Overwhelm vs. stress: Understanding the key differences

Suffering from stress feels like the panicky, desperate thrashing around in the water trying to stay afloat and get to safety. Overwhelm feels like a gentle drift to the bottom, knowing that you’re drowning, knowing that you need to be fighting to get back to the surface but simply not being able to do so. 

Overwhelm causes indecision and thought paralysis. And the more you know you need to be doing something, the more frozen you become – this leads to more stress and overwhelm and the deeper you sink. 

Even on good days, the overwhelm is just hovering nearby, waiting to debilitate with a loss of perspective and catastrophising: When one situation creates an expectation of a whole cascade of disasters, or when spilling a drink or mislaying the remote control feels like the entire world is coming to an end. Even when you know full well that this is an overreaction, that the lost sock is not the end of civilisation as we know it, the feelings and anguish remain. 

Overwhelm and stress

Stress is a natural part of life, something we all experience during tough or challenging times. Work pressures, life changes such as death, divorce, relocation, responsibilities, and health issues - are some of the most common causes, and learning beneficial coping strategies including self-hypnosis, relaxation/breathing techniques, meditation, and mindfulness, can be of immeasurable help. 

Those who suffer from stress, however, find that the effects far outlast the circumstances. When the situation improves but the stress levels remain high, one-on-one therapy is the better option. 

Often though, a person suffering overwhelm has no known triggering event; life should be good – home, work, family, friends, health – this makes the overwhelm even more…well, overwhelming. It feels unjustified, it heightens the feelings of guilt and makes you feel even more like you ‘shouldn’t’ feel that way, which only intensifies the effects. 

And those effects can swing from restlessness to lethargy, from brain fog to rampant or obsessive thoughts, a sense of urgency but also apathy. It is exhausting, creating a level of fatigue beyond mere tiredness. The frustration and emotional toll often lead to physical effects – unaccountable pains, stomach/bowel issues, headaches, dizziness and compromises the immune system. 

When you are burnt out, how can you implement self-help techniques when self-care feels too demanding? If mindfulness or meditation techniques are no longer providing sustained relief, or the overwhelm is so incapacitating that you don’t have the energy, motivation or mental focus to apply the coping techniques – then a different approach is required. 

Curative hypnotherapy

Rather than ways to control or relieve the effects, a short course of Curative Hypnotherapy (LCH) to correct the root causes of these reactions is available to you.

This gentle therapy looks beyond what you are experiencing or what you have undergone, and instead seeks to change the reasons why those reactions occur; providing you with the resources and abilities to deal with situations more easily, so that challenges become molehills rather than mountains and allowing you to regain the control, calmness, clarity of mind and contentment every human deserves.