We will first discuss the emotional fatigue symptoms, how to detect emotional exhaustion, and finally, some tips to combat emotional exhaustion.
Fatigue, as we conceive it, is the result of intense and prolonged physical or intellectual effort, for example, after a good day’s work. Physical fatigue can be physical and intellectual, but it can also be emotional in nature. […]
Fatigue of an emotional nature manifests itself in the form of permanent stress that, over time, exhausts a person. You will hear expressions such as: “I feel bad about myself; I feel without energy; I am always tired these days; I do not want to do anything anymore; I am empty of energy; my internal conflicts exhaust me; one side of me wants to rest while another side of me is unable to stop; etc.
Certainly, if you are in such a situation, it is clear that you suffer from emotional fatigue symptoms or emotional exhaustion.
Psychological exhaustion is a scary state from which many people suffer without knowing it. One can think that it is explained by a work little rewarding. Or fluid relations. It may be true, of course. But it is also possible that the opposite is happening. That emotional fatigue prevents the rest from working.
Being emotionally tired means no longer having strength.
It happens when you live mechanically, without thinking or feeling emotions, and acting like everything was imposed on you as if your life did not belong to you, as if it did not matter to you.
In some cases, someone reaches adulthood by being emotionally fatigued. If the family is dysfunctional, the person probably has to spend a lot of energy trying to find his place and understand an adverse environment. Here are some of the signals that can help you identify if you are experiencing these emotional fatigue symptoms.
I – Some Sources of Emotional Fatigue Symptoms
Emotional fatigue symptoms are the result of internal conflict. To understand, imagine yourself driving your car, start it and weigh on the accelerator and the brakes simultaneously. Your engine will spin quickly; if you do not step on the brake pedal, you could drive at 100 km / h. Still, you do not move a foot, and your car is under considerable stress. If you continue for hours, you will break your vehicle. Now imagine that this car is your body. How long will your body be able to withstand the stress of your internal conflicts without feeling tired? …
If you are still tired, ask yourself the following questions: What exactly drains my energy? What do I really need right now? How do I prevent myself from responding to this need? What Can I do to answer them? …
1 – Internal Conflicts
Internal conflicts, which cause stress and physical fatigue, can be caused by a variety of situations. For example, work overload triggers the worry of not making ends meet on time; prolonged conflicts in interpersonal relationships can drain you of your energy; the loss of a job can become a big source of insecurity in the future and generate a lot of fatigue; worry about children money problems, the pressure of time; the future, etc.
A person who has been fighting with herself for years will definitely feel exhausted and powerless when many internal conflicts hold back her emotional energy! Anxiety and various fears are the primary emotions responsible for emotional fatigue symptoms in many people. These negative emotions drain a person’s physical energy, causing a loss of interest and motivation to do things. Unresolved fears are siphons of energy that exhaust the person who carries those fears.
2 – The Absence of Dreams and Desires
Another source of emotional fatigue symptoms is the lack of dreams and the absence of desires in life, thus causing an absence of positive emotions … There are, of course, several reasons why people do not have desires. Many do not believe in themselves; others believe that obstacles to success are more powerful than their desires and dreams, while others have fears that counteract the fulfillment of their desires. So many people in this condition, instead of having to fight against themselves, prefer to give up their dreams and desires.
Who are these people called the indefatigable? … They are people who have a “raison d’être. They have dreams, desires to achieve, and goals in life. They are people who believe in themselves and who are motivated by positive emotions such as enthusiasm, the pleasure of accomplishing, the joy of achieving something, the passion for taking on challenges, and the love of hard work. Done, the happiness of having a busy life, etc. These are people who are moving forward and who are in a constant cycle of achievement. That is to say, they have a goal, take action, realize it, go to another goal, take action, and realize it… Their life is the realization of a set of successive goals.
If you look closely at the people who are hugely successful in this world, you will see that their main source of energy and vitality comes from the desires, dreams, and goals they achieve in their everyday lives!
II – The Signs of Emotional Fatigue
1 – Constant Fatigue
This fatigue is different from normal fatigue because you feel it even when you are rested. It’s as if the body and mind did not want to work. As if the only thing possible was to lie on your bed and get up the next month. But even if you do that, the tiredness does not disappear.
