8 Signs You Need Therapy (And Why Traditional Talk Therapy Might Not Be Enough)
It's 11pm on a Tuesday. You've been home for hours, but your laptop is still open. You tell yourself you'll just finish this one email, but three emails later, you're still there. Your partner asks if you're coming to bed. You say "in five minutes" but you both know it'll be longer.
The weekends don't help anymore. Saturday morning, you wake up exhausted. Your body feels heavy, your mind already running through Monday's meeting prep. You scroll Instagram, seeing friends at brunch, and wonder when you last felt that light.
From the outside, you look like you're thriving. Promotions, projects, praises from your boss. But inside? You're running on fumes, and you're not sure how much longer you can keep this up.
This is the reality for many professionals in Singapore. You're not weak. Your nervous system is doing exactly what it was designed to do when it perceives threat—and right now, it thinks everything is a threat.
So how do you know when it's time to get support?
When does "I'm just busy" become "I actually need help"?
Why This Matters in Singapore
Singapore has one of the highest burnout rates globally. Recent research shows that 61% of working professionals here report burnout symptoms. Among mental health professionals themselves, nearly 78% met burnout thresholds in 2022.
The culture here doesn't help. Long hours are normalised. Taking a sick day feels like admitting defeat. "Grinding" is praised. Rest is seen as optional.
And while Singapore has made progress in mental health awareness, most people still wait until they're at breaking point before seeking help. They push through panic attacks, ignore chronic pain, and convince themselves that everyone else is managing just fine.
This article is for you if you're wondering whether what you're experiencing is normal stress or something more.
If you're a young professional feeling overwhelmed or a high-achiever who looks fine externally but feels like you're barely holding it together internally, let's explore the signs.
Signs you need 1:1 Therapy
Sign #1: You Can't Switch Off After Work (Even on Weekends)
Your body left the office at 6pm, but your mind is still in that meeting. Still replaying what you said, what you should have said, what you need to do tomorrow. You're physically home, but mentally, you never left.
You know this pattern well. The "one last email" before bed that turns into twenty. The Sunday evening dread that starts Saturday afternoon. The jaw clenching you don't notice until your dentist mentions it. The way your shoulders live somewhere near your ears.
Here's what's actually happening:
Your nervous system has learned that work equals survival.
When your brain can't tell the difference between a looming deadline and actual danger, it treats both the same way.
It keeps you alert, scanning for threats, ready to react. This is what we call being stuck in fight-or-flight mode.
I see this constantly in my practice. The startup founder who books a beach vacation then spends it on Slack. The lawyer whose mind runs through case scenarios at 3am, even though the trial isn't for three weeks.
They all say the same thing: "I know I should relax, but I just can't."
And that's the key word—can't.
Your body is doing exactly what it's been conditioned to do. It's trying to keep you safe. The problem is, it's keeping you safe from a threat that isn't actually there.
Over time, this chronic activation takes a toll. Digestive issues. Tension headaches. Your body's way of saying it can't sustain this pace.
Why traditional talk therapy might not be enough: Understanding that you're stressed doesn't always help your body feel safe enough to relax. You can know, intellectually, that you're home and the workday is over. But if your nervous system hasn't gotten that message, you'll still feel wired.
This is where working with the body—not just the mind—becomes essential.
Sign #2: Overthinking Has Become Your Default Mode
Your brain runs loops. Replaying conversations from three days ago. Planning for scenarios that will never happen. Worrying about things you can't control. You can list forty-seven ways any situation might go wrong, and your mind insists on reviewing all of them.
People tell you to "just relax" or "stop thinking so much," and you want to laugh. If you could turn it off, you would. But your brain doesn't have an off switch anymore.
Here's what most people don't understand: overthinking isn't a personality flaw. It's often your nervous system's way of trying to create safety. When your brain perceives the world as unpredictable or threatening, it tries to "think its way to safety" by anticipating every possible outcome.
In Singapore's high-pressure environment, many of us learned early that being prepared for everything equals safety.
