Emotional Exhaustion: How Can We Deal With It?

Have you ever felt emotionally exhausted? There are certain times in our lives where we go through periods of stress, constant problems, and personal and work-related demands. If these periods extend, we may end up being emotionally exhausted. Emotional exhaustion is what happens when a person no longer feels capable of dealing with their everyday life on a psychological level. Their exhaustion is so devastating that they feel paralyzed.

Emotional exhaustion occurs along with major changes in a person’s life. Especially when there are already existing problems or situations that have not been solved. This fatigue or exhaustion is a result of asking for too much of our adaptation mechanisms, or not letting ourselves take breaks to breathe between challenges. To put it another way, juggling multiple problems or challenges at the same time will also exhaust us emotionally if we do not have time to recover our energy occasionally.

Emotional exhaustion gives us a feeling of being constantly overwhelmed, overwhelmed and mentally exhausted. All of these emotions, logically enough, hinder our progress. Even the smallest tasks become a steep hill that we can only climb with great difficulty – or not at all.

A long working day

To give you a better idea of ​​what emotional exhaustion is, if you have not experienced it, there is a visualization exercise you can do. Try to remember the exhaustion you feel after a work day, Now, just when that day is over, the next work day starts .. Then another .. And another. You are tired every time, you perform worse, and your mood also worsens.

Emotional exhaustion can have detrimental consequences for your health. This article will show you how to know if you are in a period of emotional exhaustion, as well as give you clear and quick strategies to overcome it. For these strategies to work, you need to practice them regularly and with commitment. There are no magic solutions.

This is how we can detect emotional exhaustion

To know if you are emotionally exhausted, you must first think back to your problems from the last three, four, maybe even five months. Note that a long time frame is basic . Because emotional exhaustion requires an accumulation of demands and stress, it can come back after you have already solved your problems and “the storm has stopped”, so to speak. At that point, you need to analyze if you were in a situation that required too much from you. Or one where you have to be constantly awake and balance different ideas and thoughts.

The next step is to analyze yourself. It is important that you check if you have experienced the following symptoms:

• Felt nervous or uncomfortable for most of the day.
• Unexplained medical problems such as pain in the abdomen, back and neck, or headaches more often than twice a week.
• Problems concentrating and losing memories, including important topics that you would not normally forget or neglect.
• A lack of motivation, low energy and bad mood.
• A feeling of being overwhelmed and not having enough strength to continue.
• Sleep problems (difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, insomnia).
• Substance abuse (especially alcohol and cannabis).
• Hypersensitivity and irritability.
• Difficulty connecting to the here and now.

What are the consequences of emotional exhaustion?

If they do not go away on their own after a while, all of these symptoms can lead to serious problems.  Examples may be severe depressive disorder, panic disorder (related to panic or generalized anxiety disorder) and medical problems such as stomach ulcers or gastrointestinal problems.

In addition, emotional exhaustion can also carry with it problems with self-esteem. Most often because the person feels overwhelmed and stops reminding themselves of everything they have achieved and all the abilities they have . Under the umbrella of emotional exhaustion, your sense of helplessness – of being very small in a very big world – will grow.

By keeping all these consequences of emotional exhaustion in our minds, we can better understand how we can combat it. With this goal in front of us, we will continue with a range of strategies to deal with emotional exhaustion.

Advice for dealing with emotional exhaustion

Know your limits and your responsibilities

The first strategy we will share to deal with emotional exhaustion has to do with the need to reorganize how you approach life. These choices may have gotten you where you are today. You have probably said “yes” many times when it would have been best to say “no”. Not because you did not want to (although that could also be the case), but because you felt you could not. You have probably also done the opposite, said “no” to an opportunity you really wanted, but were afraid to take. It’s time to restore your confidence and improve your self-esteem.

Set boundaries and seize the opportunities. Allow yourself to fail. If you give yourself permission, you can take advantage of these opportunities to learn. In this way, every challenge you face will be an investment even if it does not end in success. Stop thinking about the results, and stop feeding the negative thoughts in your head.

Look for moments where you can relax

To empty your backpack of emotional exhaustion, stop and disconnect. This means finding moments for yourself. Where you can let your mind be in touch with your personal needs. Meet up for a fun outing with friends or family.

That said, try not to spend more than 15 minutes talking about your problems. Let others also have the opportunity and space they need to express themselves. Maybe listening and having the opportunity to support friends and family can help put your problems in perspective. It is also a good idea to use parts of the conversation to talk about the good things that are happening in your life.

Make a list of personal priorities

Try to set priorities for yourself, and to only focus on one at a time . It is very important that you stop trying to multitask as it will only continue to exhaust you. To combat this emotional overload, you need to make fewer demands on your brain at the same time.

Give yourself permission to concentrate on one thing at a time. Let the tasks you did not have time for today wait until tomorrow. In addition, for this strategy to work, you must realistically prioritize all the work you have that needs to be completed. This prioritization can not only be based on what tasks you want to do.

Learn therapeutic ways to express your emotions

Knowing how to express your emotions therapeutically means more than just talking about how you feel. It means spending energy on these conversations so that others can understand and feel empathy. Maybe it means writing a diary of emotions and feelings as a tool to help you express yourself and your thoughts.

This diary is a way to separate yourself from what is going on inside your head. A type of ventilation that can help deal with emotional exhaustion. In addition , it is important to remember that suppressing negative emotions such as sadness and anger will only cause them to continue to grow internally . If you are sad, for example, you may become even sadder if you think that the people around you do not understand you.

Finally, if you are trying to deal with emotional exhaustion and are not succeeding, you need to know when it is time to ask for help. A professional can evaluate and orient you. They can provide tips and advice for different scenarios . Emotional exhaustion is a physical and mental health hazard, and it is an important topic that should be talked about more often.