Emotional fatigue is as heavy (if not more) than physical fatigue. When you are emotionally tired, circumstances outweigh the resources you have to accept them. Thus, a long list of unresolved emotional difficulties leads to that subjective weight sensation that leads to fatigue.
2 – Cynicism, a Sign That Indicates That You Are Emotionally Tired
Modern cynicism is that attitude that drives us to boast of something that we do inappropriately. Something like, “Yes, I do not do it right, so what? “. This cynicism is expressed through self-destructive and/or reckless actions: walking late at night in a dangerous place, driving very fast, etc.
All this reveals general tiredness in the face of life. You are emotionally tired, and this leads you to block your feelings. You anesthetize yourself. It’s like you want to shout to the world that nothing matters to you. Your life energy is below zero. You feel you have no more strength to resist or try something better.
3 – Detachment
This type of detachment is felt like an impossibility to really connect to the people or situations in which you find yourself. A kind of invisible distance prevents you from creating an authentic connection with the world and life.
As part of this detachment, a feeling of loneliness can emerge. But it does not matter to you, like everything else. You assume it as a fact, not a reality, that you could turn in your favor. You are armed with ready-made phrases about the validity of selfishness or the uselessness of affection.
4 – Feeling of Inefficiency
When emotionally tired, people feel helpless or incapable of anything. She does her best to convince herself that no effort will be enough to succeed. It will also minimize successes. What is the point of setting goals if everything is always the same?
The feeling of inefficiency nourishes these emotional fatigue symptoms that one feels. It’s like we need a ton of energy to do something. But we do not have one. Everything seems so difficult. An emotionally tired person, therefore, generally opts for passivity.
5 – Frequent Trouble
In these cases, we struggle to enjoy big and small things. Everything seems boring, monotonous, or tasteless. We do not want to make plans or undertake projects. Inertia dominates. The person lets himself be carried away by the circumstances without opposing resistance. If this is not treated, one can also arrive at anhedonia.
If you think that you are emotionally tired, you must know that everything can change. You probably need professional help, not because you have a disability but because someone from outside can detect and help you address issues that you overlook.
In such a state, you must prioritize your well-being. Nothing is more important than yourself. You would be surprised to see that by starting a process of transformation, the results take little time to appear. You simply need to decide to take a new path.
III – How to Detect Emotional Exhaustion?
Have you ever felt emotionally exhausted? We sometimes go through periods of stress, problems, and personal and professional requirements. If all of this goes on in time, we can end up emotionally exhausted. Emotional exhaustion is an experience in which the person feels that they do not have the psychological means to cope with everyday life. She has accumulated so much fatigue that she feels weakened.
Emotional exhaustion arises when important life changes occur and when there is a history of problems or situations to resolve. This fatigue appears because we ask too much of our system of confrontation. Or do not give it time to recover amid all these challenges. In other words, having several problems or consecutive challenges exhausts us emotionally because we do not have time to rest and recharge our energy.
Thus, emotional exhaustion gives the feeling of being constantly overwhelmed and overwhelmed by events. This feeling of being mentally fatigued is quite real and “objective.” And prevents us from moving forward, as we can guess. The smallest task to be done becomes extremely difficult and requires great effort.
To get an idea of emotional exhaustion (if you’ve never experienced it), you can do a visualization exercise: remember the tiredness you felt after accumulating several hours of work and imagine that this same type of day is repeated over and over again. You feel more and more tired; your performance is getting weaker, and your thoughts are more and more negative.
Since emotional exhaustion has harmful consequences for health, we will explain how to identify it and find out if you are experiencing this phenomenon. After that, we will give you clear and concise strategies to overcome this burnout. For these strategies to be effective, you must apply them consistently because there are no magic solutions.
To determine if you suffer from emotional exhaustion, you must first focus on the situations or problems you have experienced during these last three / four / five months. Taking into consideration a fairly broad period of time is fundamental. Emotional exhaustion requires an accumulation of demands and stress. It may also appear once you have solved your problems or the storm has passed. So you have to determine if you have gone through a situation that has required a lot of resources or forced you to be constantly alert with many thoughts in your head.
After that, you must self-observe and identify, if they exist, some of these symptoms:
– Nervousness or discomfort most of the time
– Somatizations more than twice a week: stomach upset, backache, neck pain, or migraines
– Problems with concentration and feelings of memory loss, even for important things that you would never have forgotten or forgotten before
– The absence of motivation and low morale
– The feeling of no longer having the strength and being overwhelmed by events
– Sleep problems
– Substance use (mostly alcohol and cannabis)
– Hypersensitivity and irritability
– Difficulty connecting to the here and now.
