Feeling Numb, Anxious & Overwhelmed? You Might Have Crisis Exhaustion

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Do you feel like you've been running on empty for a while? Like you just can't catch your breath? Well, you're not imagining it and you're not alone.

[00:00:09]Today, we're talking about crisis exhaustion. What it is, what it's doing to your mind and your body, and most importantly, how we're going to deal with it.

[00:00:26]>> Hey, Provenant Preppers. I'm Kylen >> and I'm Jonathan. Last week we were talking with our friend Tim McWelch and I asked him the question with so many obvious needs out there for people to prepare. Why aren't more people doing that? And he had a very interesting insight that I think we're going to try and address today because I think it is so important. The whole thing that he was talking about was crisis exhaustion and how sometimes we get to the point where we're overloaded. We're getting so much stimulus and so many headlines bumping into our heads telling us, you know, all the things that are going wrong that people throw their hands up and they don't want to hear it anymore and they don't want to do anything. And I think that was very accurate and very right on point.

[00:01:12]>> In fact, we recorded a video with Tim that will be released next week. So definitely go check that out. He has a lot of really good information. But I think one of the things, think back to CO like nothing has settled down since CO. We've had economic issues, supply chain issues, natural disasters, geopolitical conflicts. I mean, everything one on top of another and it's just kind of like you've got all these bricks piling on top of you. Our bodies were designed to to handle short-term crisises or short-term stress. You know, the whole fight or flight. So if there's a flood or a fire or if you know a lion is chasing you, you've got what you need to take care of that. It was never intended for years of ongoing stress. When the stress never stops, you don't have the ability to ever fully recover and you wear down over time. And one of the bloggers said, "Every headline wants your cortisol."

[00:02:13]Right? And it's true. like everything is sensationalized and it's meant to get you excited and have stress and all this and and we got to figure out a way to fix this because it's not good for us.

[00:02:26]So, let's talk about what it does to both our mind and our body when we have this constant level of stress. And I think it's important to point out it's not just the things going on in the world, you know, and and the need to prepare, but there are things daytoday in our lives, you know, the loss of a loved one or, you know, other stressors that continually add to this. So, it's it's not just a one thing. It's a combination of everything going on in our lives. And and so we need to find the way to take care of that. And like for us recently, so we've got this constant crisis exhaustion going on, right? Because this is what we do for a living and we've got to stay on top of things. And then we had several different things happen in our family that were really hard and it just knocked us down like we were we were pretty much paralyzed and we'll talk about some of that and what kind of the things that we experienced. So what does it do to us emotionally? It will numb us and we actually lose empathy. Google sends me earthquake updates, right? So, I know everything that's going on. And I got this one and it was just earthquake after earthquake after earthquake. And it's like, oh, that's too bad. Well, 5 years ago, we would have had this many earthquakes and we would be freaking out. But now, it's like, uh, another earthquake. This is the world that we live in. We're not I'm kind of numb to it. It can emotionally affect us with sadness and anxiety and hopelessness.

[00:03:52]And of for me, a person who's never had a lot of anxiety, I've started to experience anxiety and it's really affecting me. And Jonathan has had to help me manage it very proactively because sometimes I will sit down at my computer to work and I can't stay in that office. I can't do it. So, that's one of the ways that it's affected me.

[00:04:14]Irritability and snapping at those that we love. That hasn't happened. We must have just skipped that one. and cynicism and loss of motivation. You ever feel any of these kinds of things? Well, there's a good reason and and that's happening a lot out there. And how about decision fatigue? There was a study done in 2021 that said that 32% of all people during COVID struggled just making decisions. I thought that was really interesting because as a prepper, we need to be able to make good decisions. Another way that it affects us mentally is just brain fog and difficulty concentrating. I've had both of those. Tendency to either doom scroll all the time or become completely disengaged from everything. And neither of those are good.

[00:05:03]>> Right. We do need to stay aware. We we don't stick our heads in the sand.

[00:05:06]>> Yeah.

[00:05:07]>> But we we can't afford to put so much energy into the doom scrolling.

[00:05:12]>> Yeah.

[00:05:13]>> Yeah.

[00:05:13]>> I am totally guilty of that. And that is something I've been consciously working on. Okay. Let's talk about physically how it affects us. Fatigue that just rest doesn't help. And that's one of the things that we experienced recently with our challenges is that we were just so tired we couldn't do the daily tasks of living, right? It was it was rough >> and sleeping was hard, getting sleep, staying asleep, you know, all these things are symptoms.

