Mental Health Tips When You Realize “I'm Overwhelmed”

Being overwhelmed can be a standard part of life. When experiencing high stress levels, a sense of emotional and physical distress may occur. However, in many cases, these symptoms subside as the stressor is eliminated or resolved. 

“I’m overwhelmed”: When overwhelm becomes problematic

Feeling overwhelmed after a particularly stressful or significant life change, such as starting a new job, may not be unusual. However, if your overwhelming feelings persist over a few weeks, they may indicate a more significant concern. If you realize you’re overwhelmed, it may be helpful to look at common causes of overwhelm and ways to find long-term support for this challenge.  

Potential causes of overwhelming feelings

When addressing a problem, it can be beneficial to identify what is causing it. If your feelings of overwhelm are consistent regardless of the events in your life, you may be experiencing a mental health condition. However, overwhelming feelings can also be caused by personality traits, relationship styles, and other challenges. Understanding these causes could help you develop a plan of action. 

Anxious attachment

If you can navigate aspects of your day-to-day life and avoid feeling overwhelmed but experience high levels of anxiety and stress surrounding relationships with other people or a fear of losing others, you may have what is known as an anxious attachment style. 

An anxious attachment style often stems from inconsistency in the relationship between a child and their caregivers. If a family member sometimes responds to a child’s needs with adequate nurturing but other times is unresponsive, intrusive, or insensitive or only responds with care when the child appeases them in some way, a child can learn that expressions of love are inherently linked with feelings of anxiety. 

This association between love and anxiety can persist into adulthood, which can lead to damaging relationship interactions and patterns. If you identify with any of the below symptoms, you may have an anxious attachment style, causing you to feel overwhelmed in your relationships:

• Intense fear of rejection or abandonment
• High levels of insecurity
• Difficulty trusting others 
• A core belief that you are inadequate or cannot be “good enough” 
• Self-criticism and blame, even in situations you have no control over
• Perception of being “clingy” or “needy” in romantic relationships
• High dependency on other people, especially in terms of self-image
• Emotional instability

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can impede functioning and well-being, including the tendency to be easily overwhelmed. What differentiates the overwhelm associated with PTSD from the overwhelm linked to other mental health issues and stressors is that to receive a PTSD diagnosis, you need to have a history of trauma, whether you directly experienced or witnessed a traumatic event.

Some situations can be traumatizing for certain people and not others, so there is no set list of traumatic events. Common examples of events that can be traumatic include experiencing war (whether as a soldier or as a civilian living in a war zone), living through an accident like a car crash, surviving a crime (such as a physical or sexual assault or another form of violence), and enduring long-term traumas such as domestic violence or childhood abuse. 

Symptoms of PTSD

A person with PTSD may struggle with feeling safe and understanding that a traumatic event is unlikely to reoccur, which can be intensely overwhelming. Some symptoms associated with PTSD include:

• An impaired ability to focus, concentrate, remember, and enact other forms of mental cognition, especially around stimuli related to the past trauma
• Self-harming behaviors and unhealthy coping mechanisms such as cutting, burning, emotional eating, forced vomiting, using illicit substances, or engaging in extreme risks
• Nightmares and difficulty sleeping through the night or flashbacks where you believe you are re-living the past trauma
• Persistent fear, horror, shame, distress, anger, or a sense of being “on edge”
• Unhealthy beliefs about the world or yourself
• Avoidance of thoughts, feelings, memories, reminders, and relationships connected to the past trauma
• Hypervigilance
• Feeling guilty about surviving the past trauma 
• Believing you caused the past trauma or could have prevented it 
• Recurring memories of past trauma

Anxiety

Feeling overwhelmed is one of the core symptoms of various anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) include social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, selective mutism, and specific phobias. However, the word “anxiety” is often used to refer to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). 

GAD can cause anxiety not associated with any situation, fear, or inciting event but a general sense of anxiety and overwhelm that a person can experience every day for months or years. Symptoms of GAD may include the following: 

• Nervous movements such as shivering, twitching, trembling, or fidgeting
• Restlessness, exhaustion, or sleep difficulties
• A consistent, obsessive, and overwhelming sense of worry
• Impaired decision-making abilities, often referred to as “analysis paralysis”
• A tendency to catastrophize
• Hypervigilance or being constantly overwhelmed in preparation for disaster
• Nausea, stomachaches, headaches, excessive sweatiness, or other muscle aches
• Suicidal thoughts

Support options for stress and overwhelm

If you are overwhelmed due to a stressful temporary life situation, such as bringing home a new baby or relocating to a different city, there are strategies you can use to manage your overwhelm in the short term. These methods may also be beneficial for improving your health overall and can include exercising, meditating, going to bed early, eating a balanced diet, and avoiding excessive caffeine and alcohol.

When to seek therapy for mental health

However, if your overwhelm is related to one of the personality traits or mental health conditions described above, you may benefit from professional mental health support. 

Benefits of online therapy

If you find it intimidating to reach out to a therapist due to anxiety or another barrier, you might also consider online therapy through a platform like BetterHelp. With online therapy, you can match with a therapist and schedule and attend sessions from the safety and comfort of your home. In addition, you can choose between phone, video, or live chat sessions with your therapist. 

Effectiveness of online therapy for feeling overwhelmed

Research has indicated that attending therapy online may be as effective as attending traditional in-person therapy, including when alleviating feelings of overwhelm. One study found that online therapy successfully treated the symptoms of mental health conditions related to overwhelming emotions, including PTSD, panic disorder, anxiety, and relationship attachment concerns.