mental health and emotional detox: understanding and managing emotional overload
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if your nervous system is cued to “fight or flight” as an ongoing response, you’re essentially living on high alert and that’s going to take a toll.
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dr. katie dashtban says the emotional overload of modern life can have all kinds of unpleasant symptoms. people reach a point of upset where they’re running to the bathroom, literally sick to their stomach. some have bowel issues that keep them holed up at home, severe headaches or low mood. the physical connection to mental stress is a very real and present danger to well-being.
“emotional overload is when your reaction to stimuli is unexpectedly different than how you normally show up,” she explains.
so, if your nervous system is cued to “fight or flight” as an ongoing response, you’re essentially living on high alert and that’s going to take a toll.
as a clinical health psychologist with the pain and wellness centre, and founder of feeling good therapy with clients in ontario and california, she has seen the wide range of impacts that can wreak havoc on people’s lives.
symptoms of emotional overload
“emotional overload can show up in the sense of being more short-tempered, increased irritability, decreased concentration, decreased critical thinking of whatever that’s being presented,” she says, also highlighting symptoms of sleep disturbance and fatigue.
“for example, if someone calls and says, ‘we need to change your dentist appointment from this day to that day.’ on the surface, that might not be much of an issue. but from an emotional overload standpoint, that may feel almost catastrophic, like, ‘oh, there’s one more thing i need to worry about,’ or ‘why does everybody need something from me?’”
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no one really wants their mind to always go catastrophizing, but that’s what can happen.
given the pressures that people face, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’re struggling—and we push it aside until we can’t ignore it. there’s the sense of being constantly overstimulated by information, constant connectivity, stress and emotional demands.
when emotional overload is chronic, another common outcome is chronic pain, says dr. dashtban, especially on the lower back and around the shoulders and neck. a 2024 review in frontiers in pain research looked at the relationship between stress and pain. the researchers confirmed that these distinct responses share complex biological and psychological mechanisms that—despite their protective functions—can lead to thought patterns and behaviours that hinder daily functioning. the evidence suggests that stress and pain feed into and exacerbate each other in a “vicious cycle.”
“chronic pain is the most observable, noticeable change, and then ongoing gastrointestinal problems,” notes dr. dashtban. “for most people, it’s not just an occasional thing when they’ve had something not good to eat or whatever, but ongoing difficulty in essentially taking in the food and allowing it to do its thing and then eliminating. that is usually a very quick, usual suspect when something chronically has been going on.”
nada elfeki, a psychotherapist in private practice and affiliated with the pain and wellness centre, first worked in neurobehavioral sciences research with people who had traumatic brain injury. she often counsels people dealing with chronic physical and mental pain.
“we are at a time where chronic stress and constant digital stimulation can significantly impact us mentally, but also physically,” she says of emotional overload. for her chronic pain clients, talk therapy focuses on “the overlap, how one kind of leads to the other, but then how there’s also a reciprocal relationship between physical and mental health.”
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she says there’s a strong push toward increasing people’s awareness when it comes to the mind-body connection, the fact that mental and physical health have a reciprocal relationship.
people are starting to recognize that when you’re helping yourself emotionally and cognitively, you’re also helping yourself physically and vice versa.
“many people are exposed to this non-stop stream of information, notifications, emotional demands in every direction that keep your nervous system in this very heightened state of alertness, right? and that represents a big portion of my work and i am very happy to see that there’s a lot more awareness of the [mental-physical] connection. i think if they’re really sold on that, then they’re more committed to the self-care and the practices and interventions they can put in place to help manage both.”
hustle culture and emotional detox
but another part of the problem is that society has programmed us to run on overdrive. this is the world we live in and how we’re expected to function, says melinda krynen hill, a psychotherapist at stillspace who has extensive experience in rehabilitation psychology and public health research.
“the way society is built right now, we really appreciate a hustle culture. high productivity, work fast, constant productivity equals success,” she explains of the mantra that undermines much of our health and well-being.
“and sometimes success has got built up to be a little bit too much with regard to what we have as far as our capacity as human beings. there’s this saying in the meditation world, ‘are we human beings or are we human doings?’ because a lot of the time, we’ve been primed to be human doings.”
she also talks about our core essence is just being present, but that’s not easily available in our culture. “it can take a lot more intention to step back from that doing culture and move into the being culture.”
