What is Overwhelm?

Overwhelm is the emotional feeling of being overwhelmed. It is an emotional feeling which can take over with an intensity that feels difficult to manage. It can affect your ability to think and act rationally and evoke anxiety and stress. Emotional overwhelm may be caused by anxiety, stress, trauma, relationship issues, long term illness, sudden changes in life, work overload, money concerns. It can be caused by simply having too much on your plate leaving you no room to cope anymore.

What are the Symptoms of Overwhelm?

If you are feeling overwhelmed you may be experiencing:

• Lack of motivation
• Low energy
• Headaches
• Difficulty completing simple tasks
• Emotionally finding it hard to cope day to day
• Aches, pains and tense muscles
• Chest pain and rapid heartbeat
• Difficulty sleeping even insomnia
• Low immunity so catching common colds more frequently
• Lack of libido

These are some of the symptoms you may feel when overwhelmed. The overriding feeling however, is likely to be that you feel you simply cannot cope.

If you imagine your life as a bucket of water, when you are overwhelmed the bucket is full to the brim, which means with every step you take the water spills out of the bucket! It can lead to feelings of hopelessness and a sense that you are not able to do anything! When you are overwhelmed you may find it hard to focus on the positive and the guilt or negativity creeps in which can affect your self-worth. Overwhelm is an emotional reaction to the feeling of having too much on your plate!

What can you do to help reduce Overwhelm?

There are things you can do to reduce overwhelm which may enable you to reduce your emotional state and therefore allow your coping mechanism to operate more efficiently.

1. Find clarity by writing a to-do list including everything big and small. Cross out the least important tasks and then tackle the simplest task first. This process can restore your sense of control.
2. Draw a square and put a cross in the middle of it so you have 4 sections. By organising your to do list it helps to de clutter your mind and in doing so will reduce your feeling of being overwhelmed. Label the sections:
   • Do – do it now
   • Decide – Schedule a time to do it
   • Delegate – Who can do it for you?
   • Delete – Eliminate it from the list
3. List each of your worries.
   • Write down the ‘what-ifs’ for each worry.
   • Counter as many as possible with a ‘so what?’.
   • Work out the practical steps to alleviate the leftover worries.
4. Breath! When we are overwhelmed often we forget to take a time out! Find a quiet spot, sit down and for 5 minutes close your eyes and breathe deeply listening to the sound of your breath and the beating of your heart.

Support for Overwhelm

Self-care is so important when you are feeling overwhelmed. Often if you are overwhelmed self-care is the first thing to be shelved. It is so important to remember to look after yourself.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and you are not able to prevent overwhelming thoughts or feelings, talking to a counsellor is a helpful way to find the tools you need to cope. In counselling you will be able to sort through the issues causing your stress and anxiety and better understand their origins. When you have a better understanding of your own triggers and a deeper understanding of your internal processes, you will find better ways to cope. With a strong sense of self and good mental health your resilience to overwhelm will increase.

I have extensive experience working with overwhelm. If you want support please get in touch for a free initial counselling session. Remember feelings are not facts and separating how you are feeling from the actual facts of what is going on can help you take effective action to work through your overwhelm.

Shared by your local counsellor in Fleet, Caroline at Caroline Ellison Counselling – this is my experience and these are my opinions. Carpe Diem.