Symptoms Of Mental Fatigue And How To Prevent Tiredness
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by your normal tasks and responsibilities? Perhaps you sometimes feel like you are mentally exhausted and dealing with too much?
If this is the case then you may be dealing with mental fatigue. Keep reading to discover the main symptoms of mental fatigue and the significance of it.
Over time, mental fatigue can lead you to feel stressed and irritated as you may not be able to concentrate, you can make more mistakes which can then lead you to feel miserable.
I am going to talk to you about how to prevent mental fatigue, but firstly, lets have a look at what mental fatigue actually is and the symptoms of mental fatigue.
Physical Versus Mental Exhaustion
If youve ever left the gym feeling exhausted but exhilarated, youve felt the difference between mental and physical exhaustion. Physical fatigue, like mental exhaustion, comes from prolonged stress but from stress on the body. This could be due to not getting enough sleep, an illness, or other physical strain.
Play Your Favorite Music
Listening to music soothes and perks up your brain, temporarily providing a reprieve from feelings of mental fatigue. A study published in the Neuroscience journal suggests that listening to your favorite music has a positive effect similar to exercising.
Turn on some good music to set the ambiance for work. Choose tracks that make you feel good, get into a flow state, and forget about surrounding worries. While many prefer lo-fi music when studying or working, you may go for something different. Play music that lifts your mood, helps generate positive thoughts, and isnât distracting.
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Talk To Your Colleagues
We often feel like socializing when we have a lot to do is wrong and unproductive, but this simply isnt true. Taking social breaks to chat with your colleagues about topics that dont relate to work can actually help reduce stress and boost your mood. Having a heavy workload can feel isolating, so this is a mutually beneficial way to reduce both yours and your colleagues stress and to check-in on others to see how theyre doing in general. Better yet, head out on a walk outside with your colleagues to reap the fresh air and social benefits together.
What Are The Side Effects And Symptoms Of Mental Fatigue
As mental fatigue starts to creep in due to extended exposure to stress or emotional overwhelm, your brain eventually becomes too tired to function properly â affecting your wellbeing, productivity, memory, and decision-making skills across all areas of your life.
In your professional world, mental exhaustion can make you feel discouraged about work, struggle to focus on your tasks, and prevent you from meeting your team goals â leading to even more work-related stress.
In your personal life, mental fatigue can cause tension in your relationships due to irritability and mood instability, health problems from turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms like drinking or drugs, and increased feelings of anxiety and depression about everything. Other negative side effects can look like feeling generally hopeless or numb about the state of your life, and withdrawing from friends and family.
Mental fatigue can show up differently in everyone, but here are the 10 most common signs of mental exhaustion to look out for:
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You Have Trouble Sleeping
Insomnia is among the major signs of mental fatigue. It is a common sleep disorder that affects your ability to go to sleep, stay asleep, or affects the quality of sleep you get each night. Such changes in sleep patterns can result in restlessness throughout the day which can greatly affect productivity and efficiency. Luckily, there are numerous self-care tips and remedies that can help you improve the quality of your sleep.
A Challenging Life Event
An event that completely turns your life upside down can put a great deal of strain on your mental health.
Oftentimes, people experience different types of grief as a result. Normal or uncomplicated grief causes short-term mental fatigue. Complicated grief, like the death of a loved one or a divorce, can bring on mental fatigue that impacts your mental health over a long period.
Other factors contributing to mental fatigue include poor nutrition, lack of sleep, clutter, or compassion and empathy fatigue. Once you identify the causes, start by taking steps to alleviate your symptoms.
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How To Overcome And Prevent Mental Fatigue
Mental exhaustion can happen to anyone when stress accumulates over time with no outlet to let the steam out. It drains you emotionally, rendering you unable to perform even simple tasks without feeling overwhelmed. But, it can be easily prevented and treated. Here are some tips on how to overcome mental exhaustion:
When To Get Professional Support
Unrelenting stress doesnt just factor into mental exhaustion, it can also contribute to a range of other physical and mental health consequences. Eventually, stress can lead to burnout, where you can feel hopeless about anything ever changing and helpless to take action that might help.
Mental exhaustion can have serious consequences and not just for your physical and emotional health. Ongoing fatigue can slow your reaction time and contribute to traffic accidents and dangerous errors at high risk jobs.
Thats one reason why getting professional help for mental exhaustion sooner rather than later is so important.
If youve noticed any of the signs and symptoms, consider connecting with a therapist. Mental health professionals can offer support with:
- identifying causes and triggers
- exploring treatment options
- learning helpful ways to cope with stress and demanding responsibilities
A doctor or other healthcare professional might also be able to offer support, especially if youve noticed physical fatigue and other health symptoms.
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Scientifically Proven Ways To Beat Mental Fatigue
Are you dealing with mental fatigue?
Picture this scenario: You head to work, feeling as though youre well-rested, and midway through your morning, youre already tired. Youre drained and worn out, even though your day is barely started.
