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🇮🇩 Indonesia /Elections & Politics

Five signs you may be stuck in survival mode, according to experts

From Tempo · () Indonesian

Translated from Indonesian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Experts identify mental blanks, repeated early-morning anxiety, irritability, persistent negative thinking and sudden controlling behaviour as signs of survival mode.
  • They link these symptoms to prolonged stress, an overactive threat response and reduced energy for memory, attention and planning.
  • The article warns that remaining in a negative emotional state can contribute to chronic stress and affect physical health.

You may look fine and remain productive while your mind is struggling to cope with extreme exhaustion. Indonesian lifestyle publication Cantika describes this state as “survival mode,” a psychological response that can emerge when workloads, relationship conflicts and endless tasks keep pressure constantly high.

One sign is a blank mind and frequent forgetfulness. Clinical social worker Nicole Ivelevitch says the brain spends more energy monitoring threats and daily demands, leaving less available for working memory, attention and planning. That can mean forgetting appointments or losing track of what you intended to say.

As a result, you may easily forget appointments or become confused when entering a room.

· Nicole IvelevitchIvelevitch described how prolonged threat monitoring can impair memory and planning.

Another warning sign is waking around 3 a.m. with intense anxiety. Emergency physician and burnout-recovery specialist Archana Shrestha attributes this to a sympathetic nervous system that remains active. Anxiety and unfinished tasks can follow people into sleep, with worries becoming especially prominent during the night.

Anxiety and an overflowing to-do list carry over into sleep. The middle of the night is usually when the biggest worries emerge, especially for people experiencing burnout.

· Archana ShresthaShrestha explained why people in burnout may wake with intense anxiety.

Experts also point to sudden irritability, persistent negative thinking and an unexpected need to control everything. Ivelevitch says severe stress makes the amygdala, the brain’s threat-detection region, more reactive, so a minor disruption can trigger a much stronger emotional response. Shrestha says positive emotions become difficult to access when someone feels continuously overwhelmed, and prolonged negative emotion can contribute to chronic stress and harm physical health.

A sudden shift toward perfectionism or rigid control can also reflect the brain’s attempt to create certainty in a life that feels chaotic. The article presents these patterns as signs that a person may be operating under sustained strain rather than simply having a bad day.

Very little positive emotion can emerge when you are trapped in survival mode.

· Archana ShresthaShrestha described the emotional effect of sustained overwhelm.
About this summary

Originally published by Tempo in Indonesian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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