SYMPTOMS AS A FORM OF ADAPTATION

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What we often call “symptoms” are not signs of failure or weakness; many can be better understood as adaptations to difficult experiences.

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Anxiety, emotional numbing, withdrawal, hypervigilance, anger, or dissociation may once have helped us reduce danger or distress, or endure circumstances we could not change. These responses often arose automatically, rather than through conscious choice. 
 

​​The difficulty is that adaptations shaped by past conditions often continue into the present, even when they are no longer needed. What once helped us survive may now feel exhausting or limiting. Therapy involves both easing distress and understanding these patterns in the context of our lives. By recognising what brings them into play and how they affect us now, we can begin to develop other ways of responding that allow greater flexibility in how we live, care for ourselves, and relate to others - ways that reflect our present circumstances and what matters to us now.

 

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