Threatened People Procrastinate on Twitter

You're Usually Not Dealing with People in a Normal State of Mind

Procrastination & The Threat State

So I read a thread on Twitter a little while back about procrastination. Psychologist Dr. Nicole LePera suggested that when you procrastinate it’s because your body is in a threat state.

Dr. Nicole LePera @Theholisticpsyc

If you procrastinate, it's not because you're lazy. It's because your body is in a threat state:

I’d heard about the 4F’s before: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn. I’d just never considered procrastination to be freezing. But I can see how it is. You’re not acting on the actual “threat,” that thing that has thrown you into the fear response stage.

So I thought to myself while on Twitter, reading, tweeting, retweeting, that I was very much procrastinating. I thought to myself, “If I’m indeed in the threat state, what am I threatened by?” and, “What should I do if I am?” Whether or not I had an answer to the first question, I knew what the answer to the second question was. I needed to meditate.

Now, meditation is not head-on dealing with whatever is supposedly threatening me, but it would make me relax into a more healing state. When you’re in fight or flight (freeze or fawn) mode, your body is holding onto energy and not repairing itself. Your mind is doing the same thing. You may be thinking a mile a minute, but you’re not thinking big picture, you’re thinking about small annoyances or “tiny threats.” I’ve previously shared the following image here. As you relax your mind starts to see far more possibilities and solutions than if you’re stuck in the very narrow threat mode way of thinking.

I know this. So, yes, meditating helps me relax and broaden my mind so I don’t feel like there’s no solution to what’s happening. I started really meditating again. I know its benefits. I just sometimes get caught up with life and feel as if I have no time for it. In the threat state, you don’t even feel as if meditating is an option. But is spending half an hour on Twitter really more productive than meditating? It really isn’t. When you’re more clear-headed you may tweet a few things and then exit the site/app. It’s quite different than doom-scrolling.

I’m writing this after meditating and I’ll likely tweet it out. But then I will go do something else rather than feel as if I need to procrastinate my time away there.

Twitter is Filled with People in Threat State

I feel like I should have realized this about myself without having to see it written out. But we all have blind spots based on our own traumatic issues. I thought to myself, if this is happening to me, then it’s likely affecting a lot of people out there. I really think most of the people on Twitter are procrastinating doing something more healthy because they are in the freeze response, not wanting to deal with what is actually their issue.

Then, because they’re in that threat state, it’s easy for them to switch to the fight response and just lash out at others as they project their own issues onto whoever they’re talking with. Then they can feel as if they’re doing something, even though it will have no positive impact on the actual “threat” in their life.

Fawning

Since I’m sort of on this subject I just want to write about the “fawn” response since many people have never heard of it. When you feel as if you are in danger from someone else, and you don’t feel as if you can fight them, don’t want to freeze, and feel like you have nowhere to run, you fawn. You try to make yourself seem like you’re on the threat’s side. You can side up with them like an “ally.” This is so they won’t hurt you.

Consider that many of the people who say they are democrats, or an LGBTQIA+ ally or a BIPOC ally are just saying this because they feel as if they do not, they’ll be labeled a racist or transphobe or MAGAt. Consider that they feel so threatened that they are now fawning because they have no idea what else to do.

I don’t believe it’s good to side up with threats and I do believe they should be held personally accountable if they are hurting people by their actions (such as allowing children to be sexually traumatized). But it may help some people to at least understand what may be going on there.

There are certain groups who have made it extremely difficult to question their narrative because those groups will label you with all sorts of dehumanizing names. Some people do not have the backbone or confidence to say, “Who cares?”

And those people are likely procrastinating on Twitter or other social sites. So just remind yourself if you’re on any social media site where people procrastinate all day long, that you’re likely dealing with people stuck in the threat state and then act accordingly. Also, question if meditating would be more beneficial than doom-scrolling your precious time away.