Can Chronic Overwhelm Affect Your Relationships?
Everyone feels overwhelmed from time to time. It is part of the human experience. We face so many challenges and have so many obligations it’s hard to not feel like it’s all a little bit too much from time to time. Feeling overwhelmed is common, however, feeling this way all the time isn’t healthy. We can only feel overwhelmed for so long before we begin to burn out. Overwhelm doesn’t just affect us, but also those closest to us. If you feel that your overwhelm is impacting your relationship, it may be time to ask for help.
The Impacts of Overwhelm
Emotional overwhelm can leave you feeling irritable, anxious, helpless, and hopeless. These feelings can make you behave in such a way that others find you difficult to relate to or interact with. If these symptoms are severe, it may even hinder your ability to function as you’d like. If you or your partner is overwhelmed and it’s impacting your relationship, it may be time to ask for help.
What are the symptoms of emotional overwhelm? Aside from irritability, crying, and lashing out without justifiable reason, other signs of overwhelm can include symptoms of depression or anxiety. These symptoms may be extreme sadness, constant anger, and excessive worry over many different things. In serious cases, overwhelm can persist for months and affect you or your partner’s functioning.
The Affects on a Relationship
Overwhelm can happen to you. It can happen to your spouse or partner. It can also happen to your relationship. When it does happen, you may have difficulty organizing your thoughts, feelings, and responses, and tend to fall back on more visceral reactions such as fight, flight or freeze. In other words, you may just react without thinking.
If you experience these symptoms and don’t understand what’s going on, meeting your needs (or those of others) can be extremely challenging. If overwhelm isn’t understood or seen as “overreacting”, it can breed misunderstanding and conflict. With this line of thinking it’s unlikely anyone will be supportive.
What Can Help?
Counseling can be a great place to start. In therapy you can begin to unpack your overwhelm and explore how it is not only impacting you but also those closest to you. When you have a better understanding of this you can communicate your concerns and find resolutions.
Carolina Counseling Services in Pittsboro, NC contracts with skilled licensed therapists who know how to tackle overwhelm. You don’t have to burn out. Call CCS today to schedule your first appointment.
Jaime Johnson Fitzpatrick LCMHCS, LCAS is one of the Owners and Vice Presidents of Carolina Counseling Services. She is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Licensed Clinical Addictions Specialist in the State of North Carolina as well as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in State of New York. Jaime is also certified in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and utilizes various other approaches in her practice.