The trauma response “flight” can show up as keeping yourself constantly busy, not giving yourself spaciousness to feel and be.

Rest is healing. Constantly striving, self-optimizing, and working may actually be fight-or-flight. This inevitably leads to repeated cycles of burnout.

Your propensity for overworking or being in constant motion is a coping mechanism that makes sense, ESPECIALLY under capitalism.

And? If you are unable to rest or uncomfortable in moments of ease, you might be stuck in a cycle of flight (overdoing) and freeze (burnout).

“Flight” may be your trauma mechanism if:

—You “can’t relax” or don’t know how to, preferring “doing” over resting
—You’ve burnt out repeatedly in your career
—You constantly overextend yourself without meaning to
—You turn everything into a project, even your hobbies

—You feel an anxious urge to fix things (or people) around you
—You fixate on flaws in your environment (messes or incomplete tasks) rather than acknowledge your feelings
—You struggle to answer when people ask “how are you” because you’re not checking in with yourself regularly

You can have multiple trauma responses, by the way! So if this resonates with you but so does another response, like fawning, it’s completely possible to experience both.

Can’t recommend enough getting familiar with Pete Walker’s book about complex PTSD. If you’re curious about these mechanisms, the book goes into depth about each of them. https://bookshop.org/books/complex-ptsd-from-surviving-to-thriving-a-guide-and-map-for-recovering-from-childhood-trauma/9781492871842?aid=3314&listref=mental-health-resources