If You’re Overwhelmed

There are ways to cope.

There is a type of behaviour out there called mood-dependent behavior. It’s something that I believe everyone has a bit of. To what level, well that can probably vary very much. What that term refers to is a type of behaviour where we act on emotions and feelings almost instantly, not stopping to think about any of the potential consequences that may occur. It’s a seemingly instant act, that comes to be as if it’s a behaviour of instincts, without consideration for whether it fits a situation, or matches the scenario it’s being placed with.

I believe that it could probably happen with many different feelings across the spectrum, but the nature of it seems to gravitate more towards negative, or distressing feelings or emotions. It connects well to a phrase many of us hear often in our lives, and that is to think before we speak. Of course sometimes, we just don’t do that, and there will be moments of regret for guilt for the things we say and do.

One of the quite common feelings that many of us face at times, is one that is a feeling of too much, many responsibilities, tasks, deadlines, while seemingly running on empty. Often times, this type of overwhelming feeling does well at sneaking up on us. We try to never disappoint anyone, but while helping everybody, we are neglecting self. While all of this can be true, we still have to take into account that we are our own biggest dependent, and we need to assure ourselves that our health and other needs are still in a good, solid place. When you are stuck in a state that could technically turn overwhelming, take a step back. If we can’t depend on ourselves, then who and what in the world can we depend on?

Be mindful of the current world, surrounding your day to day life. Go over your tasks. The things that you just cannot ignore. Ask yourself, are these tasks gigantic, seemingly impossible feats? I believe, that there is almost always, room for adjusting.

Ask yourself, can a large task be divided into smaller tasks? Smaller, but still important. This technique can offer a better efficiency to how some things are done. Outline it on paper, see the idea in front of you. If necessary, involve trusted close people, who may have great advice, or insight with this idea.

From something like this, we can then branch off to other thing. For instance, when you start breaking down, or consolidating large tasks or projects, one thing that may start to come up is an ability to get a better vision on the future of those type of things. Take a look at the entire picture, and see if you are able to pinpoint which ones may fit in as your shorter term goals, and which are categorized as longer term goals. If that’s able to be done, you now have even more ways to help keep any overwhelming feelings at bay. From this, there’s even more chances to take a step back, take a breather, and see that the goals on hand are more organized and outlined. No longer a rough draft.

Mood-dependent behavior for situations with potential overwhelming emotions and feelings can definitely take us places that we probably don’t really want to be. It’s important that we get a good understanding of the term, and get past that fast, fight or flight style of choices and decision making.

The list is endless when considering what can happen, when the overwhelming feelings hit the fan. We may storm out of a room, curse people out, self sabotage our work, doing and saying things that can hurt relationships with friends, family, and the people we work with. We may relapse, instantly jumping out of our sobriety.

Being overwhelmed can be a rough way to suffer in silence. When we don’t attempt to get control of feeling overwhelmed, we may still meet those stressful deadlines. However, the end product, in a major work project could come up full of mistakes, sloppy, and just plain wrong.

What I’ve wrote about here is not the end all problem solver. Afterall, I’m not a doctor, or a therapist. However, I have been down that road of being overwhelmed. I can attest that mood-dependent behaviors are real, and do happen. They happen just like described. Fast, with no logic, coming out of my mouth long before my brain even got a chance to think it.

Taking that step back, can do wonders. Learning to cope, with stressful feelings and emotions, takes time. But, it’s time well spent.