Top student, perfect exam score, never make a mistake—these were the rules for staying ahead. And they worked, until they didn't.
Because what started as helpful preparation has become chronic hypervigilance. Your brain can't distinguish between "preparing for a presentation" and "scanning for danger," so it treats both with the same intensity.
This is exhausting. You're tired from thinking, but you can't stop thinking about being tired. And underneath it all is often anxiety—the feeling that something bad will happen if you're not constantly on guard.
What helps: Telling yourself to "challenge your thoughts" only goes so far. If your nervous system is in overdrive, cognitive strategies alone won't shift it. You need to address the underlying activation—teaching your body that it's safe to let its guard down.
Sign #3: You're Experiencing Burnout Symptoms
Burnout doesn't announce itself. It creeps in slowly until one day you realize you can't remember the last time you felt genuinely rested.
You sleep eight hours but wake up tired.
You used to care about your work, but now you're just going through the motions.
Tasks that used to be easy now feel insurmountable.
You're getting sick more often.
Your body hurts in ways it didn't before.
The World Health Organization officially recognizes burnout as an occupational phenomenon characterized by three things:
energy depletion
mental distance from your job
reduced performance.
But here's what makes burnout insidious: high-achievers often push through it. "I just need a vacation." "I'll rest after this project." "Everyone's stressed, I'm not special."
Except burnout doesn't resolve with a single weekend off. It's not surface-level tiredness but nervous system depletion. Your body has been running on survival mode for so long that it's started to shut down as a protective mechanism.
Many of my clients don't realize they're burnt out until their body forces the conversation. The panic attack during a routine meeting. The breakdown in the office bathroom. The illness that won't go away.
Your body is not the problem. It's trying to protect you the only way it knows how—by making it impossible to keep going at this pace.
Why this requires professional support: Burnout recovery isn't just about rest. It's about understanding how your nervous system got depleted and rebuilding your capacity for both activation and rest. Guidance from someone trained in nervous system regulation and trauma-informed approaches can help make a difference.
Sign #4: You Feel Disconnected From Your Body
You ignore hunger until you're shaky. You override fatigue until you collapse. You push through pain until it becomes chronic. You live in your head, barely aware that you have a body at all.
When someone asks how you're feeling, you default to "fine," "stressed," or "tired."
You can't name emotions beyond those basics. You use numbing strategies—scrolling, overworking, substances, binge-watching—anything to avoid actually feeling.
This is called dissociation or emotional numbing. It's a protective mechanism where your brain disconnects from body sensations to avoid overwhelm. And it's surprisingly common among high-functioning professionals.
The executive who works seventy-hour weeks and insists "I don't feel stressed" while experiencing chronic back pain. The parent who's functionally present but emotionally absent.
What many people don't realize is that this disconnection often stems from unresolved trauma. And trauma doesn't always mean a single catastrophic event. Developmental trauma—chronic invalidation, high-pressure upbringing, lack of emotional safety—can create the same protective disconnection.
Your body learned early on that feeling wasn't safe, so it stopped letting you feel. This worked for a while. It helped you survive. But now it's preventing you from truly living.
Why reconnecting matters: Your body holds information your mind doesn't have access to. Those physical sensations you're ignoring? They're trying to tell you something important. Learning to listen requires therapeutic support, not just willpower.
Sign #5: Physical Symptoms With No Clear Medical Cause
Chronic headaches. Digestive issues. Unexplained pain. Fatigue that sleep doesn't fix.
You've seen doctors. Run tests. Everything comes back normal. But you don't feel normal.
Here's what your doctor might not have told you: an estimated 60-80% of primary care visits have a stress-related component. This doesn't mean your symptoms are "all in your head." It means your mind and body are inseparably connected.
When you're chronically stressed, your body releases cortisol, adrenaline, and inflammatory markers. Over time, this creates real, measurable physical symptoms—muscle tension, immune suppression, cardiovascular strain, digestive disruption.
The body doesn't lie. When your mind suppresses stress, your body expresses it.
