Trauma Responses: Understanding The Flight Response

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen continue their trauma response series with a deep dive into the flight response: what it is, how it shows up, and why it can feel so productive while still being avoidant. Unlike fight or freeze, flight often looks subtle in daily life: staying busy, overworking, changing the subject, scrolling, researching, or emotionally distancing when things feel intense. They explore how the flight response is a nervous system survival strategy, why society often rewards it, and how it can quietly prevent intimacy, resolution, and emotional depth. Listener questions cover flight during conflict, overworking as avoidance, the urge to fix instead of feel, and how avoidant attachment patterns often overlap with flight behaviors. Em and Jen also discuss why unhealthy coping feels better in the moment, how collective trauma keeps our nervous systems activated, and how understanding your response helps you make choices aligned with your values, not just your survival instincts. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 6 minutes to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. ⁠ Get Matched With One of Our Therapists ⁠ at The Therapy Group! ⁠ShrinkChicks on Instagram⁠ Our ⁠Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal⁠ !! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! ⁠ A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: AG1: Go to DRINKAG1.com/SHRINKCHICKS to get their best offer, and for a limited time only, get a FREE AG1 duffel bag and FREE AG1 Welcome Kit with your first subscription order Air Doctor: Head to AirDoctorPro.com and use promo code SHRINKCHICKS to get UP TO $300 off today Quince : Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠quince.com/shrinkchicks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping and 365-day returns on your next order GreenChef: Right now, go to GreenChef.com/shrinkchicksgraza and use code shrinkchicksgraza to get started with 50% off Green Chef + FREE Graza Olive Oil Set in your 2nd and 3rd boxes Pique Life: Secure 20% off your order and begin your intentional wellness journey today at Piquelife.com/shrinkchicks See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .

You can listen to Trauma Responses: Understanding The Flight Response online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Trauma Responses: Understanding The Flight Response is an episode from ShrinkChicks by Jennifer Chaiken, LMFT and Emmalee Bierly, LMFT.

This episode is 00:39:59 long.

This episode was published on Mar 2, 2026.

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