Know the Warning Signs: 5 Ways to Tell if You’re Becoming Emotionally Exhausted

Life is rarely a walk in the park. Countless things can lead to anxiety and stress, and when compounded, it can often seem overwhelming.

However, sometimes we don’t even realize what’s happening to us. We may experience psychological or emotional burnout and not know what it is that’s affecting our overall wellbeing.

Additionally, long term, prolonged exposure to this level of exhaustion can be downright debilitating.

emotional fatigue

If you’re feeling stressed, it may be the result of emotional exhaustion. Worse still, it can carry the same symptoms as physical exhaustion, including fatigue, headaches, poor sleep, appetite changes, and more. It can affect your ambition, motivation, and most of all, your happiness.

Here are 5 signs that may indicate that you’re suffering from emotional exhaustion.

Keep in mind, if you’re ticking off boxes here, these things can have a significant impact on your mental health. You may very well need to seek the aid of a professional counselor or medical doctor.

You Feel Numb

Does it sometimes seem like nothing matters? Do you feel detached or even numb when it comes to the world around you? Do you lack motivation? These feelings go hand in hand with stress and how it affects our brain chemistry.

Being burnt out emotionally is more than just having a bad or overwhelming day. It lingers, and if not kept in check, it can have detrimental effects on our lives. Seek help from friends and/or professionals to discover the root of these feelings so you can act to overcome them.

You Feel Like a Failure

First of all, life is hard. It’s not uncommon to feel like we aren’t living up to our own expectations or those of others. That’s one of the things that makes us human. We learn from our mistakes, but we ourselves are not failures.

If you feel hopeless or stuck, it may just mean you’re burnt out. This can easily happen when you feel like you just have nothing left to give. It certainly doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you though.

Emotional exhaustion saps us of energy, discouraging us and making us feel like our efforts constantly fall short of demands.

You’ve Lost the Ability to Concentrate

Do you feel like everything in the world is a distraction or like your head is in a fog? Being burnt out and emotionally exhausted can do some serious harm to your cognitive capacity. It can lead to memory lapses, trouble focusing, and other impairments.

You’re Constantly Irritable

If you’re frequently finding yourself in a bad mood, it’s typically a strong indicator that you’re not happy. Pessimism and irritability are just a couple of ways emotional exhaustion can manifest itself.

When this happens, it’s typically the result of us exceeding our capacity for stress.

You Feel Physically Tired

As we mentioned before, emotional exhaustion can present many of the same symptoms of physical exhaustion. Feeling tired or drained is incredibly common when you’re mentally or emotionally fatigued.

If you feel trapped in a cycle or are failing to get adequate sleep, you may want to seek professional help.