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how can people “step back” to effectively reset and regain balance in their lives?
one phrase that’s become popular in wellness conversations is “emotional detox,” basically a way to cleanse the mind, much like physical detox aims to cleanse the body. it involves steps to clear out negative emotions and limiting beliefs in order to create space for peace and emotional well-being.
clinically, it’s not a term but more like a catchphrase that draws attention to wellness trends of mindfulness, meditation and taking a break from digital devices. while the intention is positive, the work required can be more effective when it is directed by a therapist. as krynen hill says, the central question is how can we reduce the emotional burden that we’re all carrying?
“that looks so different for everyone. in my practice, i invite everyone to try to build awareness around what those emotional triggers are for you? what is contributing to this idea of overload and overwhelm in your nervous system and, at the end of the day, burnout, which really is a mental health crisis,” she says.
sometimes people will come to her practice and say, ‘i don’t even know what’s going on. i just can’t cope. i can’t get to sleep or i’m eating too much or i have no energy. i can’t keep up with my kids.’
the power of processing and reflection
while it can take time to unpack what that looks like and identify their triggers, that processing and reflection is the first part of solving emotional overload.
talk therapy is recommended to offer an expert assessment and then develop a treatment plan with a host of tools like cognitive behaviour therapy, journalling and taking breaks in the day for meditation or movement that focuses you on breathing and diverts the mind from busyness.
“psychotherapy overall supports this process of building new coping strategies, strengthening your emotional regulation and creating healthier thought patterns and behavioural patterns,” elfeki says.
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“and i think recovery and change, as we know, don’t happen right away, but with the consistency and the consistent support in different forms our brains absolutely have the capacity to heal and adapt,” she adds, noting the brain’s neuroplasticity evolves throughout the lifespan to adapt to new challenges.
elfeki is also a huge fan of journalling for emotional processing and self-reflection—something that people don’t always create space for. “i can’t tell you the number of times i hear people say, ‘no, i’m going from one thing to the next and i just don’t have a moment to even just sit down and think about the things that have happened or what i want to do.’ what they’re really talking about is processing. they want a moment to process.”
emotional processing through journalling allows people to reflect on what’s happened, thoughts and emotions that are coming up, what they might want to do next and what they want to work toward. a 2024 review in brain science looked at interventions for emotional regulation. researchers found that the structured practice of journalling activates networks in the amygdala, the emotional centre of the brain. this allows people to shift from reactive to reflective processing for improved emotional stability.
another important tool to regaining emotional regulation is less screen time or “digital detox.” our ongoing connectivity and onslaught of information and entertainment has been shown to overstimulate the brain, leading to mental fatigue and concentration difficulties.
researchers in pakistan studied the impact on mental and physiological health of medical students who participated in a two-week digital detox where one group replaced screen time with other activities, another group reduced screen time and the control group continued their usual screen habits. the detox and activities group showed the largest improvements across biomarkers, including blood pressure, pulse and heart rate variability, along with qualitative measures like mental reset and connecting with people offline. the reduction-only group showed moderate improvements, while the control group exhibited no significant change.
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self-advocacy and doing the work
as with most interventions, you need to put in the time and effort. dr. dashtban raises another point about how people seek a diagnosis to understand what’s wrong with their health. while this is a positive step, the assessment is not the intervention. what’s just as important is self-advocacy.
“my strong opinion on this is on the piece of self-advocacy. so, if you have anything, whatever that [health condition] is, or whether you don’t have something, but you are still suffering on some level, you might want to be advocating a lot more for yourself, asking for ‘what can i do? what can i change?’”
the is the step forward, as opposed to receiving the diagnosis and behaving the same way that you always have because it’s out of your hands.
“out of my hands is suggesting no self-advocacy. in my hands, whatever it is, a label or diagnosis or just a reaction to things, is all in my hands. so now i’m going to seek out with more motivation and more readiness to receive the treatments that a psychologist or a medical doctor or somebody has to offer me because i am well aware of how i need to get this help and incorporate it into my life and then notice a change. that’s self-advocacy.”
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