Periods of waiting are often treated as temporary interruptions in life, moments to endure until stability returns. From a psychosocial perspective, however, prolonged waiting constitutes a distinct psychological state, one that significantly shapes well-being, identity and engagement with the social world.
Such states are common in contexts of migration, displacement, prolonged asylum procedures, precarious living conditions and humanitarian crises. Individuals may not meet criteria for a mental disorder, yet they experience a persistent sense of suspension: life continues but the self remains partially on hold.
In psychosocial support work, this condition is frequently encountered but rarely named.
Waiting as a Psychosocial Experience
Anthropological and psychological literature describes transitional states using the concept of liminality (Turner, 1969). Liminality refers to being “in between” social positions. No longer belonging to the old structure but not yet integrated into a new one. While originally used to describe rituals and social transitions, the concept has since been applied to migration, displacement and prolonged uncertainty.
From a psychosocial standpoint, liminality affects more than external status. It disrupts the sense of continuity that allows individuals to plan, invest, and imagine themselves in the future. When the future remains unclear, psychological energy is often redirected toward monitoring risk and maintaining basic stability rather than growth or exploration.
People in this state frequently report feeling as though they are “waiting for life to begin again.” This is not passivity but a form of adaptive restraint shaped by uncertainty.
Psychological Consequences of Prolonged Uncertainty
Research in psychosocial and humanitarian settings shows that prolonged uncertainty can erode well-being even in the absence of acute trauma (Miller & Rasmussen, 2010). Individuals may remain functional while experiencing emotional flattening, disengagement or reduced agency.
From a psychological perspective, this resembles what Winnicott (1965) described as a narrowing of the space for spontaneous living. When conditions feel unstable, people often suppress initiative and emotional investment as a way of protecting themselves from disappointment or loss. Over time, this protective strategy can become internalized.
In migration and displacement contexts, external instability, legal insecurity, temporary housing, unclear timelines, reinforces this internal suspension. Psychosocial distress emerges not necessarily from what has happened but from what cannot yet be imagined.
Implications for Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)
In psychosocial support, waiting is often treated as something to be resolved: once housing is secured, once status is clarified, once conditions improve. While structural change is crucial, psychological life does not pause neatly until circumstances are ideal.
Effective psychosocial support does not aim to prematurely “activate” individuals or push them toward adaptation. Instead, it recognizes waiting as a meaningful psychological state and works to make it livable rather than simply temporary.
This involves:
- Acknowleding uncertainty rather than minimizing it,
- Supporting small forms of agency that do not depend on long-term resolution,
- Creating relational spaces where the self is recognized even while future roles remain unclear.
From an MHPSS perspective, the goal is not to eliminate liminality but to prevent it from becoming a psychological dead end.
Waiting, Identity and Social Connection
Identity is shaped through participation and recognition. When participation is delayed, identity risks becoming suspended as well. People may hesitate to form attachments, pursue goals or express preferences, believing these will only matter “later.”
Psychosocial work attends to this suspension by supporting continuity in the present. Even under uncertain conditions, individuals can maintain meaningful roles, relationships and forms of expression. This does not deny hardship; it counters the totalization of waiting.
As Erikson’s work on identity suggests, a sense of self requires both continuity and social confirmation. Psychosocial interventions help preserve these elements even when external structures remain unstable.
A Psychosocial Perspective on Waiting
Waiting is not a personal failure, nor a lack of resilience. In many contexts, it is a rational response to uncertainty. The risk arises when waiting becomes invisible, when individuals are expected to endure indefinitely without acknowledgment of the psychological cost.
From a psychosocial perspective, waiting deserves attention not because it is pathological but because it shapes how people relate to themselves, to others and to the future. Supporting people in this state means recognizing that psychological life continues even when resolution does not.
Psychosocial support, at its best, does not rush people out of uncertainty. It stays present with them, helping ensure that waiting does not become the only place the self is allowed to inhabit.
References
Turner, V. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure.
Miller, K. E., & Rasmussen, A. (2010). War exposure, daily stressors, and mental health in conflict and post-conflict settings.
Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis.