◆Professional

Pattern B — Protection

Threat → Defensiveness

Threat-responsive regulation oriented toward protection, vigilance, and boundary defense. When the system detects discomfort, uncertainty, or threat, staying open becomes unsafe.

This is not pathology. Protection activates to make future connection possible. It is what allows a nervous system to survive threat and return to safety. The problem only arises when the system cannot return.

The Five Axes Configuration

How regulation organizes across each dimension in Pattern B.

Common Pattern B Outputs

These are protective adaptations, not character flaws.

Hypervigilance

Worry, scanning for cues, anticipating what could go wrong.

Rule-following as safety

Using structure and compliance to reduce unpredictability.

People-pleasing

Accommodation to prevent rupture or conflict.

Conflict avoidance

Or quick defensiveness when avoidance fails.

Escalation Risk

ModerateIf threat becomes sustained and connection stops producing safety, the system may drift toward Pattern C.

Pattern B Under Limited Awareness

Defense becomes the baseline.

The nervous system organizes around reducing immediate threat — not resolving the situation, not repairing the relationship. Just lowering activation enough to function.

Core logic: "Closeness equals risk."

Calm is achieved through:

DistanceWithdrawalAppeasementAvoidanceNarrowing life down

From the outside, this can look like:

Emotional unavailability, coldness, passivity, disinterest

Result:

Defense becomes the reference point. The system forgets what safety with others feels like. This is how protection turns into isolation — without intent to harm, but with real relational impact.

Working With Pattern B

What helps

Reduce pressure

Offer predictability

Don't demand immediate openness

Allow time for the nervous system to settle

What doesn't work

Forcing connection

Demanding vulnerability

Interpreting withdrawal as rejection

The system needs safety signals — not demands for openness.

Explore Other Patterns

Connection

Control

Domination