[00:05:39]>> Digestive problems or elevated blood pressure and even a weakened immune system. Those are all physical effects that crisis exhaustion can have on your body.

[00:05:49]>> Yeah. Let's talk about our behavior.

[00:05:52]Withdrawing from family, friends, community, and I'll be honest, you know, I'm I'm not overly social anyway.

[00:05:59]>> And and that's not super healthy. I've really tried to work on that, reaching out, being more engaged with our friends and our family and our community, but this fatigue tends to make us want to go into a corner. Now also unhealthy coping mechanisms that I'm queen of this because unhealthy or overeating that is one of my coping mechanisms right the chocolate or just overeating in general I get stressed and that is what I do there's also turning to alcohol or excessive scrolling right excessive being on your device there's all kinds of different unhealthy behaviors another one would be panic buying you go out and you buy everything that you think you might need no matter what your budget tells you is wise. Or you throw up your hands and you're like, I know I should do this, but I have no power over this, so I'm not going to do anything to prepare.

[00:06:52]>> Yeah. So, we're we're looking for not those extremes, but back in the middle where we're in balance, and we've always advocated for finding a healthy balance in your life. There's so many good things that we can do, and prepping is one of those, but it's just a small slice of the pie. So, let's make sure that we are finding a way to keep that balance. Now that we've identified what the problem is, let's talk about what we're going to do about it.

[00:07:16]>> The first thing we're going to do is name it. We are going to admit that something is going on. Do a little mental inventory and say, you know what?

[00:07:24]Yeah. Ask yourself, am I numb? Am I irritable? Am I more exhausted than normal? This could be the problem. So, the first thing to do is to acknowledge it. So number two is limit information flow. Too many people are spending too much time >> doom scrolling. We've got to find a way to still understand what's going on in the world without overdoing that. So maybe limit yourself to 15 to 30 minutes a day or if you ever feel yourself getting anxious about it, you're like, "Ah, off because I know that that's too much for me." Choose quality, right? We don't want to avoid this. there. There's wisdom in knowing what's going on, but we want to make sure the information that we're getting is quality. Wherever you can find that nowadays, that's a bit tricky. But 15 to 30 minutes max a day.

[00:08:13]Now, let's talk about number three, and that is take care of your body because it's so important. This is what's going to be able to make you find joy in life or really cause you issues. So, what we want to do is make sure we're getting sleep. We want to move. We want to somehow exercise, take walks, and do whatever you need to do to make sure that you are moving your body. For me, it's outside. I love to go outside. I feel so much better when I have time outside. And we need to eat well. We need to take time to prepare foods that are healthy for us and make good choices. Daily walks are shown to reduce stress hormones. So just taking that time out in nature can help you feel free and full of life and bring joy back into your life. Number four is probably the most powerful for me and that is to lean on your faith. Your relationship with God can make all the difference and so I have to take time and nurture that relationship. So my spiritual practices include prayer, studying my scriptures, being grateful as I focus on gratitude.

[00:09:22]It changes the way that I perceive the world from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance. I am just so grateful for everything that I have.

[00:09:34]That does change my mindset. So when the world is chaotic, focus on gratitude and build your relationship with God. it will make all the difference.

[00:09:44]>> Number five is stay connected. And we talked about how sometimes we want to avoid people. Well, that just makes things worse. It is so important that we reach out. And we talk a lot about community. Reach out to your community.

[00:09:58]Build your community. And all of these things help. When you're out trying to help someone else, you tend to forget about, you know, the things that are troubling you. So, you know, make sure that you resist that urge to isolate yourself and instead reach out to your family and friends. Together, we're stronger as a community.

[00:10:17]>> And I think one of the other things that's really important about that, like so, John and I like to get together sometimes with a group of prepper friends. And yes, we do talk about all of the crazy things that are going on.

[00:10:28]But one of the things that it also does is it helps to ground us. Because as you say things out loud and you're talking to other people about it, sometimes you're like, "Whoa, I am way overboard.

