It is a new day and all you think of is doing what you can to just get by. As you told yourself before now, after this last project, after saving enough money or having a better relationship, things will become easier and you won’t feel this way anymore. 

But you’ve been through the same routines for months or even years with no end in sight. You are afraid that your world would come crashing down if you dare take a step back.

If this sounds familiar to you, then you may be living in survival mode. In this state, you are trapped in a repeated cycle of doing the minimal or absolute to survive to the next day or week while assuring yourself that the arrangement is temporary.

Before you realize what is happening, you’ve quit spending quality time with your family and abandoned your cherished goals. You don’t feel happy in the moments that you should, and you’re in a constant state of panic.

Emotional Addictions Control You

Dr. Candace Pert Ph.D., author of Molecules of Emotion, Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d and biologist/contributor on What the Bleep Do We Know, discovered that thoughts transform into molecules the moment you think them.

Pert explains that emotions are not merely chemicals in the brain. They are electrochemical signals that affect the chemistry and electricity of every single cell in the body. The body’s electrical state is modulated by emotions, changing the world within the body, which confirms that emotional states affect the world outside of the body.

Your Body Craves Your Predominate Emotions

Her research shows that thinking activates the hypothalamus (a “control center” near the base of the brain) that transforms thought into millions of neuropeptides (amino acids) which represent the dominant emotion associated with that thought. The thought becomes a molecular messenger of emotion then floods the bloodstream with these neuropeptides.

The neuropeptides insert themselves into the cells and interlock with a particular receptacle (custom made for it) on the cell’s membrane. The amino acids are absorbed by the cells and the more times this pathway is created, the more the cells crave the neuropeptides, and instruct the hypothalamus to produce them.

It’s the same as a drug addict; the more these receptacles are used, the less effective they become. The body then produces more “survival mode” receptacles for the damaged and worn-out ones. It then requires more neuropeptides to be produced for the “survival mode” receptacles.

Like drugs, it becomes a vicious cycle getting off the merry-go-round to stop the addiction. Your body is craving the feelings of your past experiences.

Quotes from Dr. Pert

“I’ve always kind of known that the energy you emanate from within attracts the situations and people that you need.”

“As our feelings change, this mixture of peptides travels throughout your body and your brain. And they’re changing the chemistry of every cell in your body.”

Because of the decades of being in, you have spent feeling and thinking negatively about money (scarcity, lack, etc.), your brain has become addicted to that feeling. Therefore, your mind creates the circumstances to attract scarcity and lack, to feed its addiction.

5 Causes of Survival Mode 

1. Stress 

Stress triggers survival mode. In response to stress, parts of your brain become hyperactive and memories are created to perpetuate the need for survival. 

2. Depression

Regardless of the cause, depression fuels survival mode.  It makes justifying harmful behaviours such as anti-social and melancholy easier. 

With depression, it is much easier to accept living in survival mode as the new norm. Whenever you avoid an important engagement, you may see it as a necessary sacrifice for a better future.

3. Trauma  

Traumatic events such as the loss of a loved one, abuse, poverty, war and chaos, can perpetuate survival mode. 

Reacting to trauma is a normal process, however, the real problem occurs when you continually live survival mode. You may even think you have moved on, but your brain hasn’t.

Trauma survivors are often wary of uncertainties and unpredictable events. People with PTSD, for example, are prone to living in survival mode as the memories have been frozen inside and become a way of life. 

4. Environment  

Environmental pressures can trigger survival mode as a coping mechanism.  In an unstable environment, you may exert control to the extreme just to avoid the risk of temporary failure or disappointment. War and terrorism is an environment that triggers survival mode.

5. Life Changes  

Health crises, job loss, a new baby, or divorce can readjust your life in unpredictable ways. These changes may force you to cater for more responsibilities than you can currently handle, or deplete your resources quickly. To recover, it is common to stay in the survival mode with little prospect of growth.

PTSD to PEACE

The following video shows a brief story of Yubert who was born in Iraq and almost died five times. He was captured and tortured but somehow escaped. You would think he would suffer from PTSD or be living in survival mode. Yubert used his experience to transform into the most amazing kind man you will meet.