In the stressful and overstimulating world we live in, becoming so overwhelmed by your stress that it significantly affects your behavior — an emotional meltdown — can happen to all of us.
An “emotional meltdown” isn’t exactly a medical diagnosis. “It’s used in popular discourse to describe when we are overcome emotionally, when we hit a breaking point,” says Robin Stern, PhD, licensed psychoanalyst and cofounder and director for the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence in New Haven, Connecticut.
For some people, a meltdown may look like crying uncontrollably. For others it may look like snapping at others or lashing out angrily. And for others it may involve panicking or running away from a stressful situation.
Dr. Stern says that an occasional meltdown is completely normal. “You may suddenly burst into tears or lash out with anger because you feel out of control, overwhelmed with pressures and things in your life that are unpredictable. That doesn’t mean something is ‘wrong’ with you,” she says.
It may, however, be an indication that you’re going through a challenging time and some of your personal and emotional needs are not being met.
RELATED: Here Are the Best Online Anger Management Classes
The good news is that you can recover from a meltdown. You can also learn to manage the stressors in your life that threaten to push you over the edge so that future meltdowns are less likely.
Common Triggers of Emotional Meltdowns
The particulars of why emotional meltdowns happen are unique to the individual and the situation, but certain conditions raise the likelihood of a meltdown occurring in many, if not most, people.
Kassondra Glenn, a licensed master social worker and consultant with Prosperity Haven Treatment Center in Chardon, Ohio, explains that these common triggers can include:
- Being Overtired Getting too little sleep, particularly if it’s night after night, can make you more irritable, short-tempered, and vulnerable to stress, accoridng to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical.
- Hunger Even if you consume enough calories in a given day, going too long without food may result in a blood sugar level that’s low enough to cause low energy, shakiness, headaches, and troubles focusing, notes Penn Medicine.
- Being Overwhelmed or Overscheduled Taking on too many responsibilities at once — or even agreeing to too many social activities — is a surefire recipe for feeling overwhelmed.
- Big Life Transitions Getting or losing a job, starting or ending a relationship, moving to a new home, getting married, having a baby, graduating college, and many other normal life transitions make you more emotionally vulnerable.
- Unaddressed Relationship Issues The closer the relationship, the more important it is to address differences as they arise. Allowing conflicts to fester typically results in more minor disagreements that aren’t problems in and of themselves (such as arguing about what movie to watch), but rather represent bigger issues, notes Arizona State University. More disagreements equal more stress, not less.
If you’re prone to meltdowns, think about what tends to lead up to them or to set them off. Some may be easily resolved, such as being sure to eat more frequently. Others may take more work, such as learning better communication skills.
How to Stop an Emotional Meltdown if You Feel One Coming On
You can’t stop difficult situations from occurring, but you can change how you respond to them. The next time you start feeling the signs of acute stress — your face getting hot, hands getting cold, breathing getting shallow — pay attention to how you feel and, unless you’re being called upon to save someone’s life, take steps to calm yourself before attempting to respond to what’s happening.
“It’s important to pause when we’re experiencing any overwhelming emotion. Our brains are operating differently in these moments and do not have the capacity to make logical decisions,” Glenn says.
Grounding techniques, such as sending awareness toward your feet, touching your fingertips together, and breathing exercises can be helpful ways to calm yourself down, she adds.
Glenn prefers this five-step deep breathing routine:
- Take a deep breath in for four seconds.
- Hold the breath for four seconds.
- Breathe out for four seconds.
- Pause for four seconds before taking another breath.
- Repeat until you feel calmer.
Remember, these steps won’t reverse a difficult situation or make the problem that triggered your strong emotional response go away. But calming yourself down before responding helps you cope with the situation from a less emotional and more thoughtful place, Glenn says.