Or, through the course of a relatively light day of work no meetings, no taxing decisions, no major fires to put out you feel mentally and emotionally exhausted.
Or, you get these same feelings mental tiredness, lack of brainpower to process even the simplest thoughts on a Saturday, when things are at their least stressful.
If any of the above sounds familiar or youve had bouts with exhaustion, decreased motivation, lack of sleep or loss of appetite, or sustained irritability, youre most likely suffering from mental fatigue.
Without proper care and attention to your mental health, mental fatigue can turn into far more severe conditions, including:
- Fluctuations in weight
- Increased susceptibility to illness
In this guide, were going to break down what mental fatigue is, what causes it, and how you can overcome it.
Supplements To Help Stop Brain Fog
Every brain changes with age, and mental function changes along with it. Mental decline is common, and its one of the most feared consequences of aging. There are ways you can help to maintain brain function: reducing the use of smartphone, tablet, and computer, getting enough rest, eating healthy food, and taking essential supplements that prepared by a team of experts. These can help improve memory, reduce stress, and maintain emotional balance.
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Brain Fog: How To Stop Mental Fatigue
As if there arent enough productivity-hindering obstacles in the universe. Though the digital distractions can certainly add up , their impact on your productivity is relatively minor when considering the all-encompassing, motivation killing effects of mental fatigue.
Its safe to assume that youve felt the weight of mental fatigue before. And thats ok. Youre human. Whats most important is that, with a few Healthversed backed tricks of the trade, you can fight back.
Today, were going to explore the ins and outs of mental fatigue. Well break down what it is, why it happens, why its bad, and arm you with a few tested strategies to help stop it in its tracks. So, without further ado, lets break through the brain fog and learn to power on!
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Extreme Mental Fatigue Leads To Burnout
Your body only has so much ability to compensate for accumulated fatigue until you start to burn out. If you dont employ some coping mechanisms to combat fatigue, says Ivankovich, it can lead to alterations in your brains neurons, decreased performance, ineffective thinking, poor attention span, irritability and insomnia . In serious cases, mental fatigue can be so draining that the associated problems become chronic, even irreversibleit becomes your new normal.
In a society that is being instructed to do more with less, or to work now, sleep later, it is critical to take time to relax, mentally and physically, in an attempt to avoid the accumulation of acute fatigue, says Ivankovich, who points out just how common overload is. In therapy, the number one problem I see is fatigue. People are so driven to be successful that they do twice as much with half of the resourcesemotional, physical, or otherwise.
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When Is It A Good Idea To See A Therapist
It is always a good idea to talk to a counselor, coach, or therapist. Mental exhaustion can make it difficult to seek help.
Contact a specialist immediately if you have any of these symptoms:
- Plans and thoughts of harming others
- Uncontrollable crying
- There were several absences from work
- Being in danger of losing your job
- Unable to care for your children or loved ones
- Inattention to personal hygiene
These signs are indicators that your mental condition could be more severe than mental exhaustion. Professional help may be necessary to feel better. Although it can feel overwhelming, mental exhaustion does not last forever. Mental fatigue does not happen overnight, and it is unlikely that you will recover from it overnight. You can overcome mental exhaustion with self-awareness and support.
Stay On Top Of Stress
Managing stress is easier said than done, but making an effort to clearly understand the underlying causes of your stress can be a big help.
When you consider every item on your to-do list and think through every stressor filling your mind, youre often better able to recognize just how many things are crowding your brain and contributing to mental exhaustion, MacCutcheon says.
She asks clients dealing with mental exhaustion to acknowledge everything on their plates even minor things, such as making a doctor appointment or shopping for a birthday present.
You cant always eliminate every stressful thing from your life, but these tips can help you keep your stress from completely wiping you out.
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Remedies For Mental Fatigue
We all have a limited amount of happiness chemicals, neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin that make us feel mentally vibrant. Thats why the drug addict cant stay high all the time, eventually draining dopamine stores and coming down hard. Drugs are forms of synthetic energy creation that can create bursts of vitality followed by a crash.
You mightve experienced the sugar high, caffeine rush, or alcohol buzz that at some point subsides into a depleted mental state. Caffeine, for example, blocks your adenosine receptors in the brain, essentially masking your fatigue until it wears off and you feel even more tired.
So if drugs clearly arent the answer, then we are left with more organic means of achieving mental vitality:
1. Sleep
This one is pretty obvious, as everyone knows that sleep is critical for an energetic mind. But few people realize just how important sleep really is.
To maximize your sleep, it helps to keep a regular schedule, rest in a dark and cool room, eliminate external sounds, and avoid screens before bed. Ive written more on tips for getting a good nights sleep here: 5 Sleep Therapy Techniques for Better Overall Health And Wellness
2. Movement
It might seem counter-intuitive that you would want to expend energy through movement in order to have more of it. But exercise is net energy positive, as it trains your body to be ready for more energetic output.
3. Nutrition
5. Environment
What Can Mental Exhaustion Feel Or Look Like
The symptoms of fatigue are different for everyone. However, as stressors slowly build up over long periods of time, we might not recognize the impact right away. In fact, the people around us may notice changes in our behavior before we do.
