Therapy for Managing Stress & Overwhelm.
Online Counselling for Ontario; In-person availability for Thunder Bay.
For the person who feels stressed and overwhelmed...
You just can’t stop clenching your teeth. All you want is to get home after a long day and relax. You have other responsibilities though. Your family is waiting for you and there’s always stuff to get done. You’re not in the least motivated. Your body is tired. The funny thing is no matter how tired you are you still can’t fall asleep though. It’s a vicious cycle. It could be that you can’t shut off your brain. You’re going over and over about things in your head. It’s never good stuff. Things you need to get done, things you think you’re failing at, or how everyone’s frustrated by you. No matter how much you hope this feeling of overwhelm (more like drowning) turns into energy and genius to solve all your problems, it doesn’t. You get up and repeat the cycle the next day.
Feeling like you need to escape.
You know you should want to spend more time with your important people, your partner, kids. But you know not much sets you off these days. They’re afraid you’ll lose your temper, or always think you’re in a mood. You just want to go away to your special spot to be by yourself. Having this alone time is more like escaping. You get to escape the weight of your responsibilities. The weight of how shitty you feel lately and how you can’t keep up. You get to stop thinking or feeling for a while.
People do this differently. It can look like anything from watching tv, exercising, riding a motorcycle, video games, to smoking or drinking. These things we do to forget for a while. That’s very okay to do. Except you (and others) are noticing that you do it every day. It’s a lot & it’s not working anymore.
Can stress be a good thing?
Some people describe some stress as good. I get that. It can give you a kick to get things done. Your body is reminding you what all you have on your plate. What you're dealing with is different though.
Stress is not good when it starts to impact you negatively.
It’s not giving you a kick to get things done. It’s making you feel like you're drowning. Like you’re walking tightrope and can slip at any second. You’re getting by at work doing what you need to do, but you’re on edge with your family. You want distance from everyone, this overwhelming urge to run away. You want relief. You want to feel better about yourself. Managing stress in a different way can help you be able to be with your family in those moments, not just physically present, but actually listening, talking, and enjoying yourself. Getting a hold of stress can help you feel more comfortable in your body and mind, not like you’re just trying to keep up with your head above water.
Therapy for stress management can help you:
Better understand what’s going through your head.
Our emotions and thoughts are so powerful. The thoughts running through our head and the feelings that we’re holding impact how well we can manage stress. Understanding why certain thoughts and feelings are happening and then learning how to better influence them is key.
Re-evaluate what you need.
It’s important to work on what’s going on in your head and the feelings that go with it. It’s also important though to acknowledge you probably have a lot on your plate. And just because you see someone else handling a whole lotta stuff in their life and think “I should be able to handle this because X does it”: 1. You don’t know the whole story. 2. There are points in our life when we have different capacities. For example, you may still be raising kids, which takes a lot of emotional and mental energy. Or maybe you’ve had a health issue that changed some things for you. There could be so many reasons our capacity shifts. Let’s re-evaluate what you need right now to get through this time.
How to be with people and be present.
When you’ve gotten in the habit to isolate and distance yourself, it can make the social part worse. It’s uncomfortable. Learn to give attention to the now, rather than thinking about escaping or all the things you should be doing or ways you should be acting.
Cope more effectively.
Coping is basically managing something. There may be ways that you are not coping well with stress, along with some ways you are coping well. For the coping that’s not working for you, meaning it’s causing further negative consequences, those are the ones we want to evaluate. Are you drinking or smoking too much? Checking your emails even though you were at work all day (but it gives momentary relief)? Whatever it is, finding better ways to cope (or manage) when you feel this way to lessen the negative consequences you’re experiencing is crucial.
Learning how to manage stress and overwhelm better can bring relief. It can help you feel more confident in navigating it when life throws you a curveball or in remaining connected in your important relationships. Let’s start.
Blog
To suffer in silence means to be alone in your pain. It means for one reason or another you are silent about what you are feeling inside. A likely reason is the messaging we receive about emotions, which is what I want to share with you. I bet you can relate to this.