*** What are the consequences of the here and now?
These symptoms we have described will lead to serious problems if they are not treated in time. These problems can be major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders (such as panic or generalized anxiety), and diseases such as ulcers or gastrointestinal problems.
Problems of self-esteem also appear because the person feels overwhelmed, forgets past successes, and ceases to trust his abilities. In the shadow of emotional exhaustion, the feeling of incapacity increases. We feel too small in a world too big.
We, therefore, see that the consequences of emotional exhaustion can be serious. It is, therefore, important to know how to fight it. Here is a series of strategies to deal with it.
IV – Tips to Fight Emotional Exhaustion
1 – Mark Your Limits and Responsibilities
The first strategy we will see to combat emotional exhaustion relates to reorganizing your vital structure. Yes, this organizational architecture has brought you to where you are today. Surely you have already said “yes” at a time when you should have said no, not because you did not want but because you could not. You also probably said “no” to an opportunity that interested you a lot, but that made you so afraid that you pushed it aside. It is, therefore, time to recover your assertiveness and improve your self-esteem.
Set limits and give yourself opportunities. Allow yourself to fail. If you agree with this principle, you can take advantage of what chess brings you: an apprenticeship. So every challenge you face will never be an investment that only leads to losses. You will stop considering them that way and nurture a negative internal dialogue—the one that exhausts you enormously.
2 – Look for Moments to Relax
You will have to pause and disconnect to empty the bag of emotional exhaustion. You must have moments for yourself to have fun and reconnect to your personal needs. A good idea may be to meet up with your friends or family and have a good time with them.
However, try not to talk about your problems or your exhaustion for more than 15 minutes. Give space to these people so that they can also express themselves. And also share news and positive stories.
3 – Make a List of Your Personal Priorities
Try to prioritize. Focus only on one at a time. It is very important that you stop doing several things at the same time because it depletes your mind. To fight emotional exhaustion, you must stop asking too much of it in your mind.
Allow yourself to do one thing. Put off tomorrow what you can not do today. For this strategy to work, realistically organize all the tasks you need to do. Rely on their priority, not just what others expect of you.
4 – Learn to Express Your Emotions Therapeutically
Being able to express your emotions in a therapeutic way means a little more than “saying how you feel.” We are referring more to a quality addition in this communication to facilitate the empathy of others. So, keeping an emotional journal can be very helpful. It will help you express yourself and get rid of your thoughts.
The emotional journal is a way to separate yourself from your thoughts, free yourself, and fight emotional exhaustion. Remember that these can be retro-feeding if you do not express your negative emotions like sadness or anger. For example, if you are sad, you may feel even sadder if you feel that others do not understand you.
Finally, if you are trying to fight emotional exhaustion and do not succeed, ask for help. You can consult a professional who will make an assessment and will guide you to strategies to use. Emotional exhaustion is a risk to physical and mental health; we must know how to fight it.
V – In Summary
– “Fatigue brings hopeless thoughts. (Juan Carlos Onetti).
– Emotional exhaustion is an experience in which the person feels that they do not have sufficient psychological means to cope with everyday life. She is so tired on the mental plane that this exhaustion can become disabling.
– Self-esteem problems also appear because the person feels overwhelmed, forgets his past successes, and ceases to trust his abilities.
– To combat emotional exhaustion, it is essential to learn to set limits and tolerate failures.
– It is important to stop doing several things at once if you want to fight emotional exhaustion.
– If you want to put an end to physical fatigue of an emotional nature, here is what you can do: solve by a change of internal belief conflicts that empty you of your energy; identify your goals, dreams, and/or desires and realize them. Do what you’ve always dreamed of, do things that make you happy, and start now. You will not only be less tired, but you will also have better health, have more vitality, feel younger, live longer, and improve the quality of your life. You will be able to sleep soundly, knowing that the future is here to fulfill your dreams!
– Realize that for every desire, you have the energy to do it. You do not realize your desires for two main reasons: either you do not know yourself, or you have beliefs that block your natural ability to have desires and achieve them! Who are these people filled with vitalities? They are all, without exception, people who realize their dreams and desires!