Anxiety Recovery and the Fawn / People Pleasing Response (Episode 72)

Fight ... flight ... or freeze. But what about the fawn response?

This week on Disordered, Drew and Josh explore the fawn response and people pleasing. While this may not be a response we see directly like we do with fight, flight, or freeze, the fawn response that leads to habitual and almost automatic people pleasing can get in the way of the recovery process. It's not exactly easy to choose to do difficult scary things to get better when you may have been conditioned by past experiences to keep yourself under wraps and not rock the boat or risk rejection or harm.

We're examining some common experiences that can deal to developing and fawn or people pleasing response and looking at how the fawn response can impact family relationships friendships, intimate and romantic relationships, and even career or social group performance.

One item of note. It's perfectly OK to be shy. Being considerate of others and trying to be a good person is not a problem. We're not trying to erase these parts of our personalities. Overcoming the fawn response and excessive people pleasing is not about becoming hyper-independent or insensitive. This is always about bringing behaviors and beliefs back into a healthy, beneficial place in one's life.

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