Overwhelm – this is when the system is overloaded. It feels like you have been feeling upset about a few things, but then it goes on too long, or there seems like there is no end to the struggle.
Our systems are designed to respond to stress. When we perceive a threat we will respond with a stress response. If we continue to feel stressed, we can exhaust our system. We then go into a toxic over-load of stress response and may over-react to small situations. Or worse, we may just not react at all – we call this freezing.
There are ways of coping with this, and it requires an un-blocking of the stress responses and a solution to stresses to be offered – at least in the mind of the individual suffering. We use Integral Psychology to manage changes for individuals who have been over-whelmed by stress.
