Do you continually feel overwhelmed? Don’t you know how to act when faced with a feeling of overwhelm? Discover the reason behind the feeling of being overwhelmed and how to act on it.
When a person is overwhelmed You often experience intense emotions that are difficult to handle. This burden can affect the ability to think and act of those who suffer from it. Furthermore, it is usually an impediment to being able to carry out the tasks that our daily lives demand of us. Being overwhelmed for long periods of time can imply that there is something that we are not managing, which causes us this feeling and can generate many difficulties in our mental health. Therefore, it is important to know why we feel this way and what to do when you are overwhelmed.
What is overwhelm? Meaning
He burden It is an overwhelming feeling, restlessness, and even anxiety. We feel this on a cognitive level (in our way of thinking, or very fast, or ruminating, or even blocking) and on an emotional level (a lot of emotional intensity).
An overwhelmed person often experiences an overwhelming feeling both in their mind and when feeling their emotions. In fact, the majority perceive the burden when we feel that a task is too big or that many tasks accumulate, causing us stress, a feeling of blockage or anxiety.
Although we could all say that we have at some point suffered the feeling of burden , the reality is that this type of sensation can manifest itself in different ways. From an intense emotion, perceived through anxiety, anger or irritability, as well as through obsessive thoughts about worries, doubts or helplessness.
Usually behind someone who is overwhelmed The most likely reason or cause is the perception of being faced with a tedious, stressful task that costs us or is an accumulation of tasks or difficulties.
Am I overwhelmed or overwhelmed?
Someone who is overwhelmed You usually experience this state when the intensity of your feelings exceeds your ability to handle them. Normally, people who begin to feel overwhelmed usually feel it due to the inability to control their negative emotions, such as anger, fear or guilt. Although we perceive these emotions in this way, the reality is that they are neither negative nor positive, since all emotions have a function, that is, providing us with the necessary information to adapt. Despite this, there are emotions that are more unpleasant for us to feel, such as anger, fear or sadness. In order to know if you suffer from overwhelm, there are a series of common signs with which you can identify it.
- Very exaggerated reactions: People who start get overwhelmed They can react in a very disproportionate way to situations that are insignificant. For example, they may become desperate or panic when they can’t find their keys.
- Fatigue : A person who is overwhelmed For everything it makes your body always in a state of alert, which translates into always being tired.
- Trouble concentrating : He burden It also affects our ability to concentrate on both difficult and simple tasks. This contributes to the overwhelmed person increasing these types of sensations since they cannot advance in their daily tasks.
- Social isolation : Getting overwhelmed means that you feel negativity in many aspects of your life. Therefore, the majority of people who are overwhelming They constantly end up having their personal relationships affected.
- Uncontrolled emotions: Someone who is overwhelmed You often experience your emotions taking control of many of the experiences in your life. For example, if very intense pain is felt, this can cause this person to perceive sadness even on pleasant occasions.
- Ruminative thinking: Thinking over and over again about the same idea, which is usually the one that provokes us. the burden
- Low self-efficacy : The people that they are overwhelmed They may also feel the sensation of not being able to do anything productive.
These are some of the symptoms you may experience if you feel overwhelmed If you feel very identified with it, it is important that you consult with a mental health professional due to the consequences that overwhelm can have on you.
Why is it not good to overwhelm yourself?
As human beings we are predestined to feel the feeling of overwhelm , since this cannot be avoided. On the contrary, it can be avoided since we can manage our emotions at the first symptoms of overwhelm.
be too much overwhelmed It can make it difficult to rest or take care of yourself. In fact, people who feel overwhelmed by everything often leave aside time to relax or may even have difficulty falling asleep.
By experimenting the burden these people reduce their ability to think rationally, which makes it more difficult to control the thoughts or sensations surrounding the stress.
In fact, someone who expresses ‘I’m always nervous and worried ‘You often feel overwhelmed constantly, something that can cause many areas of your life to be affected. Therefore, it is important to treat these emotions with a professional psychologist.
What to do when you are overwhelmed?
Therapy is the most helpful way to cope with the emotions that are related to overwhelm. Likewise, psychologists recommend the following tips to know how to ‘remove’ the stress of our lives.
- Find out its origin : The most important thing when we feel that the feeling of overwhelm is taking over our lives is to see what its origin is, that is, why we feel overwhelmed. By understanding where it comes from, we can reduce the source of this overwhelm or at least try to develop strategies to reduce this feeling.
- Accept your anxiety: Fight the emotions you generate the burden or anxiety is not helpful. Trying to eliminate them in the vast majority of cases is only counterproductive. On the other hand, by accepting these kinds of emotions, feelings and thoughts, it is easier to control them.
- Try to change overwhelming thoughts : In the vast majority of cases, the burden It arises due to thoughts about ideas of unpredictability or lack of control. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to what we say to ourselves and learn to create more ‘useful’ or beneficial thoughts. To push aside those thoughts that make you feel overwhelmed, you can ask yourself, “How will these thoughts help me?” and ask yourself if it is useful to think about it.
- Leave ‘multitasking’ behind: Multitasking or ‘multitasking’ implies that we are doing too many things at the same time. To end our burden It is important to leave behind this way of thinking or doing things.
- Focus on the here and now: A overwhelmed person He is usually always thinking about the future or the past. This is one of the reasons why people feel overwhelmed. You should try to focus on the present, and to do this, you can organize a list of tasks and stop thinking about what you should or should not do.
- Breath deeply: Deep breathing stimulates a relaxation response in our body. By calming our body, our mind is also benefited and feeling of overwhelm decreases.
- Distract yourself: One of the most effective ways to know how to make things not affect you It is precisely to be distracted. That is, enjoy something that makes you relieve the tension that accumulates in your body. You can listen to music, read a book or take a walk, this way you will leave the feelings of overwhelm behind.
Being overwhelmed It implies that your worries are dominating your life. For this reason, if stress is affecting you, it is important that you take control of your thoughts and mind and learn to leave behind this discomfort that can limit your life and happiness.