Scroll through any wellness feed, and you might notice the same whiplash-inducing pattern. Dissociation is either a dangerous sign of pathology or “a protective intelligence that deserves reverence.” Trauma responses are framed as evidence of brokenness or badges of resilience. Anxiety is either a disorder to eliminate or an intuition to honor.

We’ve flattened the rich, complex reality of the nervous system into a binary: demonize or romanticize. But neither extreme helps us understand ourselves—or decide when we actually need support.

The truth is far more nuanced and far more reassuring. Every mechanism in your nervous system—especially those designed for survival—operates on a spectrum of activation and consequence. The same response can be protective in one context and damaging in another. Understanding that spectrum is what helps us distinguish between normal human functioning, strain that calls for care, and patterns that truly need clinical attention. Without that distinction, even ordinary experiences start to feel threatening.

Let’s start with dissociation, since it’s become the poster child for oversimplified narratives.

Not every moment of mental fog or spacing out is dissociation. The brain disengages for many reasons that have nothing to do with trauma. You zone out during a boring meeting because your brain is conserving energy—normal cognitive fluctuation. You lose track of time while cooking or writing because you’re in a flow state—engaged presence, not absence. You feel mentally fuzzy after a poor night’s sleep because your prefrontal cortex is under-resourced—fatigue, not pathology.

Actual dissociative protection looks different. Feeling as if you’re watching yourself from........

© Psychology Today