You have a 3pm appointment. It’s now 10am and somehow your entire day already feels out of reach. Maybe you find yourself unable to start anything properly. You feel on edge, waiting for something to begin, or end. You check the time again and again. Even a positive, planned event, like a friend visiting later, can leave you feeling stuck.

For many neurodivergent people, this experience has a name: “waiting mode”.

Waiting mode describes a state of mental standby before an upcoming event, where focusing on anything else becomes difficult, sometimes even impossible. The event itself does not have to be negative. In fact, it can be something anticipated, neutral or even enjoyable. What matters is that it exists in the near future – later that day, or sometimes days ahead – shaping everything that comes before it.

It is not only triggered by fixed appointments either. In fact, vague time-frames can make it worse: “this afternoon”, “sometime today”, or a delivery due “between 8am and 1pm” can cause anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed. Without a clear boundary, the waiting expands to fill the entire day.

Waiting mode can be experienced differently person to person. For some, it is cognitive, described as a kind of fog, mental disorientation or even “torment” that........

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