Early Warning Signs of Emotional Breakdown and When to Seek Help
It is very British, isn’t it? To keep a stiff upper lip and soldier on, despite feeling overburdened.
Too often in my opinion, ‘how are you?’ is simply a social courtesy and can feel quite insincere. Tell me...how often do you truly feel people are interested in hearing anything other than’ I’m fine thank you’ as you both crack on with the real conversation at hand.
But how ‘fine’ are you really? And how do you know when it is actually all becoming too much and you are nearing breaking point?
As a first step, let's start with some simple mental and physical signs. Here’s a check-in for you to help identify where you’re at:
7 Mental Signs
You find it hard to make a decision
You feel on edge
You are overly emotional and easily lose perspective
You feel listless and lack energy
Your sleeping behaviour has changed; you either sleep more but feel overtired in the morning, or you can’t get to off /or back to sleep in the early hours
You are starting to rely on alcohol or drugs to escape stress
Either your appetite has changed or you’re reaching for more junk food
7 Physical Signs
Your back is starting to ache a lot
You’re getting tension headaches
Your neck and shoulders are tighter than usual
Your posture is more hunched
Your stomach feels unsettled
You’re getting palpitations in your chest
You catch yourself scrunching up your fingers or your toes
How many did you score out of seven mentally and physically?
In a nutshell, when you see yourself in these pointers below:
You know yourself and you know you are pulling back from life.
You’re finding it hard to concentrate and keep on top of your productivity at work
You may be waking up in the morning feeling a sense of dread and anxiety for the day and getting up is harder than ever!
You catch yourself caught up in fearful and irrational thinking - and it's more than just now and then
Your moods are swinging and you react rather than respond to others
Stress puts pressure on your immune system which means you find it more difficult to shake off winter bugs, as you would usually
It all feels too much, and your thoughts darken (perhaps at times flippantly) towards an urge to harm yourself in some way, or to harm others. No matter how you might dismiss such thoughts, you are near emotional breaking point.
...It's time to let your feelings out. Time to take some action. Perhaps you could speak to a trusted friend or manager? Consider reaching out for some professional, pragmatic and actionable support. This will help you to create the positive change you need, within you and around you in an unbiased way. You can be successful and still be human and fallible. Life gets hard at times. We all wobble sooner or later.
I hope this helps you take a step back for yourself privately today and take stock of all that you’ve got going on.
If this resonates and, as your next step, you’d like to discuss your best options to get my discreet and effective support to help empower you, to take control and feel more on top of things...
Then you can get in touch with me today either by direct message or through my website at https://www.empoweredmomentum.com/
I’m here to help.
Warmly,
Lisa x
Lisa Skeffington is a multi-award-winning consultant psychotherapist and self-esteem expert. She is the Founder of the Empowered Momentum Community, an exclusive membership for ambitious midlife women, and her latest book, ‘From Anxious to Empowered’, is out now.