Mental exhaustion or burnout is a condition triggered by prolonged stress, which can come from work, relationships, family, life events, or all of those. When this happens, your brain is sent to overdrive, leaving you exhausted, impeding your productivity and overall cognitive function.
Prolonged periods of intense mental activity can wear you out, just like an intense physical activity. Mental exhaustion can happen to anyone when the brain receives too much stimulation or has to maintain an extreme level of activity without proper rest.
Mental exhaustion can be caused by the following situations:
- stressful job
- caring for children or aging parents
- caring for sick family members
- caring for a special-needs child
- dealing with toxic people
- facing financial difficulties
- going through marital problems
- facing a pandemic and lockdown
- frequently studying for long hours with few or no breaks
- overwhelmed with responsibilities each day
- devoting a substantial amount of mental energy each day thinking through problems, worries, or other sources of stress
- losing someone you love or going through a painful breakup
- living with a chronic illness
- lack of emotional support
Feeling mentally drained for prolonged periods can affect your ability to think, solve problems, process, and regulate emotions. Emotional exhaustion can leave you feeling antsy easily, unmotivated, detached from friends and loved ones, apathetic and trapped. The challenges you’re grappling with might seem impossible to overcome, and you might feel too exhausted to keep trying. Ultimately, this can lead to challenges in your daily life and relationships. This can even lead to depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
Signs That You’re Experiencing Mental Exhaustion or Mental Fatigue
Mental exhaustion can manifest in a multitude of ways, such as
- easily angered or irritated.
- difficulty in getting work done.
- constantly feeling low, pessimistic, and lack motivation in life.
- suffering from insomnia or don’t sleep well.
- experiencing bouts of anxiety and worrying frequently.
- feeling numb and having a sense of detachment.
- crying over trivial matters.
- always tired.
- change in eating habits.
- feeling more pain and discomfort.
- feeling overwhelmed and helpless.
- depression.
Overcoming Mental Exhaustion
There’s hope that mental exhaustion can be eased and eventually peter out. You have to find ways to deal with it before it escalates further and causes more issues to your physical and mental health.
Adopting some lifestyle changes can address the issues at the source while coping strategies can help you feel more rested when facing challenges that cause significant stressors.
1. Remove the stressor.
It may not be possible for the triggers of stress to be eliminated but this is one of the best ways to relieve stress in your life whether physically or mentally.
Feeling burnt out as a result of keeping up with your job, household responsibilities, or caregiving? Consider asking your boss or colleagues for help with tasks or try delegating some of your responsibilities to others.
If you can’t afford to hire a helper to assist you with chores at home, consider asking friends and family members for assistance. If you find cooking too tiring, consider getting takeout on weekdays.
2. Accept the situation as it is and let go.
One of the biggest mistakes in our lives is that we spend most of our time-fighting reality, thus destroying peace. It’s our choice to be at war with reality or choose to accept your situation and make peace. You can start by making the best out of the life you currently have instead of wishing for a different life.
Acceptance means that you embrace your circumstances and pain without the constant need to suffer or be angry and sad. Make peace with your circumstances so that you can move on and be able to enjoy the best out of your life.
3. Exercise
Exercise such as jogging, walking, swimming, cycling, walking, dancing and gardening has been proven to reduce anxiety and depression. Exercise can improve mental health by boosting mood, reducing anxiety and depression.
Exercise also helps to protect you against stress-related health issues and makes chronic stress easier to manage.
4. Relaxation techniques
Meditation, breathing exercises, prayers, and self-hypnosis are some examples of relaxation techniques that can help promote calm and ease stress and mental exhaustion.
There’s consistent evidence to suggest that meditation, in particular, mindfulness meditation can help to relieve chronic stress.
Other relaxation techniques include massage, yoga, tai chi, aromatherapy and progressive muscle relaxation.
5. Get sufficient sleep
As stipulated by the National Sleep Foundation, USA, adults require 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night to stay healthy. Getting sufficient shut-eye is crucial for brain rejuvenation and body repair. Chronic sleep deprivation can adversely affect your mood, focus, alertness, productivity, and health.
6. Say yes to self-love
Begin to practise self-love and splurge a little time and money to pamper yourself, no matter how self-indulgent it sounds. Indulge in at least one thing every day that makes you feel truly happy.
7. Seek therapy
Should all of the above strategies not offer much help, seeking mental health support, such as a therapist can help you better deal with emotional exhaustion.
The consequences of mental exhaustion can be serious, not just for your physical and emotional health. Continuous fatigue can slow your reaction time and contribute to life-endangering errors at high-risk jobs, traffic accidents or even at home. Think – a burnout mother with emotional issues handling an infant or young children at home.
Thus, it’s important to get professional help for mental exhaustion sooner rather than later.
Conclusion
Mental exhaustion can cause a long-term impact on your body that makes you susceptible to illnesses.
While it’s not easy to completely avoid mental exhaustion, you can learn to switch on your body’s natural relaxation response. You can go for a walk in the park, go for retail therapy or get a soothing massage. It can be something as simple as watching some funny videos. Don’t forget to reach out to your family, closest friends or a mental health professional if you need more support.
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