The mind-body approach: Instead of treating symptoms separately, we address the nervous system dysregulation driving them. This might include somatic practices, breathwork, and vagus nerve regulation—helping your body feel safe enough to heal.
Sign #6: You're a "High-Functioning" Professional Externally, But Falling Apart Internally
From the outside, you have it together. You meet deadlines. Exceed expectations. Maintain a polished image. You're the person people come to for answers.
Internally? You feel like you're one mistake away from being exposed as a fraud.
This is imposter syndrome, and it's incredibly common in Singapore's competitive environment. Studies show that 75% of female executives experience it, though it's equally prevalent among male high-achievers (they just express it differently).
You work twice as hard to "prove" you belong. You take on extra projects to avoid being "found out." You can't enjoy achievements because you're already focused on the next goal. Nothing ever feels like enough.
What drives this? Often, it's a nervous system that learned early on that love and approval were conditional on performance. That achievement equals worth. That perfection equals safety.
High-functioning anxiety is exhausting because you're running two programs simultaneously—the external performance and the internal panic. And eventually, something has to give.
Therapy vs coaching for imposter syndrome:
Coaching can help with confidence-building and reframing thoughts. But if imposter syndrome is causing panic attacks, chronic anxiety, or depression, you need therapy. Because the issue isn't just mindset—it's nervous system programming that needs to be addressed at the root level.
Sign #7: Past Experiences Are Affecting Your Present
You overreact to situations that logically shouldn't trigger you. Relationships feel unsafe. You have patterns you can't seem to break—self-sabotage, avoidance, people-pleasing—even though you consciously want to change them.
You experienced difficult things. Maybe loss, betrayal, instability, emotional neglect. You thought you'd "moved on," but those experiences still shape how you respond to the world.
Here's what most people don't understand about trauma: it's not just PTSD from war or assault.
Trauma is any experience that overwhelmed your capacity to cope at the time. This includes growing up in a household with addiction or mental illness, being bullied or excluded, experiencing chronic invalidation, or facing sudden loss.
Trauma gets stored in your body as nervous system patterns. Even after the event is over, your body might still respond as if you're in danger. This is why you might feel anxious for "no reason" or have strong reactions to seemingly small triggers.
Many high-achievers in Singapore carry developmental trauma. "It wasn't that bad. Other people had it worse." But if it affected your nervous system, it's worth addressing—regardless of whether it meets some threshold of "bad enough."
Why somatic approaches for trauma: Traditional talk therapy can help, but trauma often requires body-based work. Talking about trauma can sometimes re-traumatize without proper nervous system support. Somatic approaches help process trauma at the level where it's stored—in your body's stress response system.
Sign #8: You've Tried Talk Therapy But Feel "Stuck"
You've been in talk therapy for months, maybe years. You have great insights. You understand your patterns. You know why you're anxious.
But you still feel anxious. Nothing actually changes.
Insight doesn't equal healing. Understanding why you're stressed doesn't automatically make you less stressed. Because anxiety, depression, and most mental health challenges have a somatic (body) component.
Your nervous system doesn't respond to logic. It responds to felt safety. You can have all the cognitive insights in the world, but if your nervous system still perceives threat, you'll stay stuck.
This is where integrative, mind-body therapy makes a difference. It combines cognitive understanding with nervous system regulation—addressing both your mind and your body's stress response.
At Somi Therapy, we use this approach because we've seen how powerful it is when people can think clearly and feel safe in their bodies simultaneously.
Therapy vs Coaching: Which Do You Actually Need?
This is one of the most common questions I get, and it makes sense why people are confused.
Both involve talking to someone. Both aim to help you feel better and function better. So what's the difference?
Therapy addresses what's keeping you stuck. Coaching helps you move toward what you want.
Therapy is for when something feels fundamentally off. You're not just stressed about a project—you're waking up with panic attacks. You're not just tired—you're so exhausted that getting out of bed feels impossible. You're not just busy—you physically cannot relax, even when you have time.
Therapy addresses anxiety, depression, burnout, trauma, and nervous system dysregulation. It's about understanding why your body and mind respond the way they do, and creating new patterns of response. It often involves looking at the past—not to dwell there, but to understand how it's shaping your present.
