It doesn’t matter how strong or healthy you were in body, mind, emotions and spirit.
When Overload accumulates, you will be humbled on the most basic level – usually in the body.
The body is equipped with a primal level of survival that goes back to caveman days. It’s called the reptilian response of the brain stem – the fight, flight, freeze (or immobilization) response.
The body’s receptors, the five basic senses, become flooded with messages of danger which are sent simultaneously to the nervous system, the brain, and the vital organs.
Adrenalin and stress cortisol are released into the blood stream, to give us extra-ordinal strength to run away or fight. When that is not possible, the body freezes in place like a reptile “playing dead.”
At the same time, the heart beats rapidly, the blood vessels constrict, breathing is shallow, energy and blood are pumped to the hands and feet, away from the body’s vital organs.
The brain is in survival mode.
The emotions are temporarily suspended. Later they will emerge as shock, extreme fear, anxiety, depression. sadness. grief. anger, hopelessness, helplessness.
The brain will remain on high alert, controlled by the limbic system. The cerebral cortex, the master computer part of the brain, will be overruled by the Limbic System, rendering it inoperable. Thinking will be childlike: black and white, basic responses, repetitive loupes of being out of control, inability to come up with problem solutions or abstract thinking.
If the danger continues for a long time and increases day after day, the body will become overloaded.
Over time, the body breaking down will cause a ripple effect in the emotions, mind and spirit becoming exhausted and overloaded.
It’s a pretty grim picture – especially if it is happening to you.
I experienced this kind of Overwhelm after 17 days of exposure to the Pacific Palisades wildfires one mile from my home in Santa Monica.
This is what my Overwhelm looked like:
My body was exhausted. All I wanted to do was go to my bed, cover myself with heavy blankets, close all the blinds and sleep. I wanted my bedroom door closed and I didn’t want to hear any noise.
My emotional state felt like I was being squeezed tighter and tighter by a vice and could barely see the world through a tiny periscope – which showed a speck of light.
My moods became more and more pessimistic: “Things are getting worse and worse. It will never change.”
My state-of-being fluctuated dramatically from day to day. One day I had energy and optimism, the next day my energy and outlook plummeted dramatically.
I developed severe pain in my lower back which required 2 days of Advil every 4 hours. I had difficulty walking or bending my back. After a few days, the pain shifted to the spinal cord, from the waist to my neck. It felt like my spine had been turned into rebar steel, that had to support the vulnerable organs on the front of my body. The pain radiated from my waist, to my spinal cord, then radiated out to all the muscles. This was the first time in my life that I have experienced back pain.
My back told me, “You have to stop all activity and concentrate on healing yourself from OVERWHELM.”
I believe that my experience of Overwhelm was not unique to me; that it was probably shared my hundreds, if not thousands of people who were affected by the worst wildfires in the state of California. It was being experienced by the people who lost their homes, by the people who were in emergency shelters, by those who lost loved ones in the fires, by those of us in surrounding areas, by those who watched the carnage and devastation on the local news, by the air which carried the ashes and soot many miles from the fires into our yards each day, by the sight of hundreds of fire trucks and fire fighters traveling through our neighborhoods each day – putting their lives at risk to save us.
The whole experience was DEVASTATING AND OVERWHELMING!
Here is a list of WAYS I CARED FOR MYSELF:
- I took numerous long hot baths daily, adding Epsom Salts to the water, and submerging my entire body for 20 – 40 minutes. I surrendered my exhaustion, allowed myself to cry, buoyed in the water like a baby in the amniotic fluid in the mother’s uterus. Finally, I could let go of the stress, the strain and the Overwhelm. I began to relax and a sense of peace entered my body.
- I allowed myself to do the minimum of activity each day. I knew I needed to rest as much as possible. I took naps and went to bed very early.
- I shared how I was feeling with my husband, my confidant who knows me better than anyone in the world, who loves and accepts me when I am the most vulnerable and in need of Tender Loving Care. I listened to his advice and Bigger Picture reassurance that things were going to get better; that they were not as bad as I was seeing them. I also shared my experience with my children, who sent me Love and Support.
- I made simple, healthy meals or brought home prepared meals from my favorite restaurants when I felt incapable of doing it myself.
- I wrote in my Journal daily, cried a lot, and prayed – asking God to renew my strength.
- I sat in nature and soaked in the beauty of my plants, and their message of Resilience, Renewal, and Rebirth.
- I spent hours with my beloved therapy kitty, Hopie, and we exchanged healing Oxytocin through touch, smiles, laughter, and shared breathing.
Each day I have gotten stronger, have more energy, more Cerebral Cortex thinking, and Joy and Optimism have returned to my life. My God-given gifts have returned to the surface, and I am back to my “regular Self.”
This would not have happened if I had not acknowledged the depth and severity of my Overwhelm and taken Appropriate Actions to heal myself.
I send Love, Prayers, Support to anyone in the world that is experiencing Overwhelm.
Know that you can Rebound, Heal yourself, and return to Optimum Functioning!
#JudithAnneDesjardinsPancreaticWarriorMaiden
#CopingWithOverwhelmAfterTheLAWildfires