What should I do to overcome emotional exhaustion?

Have you ever felt emotionally exhausted? At some times in our lives we go through situations of stress, problems, personal and work demands, and if all of this extends over time we can become emotionally exhausted. Emotional exhaustion is an experience in which The person feels that they do not have sufficient capacity to face daily life at a level psychological: she has accumulated such a level of fatigue that she has become incapacitated.

Thus, emotional exhaustion arises when important life changes arrive and there is a previous history of pending problems or unresolved situations. This fatigue is the result of demanding more from our coping system than it can give, or not giving it time to recover between challenges. In other words, having several problems or challenges in a row also exhausts us emotionally because in the middle we do not have time to recover the energy invested.

In addition, Emotional exhaustion generates the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed, overwhelmed and with a quite real and “objective” feeling of being mentally fatigued. All these sensations, logically, prevent us from moving forward: the smallest of tasks becomes a very steep ramp that we cannot climb or we do so with great effort.

So that you can get an idea of ​​what emotional exhaustion is (if you have not experienced it) you can do a visualization exercise: remember the fatigue that you have felt after having accumulated several hours working, now imagine that at the end of that day it began another, and then another… You feel more and more tired, your performance is worse and the thoughts you manage are more negative.

Since emotional exhaustion generates harmful consequences for health, In this article we will explain how to identify if you are going through a time in which you find yourself experiencing this phenomenon and we will explain clear and brief strategies so that you can overcome it. For these strategies to be effective you have to apply them all and constantly, since there are no magic solutions.

How to detect emotional exhaustion?

To identify if you have emotional exhaustion, you must first investigate a little about what situations or problems you have had in the last three/four/five months. Taking into account a wide time frame is essential. Given that, Emotional exhaustion requires an accumulation of demands and stress, and can also emerge once you have solved your problems or once “the storm has passed.” Therefore, you have to explore if you have gone through a situation in which a lot has been demanded of you or in which you have had to be constantly alert and with many thoughts in your head.

Then, you have to observe yourself and identify, if any, any of these symptoms:

State of nervousness or discomfort most of the day. Somatizations, such as stomach, back, neck or head pain more than twice a week. Problems with concentration and feeling of memory loss even on important topics that at another time of your life that you would not have neglected or forgotten. Lack of motivation or low mood. Feeling of being overwhelmed and without the strength to continue. Sleep problems (conciliation, maintenance or delayed insomnia). Substance use (especially alcohol and cannabis ).Hypersensitivity and irritability. Difficulty connecting with the here and now.

What consequences does emotional exhaustion have?

All these symptoms that have been explained and that are observed in people with emotional exhaustion, if they are not stopped in time, will result in serious problems. such as major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders (such as panic or generalized anxiety), and medical illnesses such as ulcers or gastrointestinal problems.

Likewise, emotional exhaustion brings important self-esteem problems mainly because the person feels overwhelmed and stops remembering their achievements and trusting their abilities. Under the umbrella of emotional exhaustion, the feeling of inability grows, of being very small in a very big world.

Keeping in mind all the consequences of emotional exhaustion, we can understand the importance of knowing how to combat them. Motivated by this, below we will explain a series of strategies to deal with emotional exhaustion.

Tips to combat emotional exhaustion

Set your limits and responsibilities

The first of the strategies that we are going to tell you to combat emotional exhaustion has to do with the need to reorganize your vital structure. Yes, that organizational architecture that has brought you to the point you are at. Surely, on several occasions you have said yes when it was better to have refused, not because of not wanting to, which could also be the case, but because of inability. It is likely that on many other occasions you have also said no to a possibility that you wanted, but that hid so many fears that you ended up pushing it away. It is time to regain assertiveness and improve self-esteem.

Set limits and give yourself opportunities, allow yourself to make mistakes. If you give yourself this permission, you will be able to enjoy what they offer you: an opportunity to learn. Thus, every challenge you undertake will never be an investment that only produces losses. You will stop considering it that way and, therefore, it will stop feeding your negative self-talk. Yes, the one that exhausts you, a lot.

Find moments when you can relax

To empty the backpack of emotional exhaustion, it will be necessary for you to stop and disconnect. It’s about having moments that are for you, simply to distract yourself and connect with your personal needs. A good idea may be to meet friends or family and spend a pleasant time with them.

Of course, try not to spend more than 15 minutes talking about your problems or your exhaustion. Let them also have a space to express themselves and save a part of the shared communication for positive events that have happened to you.

Make a list of personal priorities

Try to set priorities and don’t try to focus on more than one at a time, It is very important that you stop doing several things at the same time because this will also exhaust your mind. To combat emotional exhaustion, you need to stop demanding your mind to perform at its maximum in various tasks at the same time.

Give yourself permission to focus on “one thing at a time” and leave for tomorrow what doesn’t fit on today’s agenda. Furthermore, for this strategy to work you have to realistically order all pending tasks based on their priority and not just base it on what others expect or want.

Learn to express your emotions in a therapeutic way

Knowing how to express emotions therapeutically means more than “saying how you feel”, rather we refer to incorporating quality into that communication to facilitate the empathy of others. In this sense, keeping an emotional diary can be a tool that helps you a lot to express yourself and detach yourself from your thoughts.

Emotional journaling is a way to separate yourself from your thoughts, vent, and combat emotional exhaustion. Besides, Remember that if you do not express your negatively valenced emotions, such as sadness or anger, they can feed off each other. For example, if you are sad, you can feel even sadder if you feel that others do not understand you.

Finally, if you are trying to combat emotional exhaustion and you are not able to, you must know how to ask for help and turn to a professional who will carry out an evaluation and guide you on what strategies to use in each case. Emotional exhaustion is a risk for physical and mental health and we must know how to combat it.

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