Coaching is for when you're generally functional, but you want to level up. You want to hit a career goal. You're navigating a transition. You want accountability around a specific outcome. Coaching is future-focused and action-oriented.
Here's where it gets interesting: many high-achievers need both.
You might be incredibly successful at work (coaching territory) but also struggling with imposter syndrome that triggers panic attacks (therapy territory). Or you might have resolved past trauma (therapy) but now want strategic support for a career pivot (coaching).
At Somi Therapy, I work as both a psychologist and a life coach, which means we integrate both approaches. If you come to me with burnout, we'll start with nervous system work (therapy). Once you're regulated, we might shift into performance coaching to help you redesign your work-life rhythms.
Why Therapy with a Mind-Body Integrative Approach Works for These Signs
Traditional talk therapy is valuable. But for many of the signs we've discussed—especially burnout, overthinking, physical symptoms, and trauma—mind-body (somatic) therapy is often more effective because it addresses your nervous system directly.
Your nervous system has three basic states:
safe and social (you feel calm, connected, able to think clearly),
fight-or-flight (alert, anxious, ready for action),
shutdown (numb, depressed, disconnected).
Most people experiencing burnout, anxiety, or chronic stress are stuck in fight-or-flight or shutdown. No amount of "just relax" will shift this—you need to help your nervous system feel safe again.
Somatic therapy does this through breathwork (which activates your vagus nerve to signal safety), body awareness (helping you notice sensations before they become overwhelming), movement (which discharges trapped stress energy), grounding techniques (bringing you into the present), and trauma processing (releasing stored nervous system activation).
These aren't "woo-woo" practices. They're based on neuroscience research on how the nervous system regulates itself and recovers from stress.
In a competitive "mind over matter", hustle culture, learning to listen to your body can feel foreign. But your body holds wisdom your mind doesn't have access to. Somatic therapy helps you reconnect.
What to Expect at Somi Therapy
First Session:
We'll discuss what brings you to therapy, your symptoms (mental, emotional, physical), your history, and your goals. I'll also assess your nervous system state and explain how it's connected to what you're experiencing.
Ongoing Sessions:
We combine talk therapy (processing thoughts, feelings, patterns) with somatic practices (breathwork, body awareness, grounding exercises) and nervous system regulation (learning to self-soothe and feel safe). If trauma work is needed, we use gentle, body-based approaches.
Timeline:
Some clients feel relief in a few sessions. Others need longer to address root causes. Short-term support (3-6 months) works well for acute stress or recent transitions. Longer-term work (6-12+ months) helps with complex trauma or chronic burnout.
Everyone's journey is different, and we'll move at whatever pace feels right for you.
You Don't Have to Wait Until You're at Breaking Point
Seeking therapy is not a sign that you've failed or ‘have a problem’. It's a sign that you're self-aware enough to recognize when you need support.
You don't have to be "broken" to benefit from therapy. Many of my most successful clients are high-functioning professionals who simply want to feel better, break unhelpful patterns, and learn how to regulate their nervous systems.
And if you're in Singapore —where the pace is relentless, the pressure is high, and admitting struggle feels like weakness—know that asking for help is actually one of the most intelligent things you can do for your long-term success and well-being.
If you resonate with two or more of these signs, therapy might be right for you.
Ready to take the Next Step?
Book a complimentary minute consultation to discuss whether Somi Therapy's integrative, mind-body approach is right for you.
In this call, we'll discuss your main concerns, explore whether we’ll be a good fit to work together, and answer any questions you have about the process.
About the Author:
Amanda Leah Ng,
Founder of Somi Therapy (Formerly Mind to Matter)
Amanda is a trauma-informed psychologist and somatic therapist specializing in anxiety, burnout, and nervous system regulation. She holds an M.Sc. in Psychology from King's College London and integrates mind-body therapy with performance coaching to help high-achievers thrive. Based in Singapore, she serves clients remotely worldwide.
