PTSD and the Conflict Inside: The Fight Between Rest and Survival

A survivor’s nervous system toggles between collapse and compulsion; healing begins by honoring both protectors and learning to pause in micro-doses.

 

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ANA TEACHINGS & PROGRAMS

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Core teaching

• Two-part tug-of-war: Ana names an inner split many trauma survivors feel:

  1. a part that wants to shut down and hide (resignation/exhaustion), and

  2. a part that demands relentless doing (pressure/perfection, “get the next thing done and do it right”).
     This maps to a nervous system oscillation between collapse and overdrive.

• Ancestral pressure, present body: The “screaming part” carries inherited survival instructions—keep moving or you’ll be overwhelmed. It’s an adaptive strategy passed through family history and lived experience, not a character flaw.

• Fear of pausing: Stillness threatens to surface unprocessed pain. The body anticipates that if I stop, the memories will catch me, so it pushes activity as a protective shield.

Somatic & nervous system lens

• Shutdown part (dorsal vagal / collapse): Fatigue, numbness, retreat, invisibility. Function: reduce exposure and conserve energy when safety feels out of reach.

• Screaming/doing part (sympathetic / fight–flight): Urgency, perfectionism, productivity compulsion. Function: outrun the pain; if I keep moving, I won’t feel it.

• Oscillation as the symptom: Many survivors pendulate between these poles, rarely landing in ventral vagal states (connection, rest, play). The conflict is protective but exhausting.

Parts work (IFS-informed view)

• Manager part: the “screaming” achiever managing risk via control, speed, and standards.

• Exile(s): the pain and memories that feel too much to contact directly.

• Firefighter/shutdown: the resigning, hiding part that douses overwhelm via withdrawal.

• Self/compassionate witness: the healing stance Ana invites—curious, nonjudgmental, capable of contacting each part without fusing with it.

Intergenerational frame

• Inherited alarms: “As if all my ancestors are behind me” evokes intergenerational vigilance: families who survived war, displacement, or scarcity often transmit implicit rules—don’t stop, don’t feel, keep moving.

• Respect the purpose: These rules kept people alive. Healing means honoring their intent while updating them for present conditions.

Why pausing is hard (and necessary)

• Threat of memory: Pausing reduces the noise that kept pain at bay; the system...

Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Conflict