What we often call “symptoms” are not signs of failure or weakness; they are better understood as adaptations.

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Anxiety, emotional numbing, withdrawal, hypervigilance, anger, or dissociation are not random reactions.
They are responses the nervous system developed to cope with experiences that felt overwhelming, unsafe, or unpredictable.

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At the time, these responses were not choices — they were automatic ways of reducing danger or distress.
In that sense, symptoms were once protective.

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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. Healing does not begin by trying to eliminate symptoms. It begins by understanding what they were trying to do.

 

When symptoms are met with curiosity rather than judgement, the nervous system can begin to update its responses — and change becomes possible.