What A Person Chooses To Complain About Reveals Just How Mentally Exhausted They Are
Erika Richard / Shutterstock In the same way your body gets tired from doing too much, you can also become mentally exhausted when your brain can’t keep up with everything you need it to do.
That sensation can be especially frustrating because it’s not like you can just take a nap and feel better. It goes way deeper than that, and it makes the smallest things feel like reasons to complain.
7 things people complain about when they’re mentally exhausted:
1. Being too overwhelmed to make decisions
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When someone feels like they’re totally tapped out mentally, even the most basic decisions will feel impossible for them to make. It’s not like they can just redirect the little bit of energy they have left to thinking about what they should have for dinner.
This feeling is even worse when you have lots of decisions to make. There’s a good chance that anyone who feels mentally exhausted has had too many choices to keep up with, which all adds up to create decision fatigue when the overwhelm hits.
2. Not having enough motivation to get things done
It’s really defeating when you know exactly what you need to do but feel totally helpless to actually start working on those things. That’s the kind of loss of motivation people experience when they’re mentally exhausted.
According to their self-determination theory, psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan explained that people don’t feel motivated when their needs aren’t met. Anyone who’s on the verge of burnout has probably been pushing themselves to the limit, so it’s not hard to see how they could end up in this situation.
3. Having too many people depending on them
Being the person everyone depends on and being mentally exhausted often overlap. There’s no way for someone to take care of themselves if they’re constantly pouring into other people.
People who are known for being helpful become the ones that everyone else turns to whenever they need something. Because they want to be there for others, they keep giving more and more until they have nothing left.
That leaves them totally drained. The problem is none of those other people understand that they need to back off, so they feel like they can’t catch a break.
4. Their brain never quieting down
It's common for people who are mentally exhausted to feel like their thoughts are racing through their mind on a loop. They know there are important things they need to stop and think about, but they can’t pause everything else long enough to do that.
It’s like a total inability to focus, but on another level. Instead of just feeling distracted, they feel like their brain is moving at high speed when they’re sitting around doing nothing. The amount of stress someone feels affects their ability to concentrate, so it’s no surprise that this happens when people are totally wiped out.
5. Feeling drained after spending time with other people
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We usually think about introverts feeling drained after socializing, but that’s not always the case. It can happen to anyone, especially when they already feel like they’ve got nothing left to give.
This kind of social fatigue comes up a lot when someone feels like they have to act a certain way or when they get stuck in a boring conversation. It’s like it’s either too much or too little for their brain to handle. Unfortunately, social and mental exhaustion doesn’t distinguish between loved ones and acquaintances, so pretty much every interaction starts to feel like a challenge.
6. Having to use extra energy to do little things
There’s something really unsettling about doing something that’s not a big deal, but feeling like it took everything out of you. That happens a lot when people are dealing with mental exhaustion because their lack of energy makes simple tasks feel like climbing Mount Everest.
When they’re stuck feeling that way, putting everything off for a better time is going to seem like their best option. Of course, that doesn’t actually help because they’ll have a massive to-do list to deal with later, whether they feel better or not.
7. Feeling like something is off that they can’t explain
One of the worst things about mental exhaustion is that it can make people feel like something is wrong that they aren’t able to describe. They know something isn’t right, but they don’t know what to do to fix it since they don’t even understand it.
It’s really common to think that something is off that you can’t quite put your finger on when you’re under a lot of stress. But knowing that it’s normal doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable. That’s the kind of thing that can only get better when someone prioritizes calming activities to reverse mental exhaustion. It might require professional help, too, but it’s worth it.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
