When Survival Takes the Wheel: How Living Under Threat Changes the Way We Decide

Next month, I will walk into a building in Budapest known as the Glass House. From the outside, it is unremarkable. But during the final months of the Holocaust, it became a place where thousands lived under constant threat — where survival depended on decisions made quickly, often without the luxury of reflection.

My mother was there as a young woman. From within those walls, she helped forge documents that saved lives. In one extraordinary moment, she pulled her younger brother out of a forced march toward the trains and brought him back to safety.

I have thought about that act many times — not only as an example of courage, but as a window into what happens to the human mind when hesitation is no longer an option, and when survival demands that decisions be made in an instant.

This is not only history.

In Israel today — and in other parts of the world where civilians live under ongoing threat — people are being asked, day after day, to function under conditions that are psychologically similar. Life continues. People work, raise children, maintain relationships. But internally, something shifts.

There is a particular kind of fatigue that comes from living this way. It is not just fear. It is the constant background awareness that something could happen — that safety is no longer fully reliable. You check your phone sooner. You listen more closely. You feel a quiet urgency in moments that once felt ordinary.

Over time, without necessarily realizing it, the way you make decisions begins to change.

The brain adapts to threat by becoming faster, more alert, and more........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)