Overwhelm: Definition, Feelings, & Symptoms

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Have you ever had an experience that caused you such intense feelings you could hardly contain yourself–like you were overflowing with emotions? That is the feeling of being overwhelmed. This happens when something causes an intense reaction in you, either emotionally or physically. You may react with happiness, tears, anger or a combination of all three depending on the situation.

Overwhelm can also be a feeling that builds over time, with one small event being the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”. This can happen when you ignore small things that bother you which eventually end up turning into a mountain of resentment. You might become overwhelmed when all the things you ignored come crashing down on you all at once.

Negative overwhelm can also be defined as psychological stress which is “when an individual perceives that environmental demands tax or exceed his or her adaptive capacity” (Cohen et al., 2007). When talking about the negative experience of being stressed, psychological and even physical symptoms may emerge (Kalliath et al., 2004).  

Psychological stress symptoms:

• Unable to feel reasonably happy 
• Lose sleep over worry 
• Constantly under strain 
• Feeling unhappy and depressed 
• Unable to concentrate 
• Unable to enjoy normal activities
• Losing confidence in own self 
• Unable to overcome difficulties
• Unable to face up to problems
• Not capable of making decisions 
• Unable to play a useful part in things 
• Thinking of own self as worthless ​

Almost anything may cause a person to become overwhelmed–it really depends on the individual. There are common themes of situations or experiences that can cause someone to feel overwhelmed. These are usually things that cause emotional discomfort and extra stress, especially once issues start piling up. However, the opposite can be true as well. If positive experiences start building up, you can be overwhelmed by happiness and gratitude. 

Causes of overwhelm:

• Finances
• Health
• Parenting
• Marriage
• Career

While overwhelm is commonly thought of as a negative emotion, it can have very positive connotations as well. Feeling overwhelmed with gratitude can happen when you are experiencing intense feelings of appreciation. These feelings may be directed toward a person, experience, animal, opportunity, or anything that sparks feelings of thankfulness. Consider the following examples of being overwhelmed with gratitude.

Feeling overwhelmed with gratitude looks like…

• Matt is an Army veteran who has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of completing two tours of duty in Iraq. He has struggled since getting home but applied for a service dog as he grew up with dogs and finds great comfort in them. Matt finds out two months later that he has been matched with a yellow lab puppy and is overwhelmed with gratitude for his new companion.
• Akira is a single mother who has been struggling financially. She hears about a job opportunity with good pay and benefits from a friend. She interviews for the job and gets it. Akira is filled with immense gratitude toward her friend for giving her the opportunity for this new chapter.

Can you think of any moments in your life when you have been overwhelmed with gratitude?​

Joy is another positive emotion that can overwhelm you. You may experience this when something fills you with deep happiness. Someone may be overwhelmed with joy when they receive an offer from their dream job or get into their first-choice college. Seeing your child’s first steps or the first look of your bride on your wedding day may also cause intense happiness. Is there an event in your life that you can remember that caused you to be overwhelmed with joy?

When you feel overwhelmed with joy you might jump up and down and scream. Or maybe you react with tears. Either one is totally appropriate and might even take you by surprise. Allow yourself to feel whatever bubbles up. I recently attended a close friend’s wedding and her husband cried when he saw her in her dress for the first time. It was obvious how filled with joy he was to marry her and now it’s a beautiful moment they can share forever.

Some people may experience feeling overwhelmed at their job with increasing demands on their time and abilities. Maybe your company is understaffed and you are expected to pick up the extra work, on top of your own. Maybe you have been given duties without the proper training and don’t feel prepared. Over time, these increasing demands can have negative consequences for employees (Inegbedion et al., 2020).

Negative consequences of employees feeling overwhelmed:

• Job burnout
• Job dissatisfaction
• Ill feelings toward the employer
• May cause an employee to quit a job if other opportunities are available

Feeling overwhelmed at work is a negative experience for both the employer and the employee. The employee may feel underappreciated which can cause them to quit. This, in turn, negatively affects two of the biggest performance indicators for businesses–employee turnover and productivity (Inegbedion et al., 2020). 

Workload management may be an important tool for managers to use to ensure their employees remain satisfied with their job. This framework aims to minimize the discrepancy between employee workload and capacity. Open communication with your supervisor–or employees–can help balance workloads and minimize the chances of feeling overwhelmed.

Raising children can be an extremely stressful process, even though it comes with many rewards and benefits as well. Parents may put their own needs on the back burner in order to give full attention to their children. Parents can benefit by remembering that they are simply humans and can take care of their own needs as well. Going out for a coffee with a friend or spending an hour working out are ways to recharge your own battery. If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed or frustrated with your kids, taking three deep breaths may help ease that feeling and allow you to react in a mindful manner instead of out of stress.

Feeling overwhelmed can happen to anyone. However, this feeling can harm our well-being when it is constant. It may cause you to feel out of control of your own life. If this sounds like something you are familiar with, try the following steps to recognize where you are feeling overwhelmed and begin to alleviate some of that stress. 

1. Evaluate the areas of your life where you feel overwhelmed. There may be many areas of your life contributing to feelings of stress. Drilling down and figuring out what specific dimensions of your life are causing you the most stress is the first step in modifying those areas to give you some relief. Some examples may include career, parenting, marriage, finances, friendships, family relationships, etc.
2. Identify the cause of overwhelm you can most easily modify. It might not be easy to change your job right away, but you might be able to make changes to other areas of your life more immediately. Tackling overwhelming household responsibilities or spending habits are two examples of areas where you have the control to start making changes to relieve feelings of stress.
3. Make a plan to modify your behavior. If you are feeling overwhelmed with household responsibilities, creating a weekly “tidy-up” schedule can help you complete a little work each day to keep it from piling up. If you are feeling overwhelmed by finances, developing–and sticking to–a budget can help alleviate some financial stress.
4. Stick to your plan. While it might seem like more work at first, structuring the areas of your life where you feel most overwhelmed can help you gain a better sense of control. Try to create a weekly plan, follow through with the plan, and also allow yourself grace if you aren’t perfect right away.

The following videos also have helpful tools and information on how to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed.

• ​“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” — Mark Twain
• “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” — Desmond Tutu
• “I never felt like I was in over my head, but rather that the overwhelming possibilities were there for me to create.” — Maya Angelou
• “Overwhelm is, most often, a mindset. If you think about all the things you have to do, you’ll be face down on the floor. It really helps to break it down into smaller pieces.” — Jen Sincero
• “In this dangerous world that we live in, where hatred and violence and natural disasters sometimes collide to almost overwhelm us, we each can help in some way.” — Marsha Blackburn
• “I don’t think that you can let the storms of life overwhelm you. When you do that, you are no better than the craziness that caused you to be under attack.” — T. D. Jakes

Want to learn more? Check out these articles:​

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

• Cohen, S., Janicki-Deverts, D., & Miller, G. (2007, October 10). Psychological stress and disease. JAMA. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
• Inegbedion, H., Inegbedion, E., Peter, A., & Harry, L. (2020). Perception of workload balance and employee job satisfaction in work organisations. Heliyon, 6(1). 
• Kalliath, T. J., O’Driscoll, M. P., & Brough, P. (2004). A confirmatory factor analysis of the general health questionnaire-12. Stress and Health, 20(1), 11–20.
• Tugade, M. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(2), 320–333.​