Fawning is the fourth trauma response — less discussed than fight, flight, or freeze, and harder to recognize because it looks like being nice. You appease, accommodate, become whatever the moment requires to keep the threat at bay. It develops in environments where being yourself was dangerous. It persists long after those environments are gone.

Anonymous thoughts about fawning posted here are from people who have been whoever was needed in the room for years — and the specific exhaustion of finally recognizing what they've been doing.