Let me know if this sounds like you:
You have an every-growing task list of things you need to remember to do to keep your household going.
You have doctor’s appointments you need to make. You have mail you need to sort through. You have laundry that needs to be folded. You’re worried about your parents, you have birthday gifts to buy, and all the while you’re wondering who is going to fix the malfunctioning front door (and what happens if someone breaks in?!).
You are taking on a profound mental load – you’re thinking about and worried about and stressed about all these different things you need to complete or keep on your mind, and it’s consuming your time and energy.
This “mental load” – the cognitive and emotional work that comes from feeling like you’re singularly responsible for managing a household – is not just an upsetting inconvenience. It can cause issues that can affect you in all areas of your life.
First: About Me
My name is Esther Oh. I’m a therapist in San Francisco, and I often work with clients, especially women, that feel like they’re taking on too much and need help managing their mental health and their life. If you’re looking for a therapist to help you address your anxiety and improve your mental health, happiness, and relationships.
The Long Term Effects of a Stress/Anxiety Caused by Mental Load
Feeling like the burden of life is on your shoulders can cause significant stress and anxiety. As your task list increases, so too does your stress, and over time it can cause issues that include, but are not limited to:
- Paralysis – When you have too much to do, you can experience a form of task paralysis, unable to start any task and instead wasting time in unproductive ways.
- Burnout – When we’re overwhelmed that often, we are more at risk for experiencing burnout, causing us to feel like we can no longer function without a breakdown.
- Mental Health Disorders – Living with prolonged stress can cause people to develop anxiety disorders and even depression.
- Relationship Issues – When you’re overwhelmed with thoughts and “to dos” you are then also at risk for not “being present” or being able to give yourself to the other relationships in your life.
We want to believe that all we need to do is get our list done and we’ll be okay, but that’s not how “to do” lists work in a household. There’s always more to do. There’s always new things to do. Many of the tasks are tasks that we need to complete regularly.
That means that we can’t just address the list itself and assume we’ll be okay. We need to address the stress, anxiety, and more, that leads to this feeling of mental burden. We need to address what makes us feel like we have to take these on ourselves, and how to have conversations with partners as well to help take some of the mental burden off of our minds.
But mostly, we need a therapist.
Hello! Let’s start a conversation. I can see clients remotely across all of California and in person in the San Francisco Bay area. Let’s talk about your burnout and mental load, and help you move forward!
Local? Ask about Walk and Talk Therapy!