Chronic Stress & Burnout:
When pushing through isn’t working anymore.
Maybe you’ve been stressed for so long that it has started to feel normal. You’re used to managing a demanding job, family responsibilities, health concerns, or simply the pressure of keeping up with everything that needs to get done. But constantly pushing through can take a toll, both mentally and physically.
You may find yourself wondering:
Why do I feel like I’m always “on,” even when there’s nothing I need to be doing?
Why can’t I relax when I finally have time to myself?
Why am I more irritable, impatient, or overwhelmed than I used to be?
Why do small problems suddenly feel like one more thing I just can’t deal with?
Why am I having trouble concentrating or feeling motivated?
Why does my body seem to be reacting to stress more than it used to?
Could stress be making my physical symptoms worse?
How do I feel better when I can’t just eliminate the stress in my life?
Chronic Stress Affects Your Mind AND Your Body
Stress is both a psychological and a physiological experience. Your body's stress response is designed to help you respond to challenges in the short-term. But when your brain and body are repeatedly responding to demands without enough opportunity to recover, chronic stress can begin to affect multiple aspects of your health and well-being.
Chronic stress can exacerbate or interact with a range of physical symptoms and medical conditions, including:
headaches and migraine
jaw and muscle tension
chronic pain and fibromyalgia
gastrointestinal symptoms
POTS
sleep problems
When you’re already managing a medical condition, stress and physical symptoms can reinforce one another, creating a cycle that can be difficult to interrupt.
Therapy Can Help You Break the Cycle
You probably already know that you’re stressed. The challenge is figuring out how to respond differently when many of the demands in your life aren’t going away.
As a health psychologist, I’ll help you understand the connection between stress, your thoughts and behaviors, and your physical health. Together, we can identify patterns that may be keeping you stuck, such as perfectionism, over-responsibility, difficulty setting boundaries, or continually pushing through exhaustion. You’ll learn practical strategies to manage stress differently, calm your mind and body, set healthier limits, and build more opportunities for recovery into your life.
Depending on your needs, our work may include:
Recognizing early signs that your stress system is becoming overloaded
Understanding how stress affects your body and physical symptoms
Developing more effective ways to regulate physiological arousal
Addressing perfectionism, over-responsibility, and difficulty saying no
Changing patterns of pushing through exhaustion or ignoring your own needs
Learning to set boundaries without excessive guilt
Reducing worry, rumination, and the feeling that your mind is always working
Improving your ability to recover after stressful experiences
Rebuilding activities that provide meaning, enjoyment, connection, and restoration
Developing sustainable coping strategies that actually fit your life
The goal isn't to create a life without stress. That's neither realistic nor necessary. Instead, therapy can help you change your relationship with stress, increase your capacity to recover from it, and reduce the physical and emotional toll it takes over time.