[00:10:40]My mind has really messed with me and I am much more worried about something than I need to be." So, you know, just being able to have those relationships and talking with others, it's very soothing. So, I completely agree. Stay connected. Number six is something that they have found to be incredibly helpful and that is schedule and routine. And we found this during co part of the problem was when you weren't going to school anymore then you were sleeping in and you didn't have this regular schedule and it really contributed to not having a hold on life right not feeling security. So to the best extent that you can, make sure that you have a schedule and that you stick to that schedule and maintain that source of control in this very unpredictable world. And make sure that as you schedule things, you schedule in times for fun >> and fill your life with joy.

[00:11:33]>> Yeah.

[00:11:34]>> And not working on that.

[00:11:35]>> And not always work. That is one of our biggest problems. Both of us, we tend to be workaholics. there is a lot to be done and sometimes we don't even like well what would we do for fun what's fun what is that again but you know we'll have the kids over and we'll play games and suddenly it's a lot of fun right we're laughing and we're joking and it changes the way that we feel so schedule and routine very important schedule in that fun John >> I'm working on it >> the fun John >> yes number seven do a mental inventory and just like we do rotation in our food storage. We need to do a regular checkup on how we're doing, what's draining us, what's filling us up. Awareness is the reset button. And again, it's part of that diagnosis is, you know, taking a few minutes to stop and say, okay, what is going on and how is it affecting me and how do I fix it? Because we can make little small corrections very easily unless we get too far down the road and then then it's much harder. So just doing a me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me mental inventory on a regular basis is very therapeutic and it helps us understand things that we can change.

[00:12:47]I had to do a very serious one in my life recently when we've had all these challenges because suddenly I couldn't do anything anymore. And I found that I was running faster than I had strength.

[00:13:00]And while my life is filled with all kinds of good things, I had to cut out some things. And that was a really tough decision, what things I needed to cut out. and they may not be cut out permanently, but I had to put some things on hold because in my mental inventory, I didn't have enough downtime for me to heal and for me to be okay. I think that's really important.

[00:13:23]>> Yeah. Number eight is celebrate the small wins. Now, sometimes we think we have to move at this really fast pace.

[00:13:32]Well, we've talked a lot about small steady steps and taking those small steady steps is just amazing to me. I' I've loved to watch people make progress, including myself, by taking these small steady steps. They seem small, but over time, they make just an amazing difference. And so, celebrate all those little small steady steps that you're taking. Uh, and even if you're not moving ahead as fast as you would like to, just be grateful that you are moving ahead. Yeah. Number nine is really important. It is to reach out and get help if you need to. If you are having constant anxiety, you're dealing with depression or any of these things, it is really important to get help because we are here to have joy and we need to be able to focus on hope and and light. And yet sometimes when we're in this state, we can't. And in my recent challenge, I noticed that I didn't have the energy to hum anymore. A lot of times I'm humming all day long. Like it's just part of who I am. And suddenly when I realized when I found myself humming a song, I thought, I'm getting better. I'm getting better. I can feel joy. And and I would tell John, you know, John, I I felt joy today. I It was just for a moment, but I I could feel it again. So really, it is so important to get help if you need it. And it is not admitting defeat. It is admitting courage and strength.

[00:15:02]>> Okay, let's get right down to the bottom line here. Crisis exhaustion is real.

[00:15:07]And it can happen to any of us and it's happened to us at times. I think it probably happens to all of us at times.

[00:15:14]One of the most important things we need to remember here is if we are suffering from crisis exhaustion, we are not moving towards the right goals because we won't be able to make good decisions.

[00:15:26]We won't have the courage and the strength to stand up to whatever comes our way and deal with it in a positive optimistic way. So this is a very real topic and I'm glad that Tim brought this up with us.

[00:15:40]>> Thanks Tim. we can manage it, but we just have to understand some of the ways that we can do that. And first, we have to acknowledge that maybe that's what we're dealing with.

[00:15:49]>> So, for the question of the day, I would love to know, are you struggling with crisis exhaustion? What are you doing about it? How can we help each other and lift each other? Because as a community, we have got to be strong. We have challenges. That's just the reality of our lives. Yeah, but we can deal with it and we can have faith and hope and optimism and handle the challenges that are ahead together. So, please put in the comments, teach us, are there other things that we could be doing so that since this is a problem we deal with, we can make sure that we're dealing with it well. We love you guys. Like, we love you so much. Take care of each other and thanks for being part of the solution.

[00:16:48]You