Beyond Busy: When Motherhood Stress Becomes Anxiety & How Therapy Can Help in Atlanta
Motherhood is a whirlwind of endless to-do lists, sleepless nights, and the constant feeling that there's always something more you should be doing. Stress? It’s a given. And anxiety? It's a normal human emotion, designed to keep us alert and motivated. But what happens when the volume on that stress and anxiety gets turned up to 11 and stays there?
When "Normal" Becomes Too Much
Think of it this way: our bodies have an incredible built-in alarm system called the nervous system. When we're stressed or anxious, it kicks into a heightened state of arousal – often called "fight or flight." For moms, this often manifests as an intense sense of urgency. We're driven to get things done, do them perfectly, and keep moving at all costs. The underlying fear? If we stop, if we rest, if we don't do things exactly right, our kids will be unprepared, we'll fall behind, or worse – we'll fail.
In many ways, this anxiety is functional. It's the engine that keeps you on track, helping you juggle countless responsibilities and accomplish a mountain of tasks. It's the voice telling you that you're keeping all the balls in the air, working incredibly hard to prevent any from falling. But here's the truth: eventually, some balls will drop. And then, anxiety often convinces us to spend even more time and effort frantically picking them back up, and ignoring the undeniable reality that we simply can't do everything.
As women and mothers, we're acutely aware of the immense mental load we carry. Anxiety can make this burden even heavier. It creates a powerful resistance to delegating or asking for help, leaving us feeling utterly stuck in a loop of exhaustion and overwhelming responsibility.
Breaking the Cycle: How Therapy Can Help
Perhaps you find yourself in this endless cycle: you desperately want to do less, you crave more help, but then anxiety prevents you from actually asking for it. This is precisely where therapy comes in.
Therapy can provide a crucial space to:
Honor your efforts: We'll start by acknowledging and celebrating all the incredible hard work you're doing. It's important to recognize how much your anxiety has actually been helping you stay on top of everything.
Validate your exhaustion: We'll then validate the profound exhaustion you're feeling. It's real, and it's a natural consequence of operating in overdrive.
Explore the "why": We'll delve into why it feels so incredibly difficult to do less. What is it about slowing down or letting go that makes your anxiety ramp up? Why does it feel so impossible to trust that things will be okay?
As we navigate these questions, you'll learn how to maintain your sense of being "on top of it" and feeling good about your role as a mom, while simultaneously embracing rest and doing less. You'll begin to recognize that life doesn't always have to be a sprint. Leaving the dishes for tomorrow (yes, even if that thought makes your stomach churn right now!) can truly be okay. When a ball drops – like those dishes – you'll learn it can be picked up again, not immediately or frantically, but with choice and intention.
It might not feel okay at first, but with support, you can reach a point where even if it doesn't feel perfectly fine, you can tolerate it. This tolerance stems from a deep trust in how much you deserve to operate from a space of regulation – calm, present, and centered – rather than constantly on edge.
Ready to explore how you can move beyond the constant hustle and find a more regulated, peaceful rhythm in your motherhood journey? Reach out today to learn more about therapy in Atlanta.