🧊 What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do: A Gentle Guide for When You Freeze
by a psychotherapist who once spent 45 minutes deciding between brushing her teeth or lying down dramatically on the floor
There are days when I genuinely can’t tell if I’m burnt out, overwhelmed, or just temporarily possessed by the spirit of a sleepy Victorian ghost.
Yesterday I stared at my kettle for seven minutes trying to remember how to make tea. Not because I don’t know how. But because my brain had quietly exited the building, possibly muttering “nope” on the way out.
And honestly? Can you blame it?
Between Trump yelling on every news outlet again, tariffs causing yet another economic panic, and the stock market having a full-blown identity crisis, the world feels like it’s running Windows 95 in a thunderstorm. Add to that the ambient hum of global recession looming, and you’ve got a perfect recipe for mental paralysis.
Then, of course, there’s my TikTok feed.
A dystopian mashup of:
Chinese factory production lines
Spiritual influencers predicting apocalyptic astrology
Conspiracy theorists connecting the price of eggs to planetary retrogrades
—all being force-fed to me by an algorithm that saw “wellness” in my bio and decided I must be woo-woo enough to enjoy spiraling into existential dread.
All I wanted was a cat in a frog hat. Maybe a dog on a trampoline. But no. The algorithm has other plans.
So here I am: anxious, frozen, doomscrolled into oblivion, and trying to decide between brushing my teeth or crying into a packet of digestive biscuits.
If you’ve ever been there too—caught in the weird, numb fog of I don’t know what to do and everything feels Too Much—this one’s for you.
🧠 Why Your Brain Freezes Like a Laptop in a Heatwave
When you hit a moment of mental freeze, it’s not because you’re lazy or disorganised or “bad at adulting.”
It’s because your nervous system is overloaded and doing exactly what it’s wired to do: protect you.
Most of us are familiar with the fight-or-flight response, but freeze is its lesser-known, awkward cousin.
It shows up as:
Staring at the wall for an hour
Endless scrolling without absorbing anything
Feeling incapable of making even the smallest decision
This freeze response is especially common in:
Neurodivergent folks (hi, ADHD and AuDHD crew 👋)
Trauma survivors
People juggling chronic stress, caregiving, burnout, or global chaos
And it’s not just personal.
We’re dealing with collective nervous system overload.
We’re living through a perfect storm of economic stress, political instability, climate fear, information saturation, and social media panic spirals.
Your body isn’t designed to process all that before breakfast.
No wonder your brain occasionally blue-screens.
🪜 What Actually Helps: Micro-Decisions
When you're frozen, even the tiniest choices feel enormous. That’s where micro-directions come in.
Instead of “Get up and do something,” try:
Tea or water?
Sit or stand?
Noise or silence?
One sock or both socks?
These tiny, binary choices work because they bypass the overwhelmed executive function part of your brain.
They reduce the pressure to plan, evaluate, or get it right.
Think of them like tiny stepping stones across the swamp of stuckness.
You don’t have to leap the whole thing. Just pick the next stone.
🃏 The Micro-Directions Freeze Cards (Made for Moments Like This)
As a psychotherapist, I’ve seen how many of us struggle in these exact moments—not because we’re broken, but because we’re maxed out. So I created something simple, printable, and honestly kind of magical.
🎴 Click here to view the Micro-Directions Freeze Card Deck on Etsy →
What’s inside?
A printable deck of gentle prompts designed to help you take the next doable step
Binary choices that don’t require overthinking
A grounding tool for anxiety, overwhelm, or shutdown mode
They're perfect for:
Neurodivergent adults (hello, ADHD paralysis)
Burnt out therapists and caregivers
Anyone who’s been staring at a to-do list so long it’s gone blurry
🧰 How to Use Them
Pull a card when you're frozen or can’t decide what to do
Keep a few on your desk, bedside table, or in your wallet
Create a “freeze box” with other soothing tools and include the deck
Use in therapy sessions, support groups, or with your kids or partner
💬 If Your Brain Feels Like a Traffic Jam Right Now…
You are not weak. You are not failing.
You’re responding to a world that is too fast, too much, and too loud—especially for sensitive, creative, thoughtful humans like you.
Give yourself permission to go small. One micro-step at a time. That’s how we unfreeze.
🧊 Grab your Micro-Directions Freeze Cards here—
because your next step doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be kind.
🔖 P.S.
If this post made you laugh, cry, or sigh with relief, share it with someone who needs it.
Or at least send them a video of a cat in a frog hat. That works too.