Weve listed a few examples of the impact mounting stressors may have below. If you recognize these symptoms in yourself, you may be suffering from burnout.
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Dont Ignore The Signs Of Mental Fatigue
Its easy to overlook mental fatigue symptoms when they become a common daily occurrence.
Thats why its important to check in with yourself once in a while and see how youre doing physically, emotionally, and mentally. Mental exhaustion is a condition that can be managed and overcome by making healthy changes in your life. These include prioritizing self-care or fixing your sleep schedule.
If you dont want to do it alone, BetterUp can help. Our coaches will create a personalized plan thats proven to increase your mental well-being and resilience.
Ways To Overcome Mental Exhaustion
When youre mentally exhausted, even fun things sound like work. This can make it even more challenging to manage stressors. However, it takes effort and awareness to change the patterns that lead to feeling mentally tired. The good news is that you dont have to tackle it all at once to start feeling better.
Try these 11 strategies for overcoming mental exhaustion:
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Mental Vs Emotional Exhaustion
Generally speaking, mental tends to refer to cognitive skills, like thinking, memory, decision-making, and problem-solving. Emotional, on the other hand, has to do with feelings, including your ability to identify, process, and express them.
You might notice emotional exhaustion when navigating difficult, painful, or unwanted feelings, such as:
- a decline in motivation or productivity
- feeling lethargic or slowed down in movements or responses
- difficulty concentrating, remembering information, putting thoughts together, or completing work correctly
Caring For Your Mental Health Can Be Easy
https://www.pexels.com/photo/smiling-formal-male-with-laptop-chatting-via-phone-3760263/
If you have been struggling with mental fatigue and depression, these tips and tricks will help you to overcome these struggles and feel better on a daily basis. Handling tough times in your life is always easier when you are well-rested and taking care of yourself.
You have to remember that you cannot hope to work hard or care for your family and friends if you are exhausted and mentally drained. Being fully present in your life can be tough if you do not make time for self-care.
Once you start tackling the mental fatigue that you are feeling with these effective strategies, you will see just how much better you will feel on a daily basis. Handling your mental stress can make your life much more positive and enjoyable and you will see improvements in your work relationships as well as the connections that you enjoy time with outside of work.
Using these tips and tricks can make your life much less stressful overall and you will be glad that you have learned to manage your mental fatigue so easily.
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What If My Circumstances Wont Change
Protective factors can be key to cutting down the negative impacts of situations we cant improve. These are tools and habits that help counteract risk factors, including everything from nurturing a positive self-image to having a supportive friend group.
While some factors might change over time, like your income level or social connections, others, like self-discipline and social skills, stay with you throughout your life. Not having these factors growing up could lead to a higher risk of burnout down the line or other consequences like depression and substance use.
While there are many stressors we wont be able to change in our lives, we can gain tools to help reduce them.
For example, while you might not be able to change a paralyzing injury, a supportive social circle can help lower the stress and change your outlook on life. Systemic racism may be difficult or impossible to escape, but strong advocacy skills can help you feel control and even improve the situation.
Can You Be Exhausted Mentally
Mental exhaustion is completely possible and is probably more common than it should be. After a long period of stress or time of intense emotions, mental exhaustion is bound to happen. Just like our bodies show symptoms after we push too hard, our minds are bound to display signs of mental exhaustion if we dont take proper care.
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Tips For Coping With Mental Fatigue
Sometimes, you can remove the source of your mental fatigue altogether. For example, changing jobs can fix brain fog caused by a high-stress work environment.
Other situations, like living with an illness, are not so straightforward. In these cases, mental fatigue can be managed. Here are six simple ways to cope with mental fatigue and improve your mental health:
How To Overcome Mental Fatigue According To An Expert
Do you constantly feel overwhelmed? Emotionally and mentally drained most of the time? If so, chances are you might be suffering from mental fatigue.
Mental fatigue is a condition triggered by prolonged cognitive activity. Basically, it sends your brain into overdrive, leaving you exhausted, hampering your productivity and overall cognitive function.
The most common symptoms include mental block, lack of motivation, irritability, stress eating or loss of appetite and insomnia. Mental exhaustion can affect you for both short-term or long-term.
If left unchecked, it can lead to all sorts of serious health problems, including anxiety and burnout. Research suggests that constant mental exhaustion can also impact your physical endurance.
What exactly causes mental fatigue?
Other potential causes include medication, stress and ailments such as depression, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease. Emotionally challenging experiences like divorce or death of a loved one can also contribute to brain fatigue.
So, how can you beat mental exhaustion?
Adopting the following strategies can help ease mental fatigue:
Other than that, eat healthy, cut back on caffeine, exercise regularly and get enough zzz’s .
Lastly, here are some surefire strategies to prevent brain fatigue and improve mental clarity:
And remember, “the more you work on systems for reducing stress and excess decision-making, the more mental energy you’ll have,” adds Dr Boyes.
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