When our personal and professional lives, as well as everything around us, get too overwhelming and stressful, we become emotionally tired – or exhausted. To be emotionally tired is to be burnt out and unable to exert any emotions anywhere. To be emotionally exhausted is to literally be drained out.
What is Emotional Exhaustion?
Emotional exhaustion is defined as a condition that occurs as a result of immense and continuous stress that individuals face in their daily lives. Individuals who feel this way tend to believe that they are not in control of anything they have faced, and this makes them feel trapped in a situation and unable to get out.
There are various causes of emotional exhaustion, yet they vary because individual response to stressors varies. They include job positions that are pressuring in nature, like teachers, nurses, doctors or stressful schooling, such as going to medical school. Other triggers include working in a job one dislikes, deciding on having a kid, financial problems, taking care of someone you love (medically and otherwise), death in the family, or even living with a disease.
What happens when you are emotionally exhausted?
There are many effects that occur to an individual psychologically and physically when they become emotionally tired. These include being apathetic, not being motivated, zoning out a lot, feeling hopeless, having headaches, not being able to sleep much, being annoyed or unreasonably angry, or even being physically exhausted, among other symptoms. Emotionally exhausted individuals may also perform poorly in their work and not meet deadlines.
How can we decrease and treat our emotional exhaustion?
The most important thing that we must do is change the way we do things and incorporate healthy habits to help us manage the emotional exhaustion symptoms we face. Among other treatments –
- Reduce Stressors. You must find the source of your stress and alleviate it. If it is a job that is stressing you out, leave it. If it is a toxic friendship, leave it. Always believe that you are in control of the situation, and even if it is a hard decision, it must be done for the sake of your well-being.
- Have a good healthy diet and exercise. Having the right amount of nutritious food can help impact your energy levels, sleep and mood levels, in addition to digestion. The right amount of food intake and the type of food you eat can be a great help to your physical and psychological self. Additionally, exercising increases your levels of serotonin and endorphin, and this improves your emotional state.
- Get some sleep. Make a routine to sleep at the same time every day.
- Limit your alcohol intake because it can mess with your mood.
- Practice mindfulness like yoga, going on a walk, breathing exercises, and writing in a journal or diary. These impact you positively because they reduce anxiety and stress and help you balance your emotions.
- Talk with a friend and spend time with them. This is also relieving, and you can even talk to them about your struggles.
- See a therapist. This is extremely effective as a mechanism because a therapist can help you calm your thoughts down and understand them.