Why Being "Too Nice" Can Be a Survival Strategy

Podcast: Stuck Not Broken · Justin Sunseri

Opublikowano: 2026-08-18

Not every survival strategy looks like fighting back or running away. Sometimes it looks like befriending the person who's hurting you. This episode covers the last two mixed states: appease (safety plus flight/fight plus shutdown — all three primary states at once) and fawn (flight/fight plus shutdown, but without safety). What separates a hostage using social skills to stay alive from someone disappearing inside an abusive home. Why both states likely require significant dissociation to survive. And where I personally land on how much weight these two deserve as actual Polyvagal Theory mixed states, versus maybe so...