There’s nothing quite like feeling overwhelmed. It’s the sinking feeling you get once you realize that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Or like there is more beyond your control than what’s within it.
Sometimes you want to curl up in a ball and make it all go away, but you can’t. You have to keep going, even though every step feels like it’s taking all the energy you have.
Still, there are ways to move forward and regain your energy and a sense of peace and control rather than surrendering more. It all starts with identifying what’s causing you stress.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to take a step back and evaluate what’s happening. From there, you can determine how best to deal with it.
Back to school time
The back-to-school season can be a time of excitement and anxiety for parents. On the one hand, having your kids back in school means having more time for yourself. But if you have more than one child in different schools or extracurricular activities to juggle, it can be a real challenge to ensure everyone is where they need to be when they need to be there.
Then there’s the emotional challenge of you being unable to be there for everything you wish you could be. It’s hard seeing your kids grow up and become more independent. It’s hard knowing they are facing struggles and battles that you cannot fight for them.
Talking about your emotions and struggles with someone who understands what you’re going through – whether another parent or therapist – can help you manage them.
A demanding work/life schedule
A demanding schedule can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Working constantly can leave you feeling burned out, and it can be hard to juggle work and personal responsibilities or muster up the energy to do anything outside of work.
It’s important to recognize when you’re overwhelmed by your work schedule and take steps to improve your work/life balance. One way to do this is to make time for yourself every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes to do something that makes you happy, whether reading or going for a walk.
Also, consider talking to your boss about scaling back your hours or taking on a lighter workload. It’s okay to admit that you don’t have the superpowers others seem to assume you do.
Finances
Whether feeling like we can never get ahead, being daunted by our debt or just not knowing where to start, our financial thoughts can be messier than our actual financial situations.
The difficulty we experience isn’t just regarding staying on top of our money. It’s allowing our money to stay on top of us – to define us and our self-worth or dictate our every move.
When financial thoughts of all kinds seem to swarm across our minds every waking moment, there are ways to ease the stress and take control of our finances. Learning about personal finance and creating a budget are two great places to start. You can also automate your finances as much as possible to make it easier to stay on track.
Relationship and family issues
It’s no wonder that family and relationship issues are one of the most common sources of stress. Whether we like it or not, these are often the people we’re closest to, and conflict is inevitable.
From dealing with tough decisions to coping with loss or managing expectations, relationships can be a source of stress as much as they are a source of joy. So who do you turn to for support when what you’ve been receiving lately feels like the opposite? Frustration, guilt, or resentment?
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by family or relationship issues, talk to someone who can offer support and advice. A therapist can help provide objective perspectives, ways to manage difficult emotions, and tools to improve communication and problem-solving skills.
Untreated mental health issues
One in four people will experience a diagnosable mental health problem. And yet, despite how common these problems are, mental health is still something of a taboo subject. For many people, talking about their mental health is simply too overwhelming.
But perhaps what can be even more overwhelming than talking about mental health is having no idea why you feel so overwhelmed in the first place. Unfortunately, untreated mental health issues can have a spiral effect, causing conditions like anxiety and depression to become worse and worse over time.
We’re here to help you evaluate your life.
If you’re struggling to cope, talk to someone who can help you understand your mental health concerns and develop a plan to address them. Our compassionate teams at TMS Washington and Psychiatry Northwest can help you get a proper diagnosis and explore treatment options beyond medication for relief.
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