Do you feel emotionally exhausted? What’s the difference between physical and emotional exhaustion? Some say that the fatigue turns inward to the soul once the body becomes tired and doesn’t get the rest it needs. You suffer from emotional exhaustion, leading to depression, anxiety, and other mental or physical disorders.
Today’s world is quite demanding. Most people start their day by six am to prepare the kids for school. Then after rushing them out the door, you must fight traffic to drop them off at daycare. Once you’ve made it to work, you’re exhausted and feel you’ve done more than you can handle.
Does This Sound Familiar?
Now, you must work an 8-10-hour shift to give your job 110 percent of your efforts. Some days, you go through the motions and try to muddle through. Once you finish your workday, you rush to get the kids, get home, make dinner, pack lunches and lay out clothes for tomorrow.
If you’re lucky, you may fall into bed at 11 pm, barely having time to speak to your spouse. How did life get so crazy? There is only so much that your body can handle before it cracks. It would help if you had downtime to take walks in nature and enjoy your family.
Plus, you need time for you to be alone with your thoughts. Like many people, there’s no way to fit it all into your day. You use your bedtime as a bargaining tool to have an hour of tranquility after everyone goes to bed.
Sure, you know that if you get in bed by midnight, you will get six hours of sleep, but it’s still not what you need to function the next day. When the alarm goes off, your body can barely move from the weight of the emotional exhaustion you feel. Your body seems like it’s just done a major workout, and your head is pounding. How can you face another day, week, or month going on the way you are?
Ten Signs That Reveal a State of Emotional Exhaustion
Different phrases are used to describe those who are so tired that they feel like they cannot function. It can be called psychological burnout or emotional fatigue. According to a study, it’s a relatively common problem that plagues more than 58 percent of American workers.
How do you know if you are emotionally burned out, and what should you do to combat this miserable feeling? Left untreated, this emotional exhaustion that you feel can send you straight to the hospital. Here are ten ways to tell if your emotions are on edge and need help.
1. No Amount of Sleep Makes You Feel Rested When Emotionally Exhausted
You go to sleep and may even get a lovely rest of for a good eight hours, but you still feel as if you haven’t slept an ounce. Your entire body feels lethargic, and you’re becoming depressed. You have no problem sleeping as you seem to die once you hit the bed. When you wake up, you’re just as exhausted as when you first laid down.
You should discuss these issues with your doctors, as things like chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, and multiple sclerosis make people feel continuously exhausted. If no medical tests find anything wrong, then it’s possible that your body is emotionally and physically tired.
2. You have Insomnia or Sleep Too Much if You Have Emotional Exhaustion
Sleep disruptions are commonplace when your emotions are out of whack. You can sleep too much, consider anything over nine hours, or you might have problems sleeping. While some people need more rest than the average of seven to eight hours a night, you should ensure that all your free time isn’t spent napping.
Additionally, you may try to go to sleep, but your mind won’t stop racing. You may reflect on all the day’s events and dread what you must accomplish tomorrow. Sleep disruptions are a classic sign of someone who is emotionally exhausted.
3. You Have Body Aches You Can’t Explain, a Result of Emotional Exhaustion
Stress can do strange things to the body. When you feel anxiety, your body automatically raises cortisol and adrenaline levels to combat these feelings. When these levels stay elevated for too long, it can cause long-term problems.
Your body is made to handle the day’s routine stressors, and some stress is good. The reason you’re on edge when you’re driving down the freeway is that your body is on high alert. It’s essential to be in a heightened state to protect yourself.
However, you cannot continue to function in fight or flight mode all the time. When you have these hormones pulsing through your body, it can affect your heart and mind. The result is headaches, muscle aches, nausea, physical fatigue, and emotional exhaustion.
4. You Dream of An Escape When Emotionally Exhausted
It’s not uncommon for you to dream of living somewhere else where your troubles might not follow you. However, someone mentally exhausted might do more than contemplate such moves. You might be so on the edge that you would leave your husband, wife, and children to find greener pastures.
Never make decisions in such an exhausted state as you will regret them later. Your mind is incapable of such choices when under such duress.
5. You’re Grouchy and Irritable Because of Emotional Exhaustion
Does your family avoid you like the plague? Are you continually yelling or so irritable that even you don’t like to be around yourself? You may feel angry or mad and can’t pinpoint the reason. Irritability is a classic sign of a psychologically exhausted person.
6. Your Emotions Are All Over the Place
Do you cry a lot? Can you go from crying one minute to acting like nothing is wrong the next? Crying is normal and a healthy thing to do. However, if you’re continually calling, it’s a sign that the chemicals in your brain are out of whack.
The main chemicals in your brain are serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. If any of these levels become off-kilter, then you can suffer much. One person may always cry while another can’t seem to stay awake. If your emotions are everywhere, it’s time to see a doctor.
7. You Feel Disconnected from Life When Emotionally Exhausted
Does the world around you seem detached, almost like you’re looking at it through cartoon lenses? One of the body’s coping mechanisms is to disconnect to stay sane. You may feel like an alien has taken over your body and is trying to ruin your life.
Be incredibly careful if you start having these feelings, as it can indicate that you are heading for a complete psychological breakdown.
8. You’re Lonely Because of the Emotional Exhaustion
Do you have a house full of people yet feel all alone? Part of why people feel lonely when they have others around them is that no one understands. Exhaustion makes your mind not think clearly, and you may begin to feel isolated.
Remember, things like anxiety and depression are great pretenders because they make you think and feel things that aren’t true. You’re probably pushing these people away because you’re cranky, irritable, crying all the time, and detached from your life.
9. You Can’t Keep Up Anymore Due to the Emotional Exhaustion
Your house is a mess, the kids need haircuts, you have a project due at work, and the bills haven’t been paid this month! You cannot keep up with all you have to do anymore. Your home and office that once ran like a finely oiled machine now barely have enough fuel to keep going.
Your emotional exhaustion has affected all areas of your life, and you are barely treading water.
10. You Feel Depressed When Emotionally Exhausted
You don’t want to admit it, but you find no pleasure in the things that once brought you joy. Perhaps you feel as if you exist rather than live. You hide in your bedroom because you don’t want anyone to bother you.
You see changes in your appetite and sleep schedule, cry for no reason, and feel depressed. Depression is a severe condition affecting more than 22 percent of American adults, according to Statista. It’s a sickness that is just as real as the flu or a cold. It requires lifestyle changes and treatment.
Final Thoughts on Overcoming Emotional Exhaustion
While you can’t rid your life of all stress, you can attempt to eliminate the things that bring you so much pressure. Maybe it’s time for a career change if you’re in a high-stress job like a nurse, police officer, or teacher. Is your home a haven or a warzone?
Troubled marriages can often make people go through dark times emotionally. The great news is you can pull yourself out of your emotional exhaustion. The best place to start is by changing your diet.
Did you know that many people on the keto diet say they have better mental clarity? Once you fix your diet, you should incorporate an exercise routine. Exercise can naturally increase the neurotransmitters in the brain and make you feel better.
Lastly, it would help if you made time for yourself. Don’t give yourself the scraps left out of your day or bargain with your sleep time. How can you expect to pour yourself into others when you have nothing to give? It would help to keep your energy tank full to have the strength you need to make it through each day.
