Individuals high on attachment avoidance are uncomfortable with thoughts of separation and loss. The goal of this research is to answer questions about the efficacy and interplay of the explicit (conscious) and implicit (preconscious) components of mental defenses designed to avoid uncomfortable thoughts. We manipulated the presence of subliminal attachment threat primes and participants’ awareness of those primes. While undergoing condition-specific threat manipulations, participants completed measures designed to measure attachment system activation. Avoidant participants who were aware of genuine attachment threat primes behaved defensively, whereas avoidant participants who were given false warnings of attachment threat primes did not. Results suggest that avoidant defenses operate on both implicit and explicit levels and are resilient to false activation.