess trauma, your brain learns that the original threat is no longer present. This creates space for new, healthier responses. For example, instead of defaulting to overthinking, you might learn to trust your intuition and feel more at ease with decisions.Guiding the EMDR Journey
Your defense mechanisms serve as roadmaps for EMDR therapy. By identifying the patterns showing up in your life now, your therapist can help you trace them back to their origins. Together, you’ll address the root causes and build tools for self-regulation, balance, and healing.
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Moving Forward with Compassion
Healing from trauma and shifting survival patterns takes time and patience. But with tools like EMDR therapy, you can begin to untangle the defense mechanisms that no longer serve you.
Instead of living in overdrive, imagine waking up with a sense of calm, making decisions from a place of confidence, and navigating life with a greater ease. By understanding how your brain and body have worked so hard to protect you, you can honor their efforts while creating a new way forward—one grounded in safety, connection, and peace.
If you’re ready to take the next step on your healing journey, reach out for EMDR Therapy Tempe or EMDR Therapy Phoenix today. Whether you're navigating anxiety, perfectionism, or the weight of past trauma, EMDR can help you move forward with greater clarity and confidence. Together, we can work towards helping you rewrite the story your brain and body have been holding onto and create the life you deserve.
My Specialties Include EMDR Therapy Tempe, EMDR Therapy Phoenix EMDR Therapy Intensives, Anxiety, Sexual Abuse, and Cycles of Family Trauma.
If you found this article helpful, check out EMDR Therapy Phoenix 101 - Anxiety vs. Stress and Ways to Manage Both and these guided visual meditations that I use as EMDR Therapy Resources in my clinical work!
