Overwhelmed

 Overwhelmed

What does it mean to feel overwhelmed?

It entails being completely overcome by an unruly and intense emotion that is too challenging to manage and overcome. When confronted with being overwhelmed, it can be difficult to think and act rationally, and even function in a normal way.  You might feel overwhelmed by your thoughts, emotions, and problems. There may be obvious external triggers, such as work – or there may be no obviously apparent reason. But, whatever the cause, you may feel stunned, frozen, and unable to act.

Overwhelmed, overworked, overtired.  We are incredibly used to it. Sometimes it is an emotion we don't even recognize.  Sometimes we just right it off as one more thing.  Just another item to add to the list.  Being overwhelmed sometimes comes in the form of, I don't want to, not today, completely spacing out, or lack of motivation. 

Binge-watching has become our norm. It is a way to relieve the pressures of just one more episode.  It is a way to not think, not worry just a little bit longer, and not have to.  I’ll get to it in just a few minutes.  My mind just needs a little more time to wander off.

Being overwhelmed can be fear.  The fear of the unknown, the fear of having to learn a new system. It could be an underlying fear we don’t even know we have.  We get overwhelmed with all the things going on, and all the things we want to do and accomplish.  All the things we think we should be doing.  Our expectations and the goals set for us by others.

All the little things add up.  Exercise more, call friends, eat better, get that report done, plan a vacation, and post the blog.   It is the average mundane items we take for granted.   Cleaning the house, going to the grocery store, and putting gas in the car.   Nothing in and of itself is too strenuous or time-consuming but everything compounds the next thing.   They become the little straws that turn into the big bundle that eventually breaks the camel’s back.   

In an attempt to avoid becoming overwhelmed, I started making lists.  This would make sure things didn't slip through the cracks. Then I had a list of my list.   Even that became overwhelming.  No, better yet, make a list of everything I have done and look at everything I accomplished.  Even that became exhausting.  

How much of our exhaustion or depression and wanting to just curl up in bed and sleep until summer or maybe even next summer is just being completely overwhelmed?   

It is not a feeling that hits you all at once. It is not stubbing your toe and going Ouch, that hurts.   Being overwhelmed creeps up on you slowly.   You only had this to do or that to deal with. There was only one crisis and then there were two.  There was only one deadline or one report.   Then the deadline and the crisis crashed into each other, and something else happened, the dishes didn't get done, the dry cleaning needed to be picked up, and the car ran out of gas. All the little things.

It's always just the little things, but those are the things that you don't see coming. It’s the little things you think you could handle just one more little thing.  One more thing that is no big deal. The camel has a broken back.