LIVING IN FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT

Violence or the threat of it hung in the air like smoke—you never felt completely safe in the place that should have protected you 🏠💔. Your body learned to read the room for danger signs, developing incredible threat assessment skills and an ability to sense when situations might turn violent 🎯. This hypervigilance has genuinely protected you in unsafe situations and made you skilled at recognizing red flags 🚩 others miss.

But your nervous system is calibrated for chaos, making peaceful moments feel strangely uncomfortable 😴. You find yourself either avoiding conflict at all costs or reacting strongly when you feel threatened—both strategies that once kept you safe. Physical closeness can make you jumpy, even with people you trust.

Growing up in unpredictable danger taught your brain to expect threat everywhere, making it hard to tell the difference between true threats and false alarms. You might overreact to minor conflicts in relationships while missing or dismissing real red flags—because your danger radar was programmed by chaos, not security.