4 Signs That You Need A Mental Health Break
Burnout is everywhere in the 21st century. Life has become fast-paced, with overflowing meetings, chores, and pings from our phones demanding attention from every direction. Often, we find ourselves rehashing the events of what happened today or planning for the tasks for tomorrow. The cycle of responsibilities can be exhausting. Sadly, one bad side effect is that it can be detrimental to our mental health.
It’s essential to pause, breathe, and unwind occasionally. Often, both brain and body yearn for rest. However, we continue to soldier on. It is not too late to make a change!
We’ve listed down signs to spot that you’ll need a mental health break!
Lack of Focus
Focus is a given. For betters of NBA and PBA odds, they’d know this by now. However, given how busy our days are, it’s not always observed and noted. When the mind is in overdrive, the wheels can spin so fast that it can be easy to see the big picture. As a result, there are plenty of risks for both physical and mental health.
No one is perfect. That also means you should and ought to practice mindfulness and occasionally have off days. However, if your daily tasks are taking longer or feel harder to complete, it means you’re dealing with too much.
Balanced Decisions
As the mind edges toward burnout, positive thoughts are also rare. Motivation is also a problem. People tend to feel pessimistic about things often, and there are gaps for misinterpretation of social cues. One way to tell if you’re undergoing burnout is if you are experiencing a crack in cognitive abilities. One way is if you keep forgetting things, your skill in problem-solving and decision-making decreases.
Being unable to be present and always thinking of what could go wrong – are some more gauges that you’re nearing towards the inevitable breakdown of burnout.
Negativity
Burnout buildup is unavoidable. A lot of negativity tends to lead up to it—snapping at people, everyone getting on your nerves, irritability, outbursts, crankiness—but everything about it tells you that right now, it seems permanent. Irritability is also another waiting in the wings – people tend to look at it and label it as crankiness.
You may want to reflect. Have you been snapping at people? Why are you so irritable? Is it an issue with yourself or others? Paying attention to what the source of your frustration is can be helpful and help you gauge if you are just merely overreacting. For this, you may need an amount of self-reflection.
Some questions that can help include:
- Do you find yourself having more outbursts after a challenging day?
- Have you screamed at a bystander and felt shocked after?
- What is it that makes you feel irritable?
Fight or Flight
Mental health is often associated with burnout and its effects. However, burnout is not strictly limited by the way one feels. It’s also relegated to the state of how a person’s brain is functioning and how it can hit the body because of chronic stress. When the body is stressed, it goes into fight or flight, but if exposed to that, it can cause long-term drain..
Wrapping Up
Everyone needs a break. However, when it’s time to hit pause, it can be hard to recognize for some. If you feel off, then it’s a sign you need to hit the pause button. You may also want to reach out to a therapist, who can help you identify some major stressors in your life and help you prioritize your own well-being.