https://youtu.be/ZhqokZF5OFU?t=1m43s

All I can tell you, from my own stumbling around in life, is that sometimes being the caretaker can be a passive-aggressive way of being in control of relationships. Or sometimes it's a way of being too busy to deal with the truly awful stuff from long ago. Or sometimes it's a way to feel important when you secretly feel that you're not important at all.

And sometimes it's just overscheduled so dial it down, kick back and say NO for the next 10 requests for you to do or go or be something somewhere other than on your deck or sofa.

Hey, hey, dude, you're fine. You got this. Go do what you do.

There, I said it! I looked you in the face too.

I feel ya. I am a social worker as well. I assist families with intellectually disabled children access services, and I am responsible for ALL families in three counties. I've had this job for a couple months now, so I'm still learning, and I'm swamped! Apparently, it used to be that summer was a bit quieter. Not anymore! I have weeks like yours- it's either busy but doable, or I'm drowning in paperwork and on the phone non-stop. (And I HATE talking on the phone!) By the time 5:00 rolls around, I'm all peopled out. There's nothing left.

I feel good when a mother calls me crying, not knowing where to turn to get help for her two autistic sons, and I point her in the right direction and she says I made her day. I feel good when one of my co-workers needs a hand and I grab a couple files and process the applications. But, yeah, once in a while I'd like to not be the go-to, the one who's supposed to have all the answers, the one who is NEEDED every second of every day for someone else's crisis. Wrap me in a blanket, feed me chocolate, hand me a Stephen King novel, and tell me I'm pretty. My husband is the best at that, but I don't like bringing it home to him all the time. I'm awesome at putting on a smile and saying, "Yeah, I'm just fine and dandy!"

Mental health days, sister. Mental health days. Take a day and do your thing. Gotta crawl out of the trenches now and then. xoxo

Do you have trouble saying No when friends or family ask for your time? Checkout the book Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend. Although the book wasn't right up my alley, it did make some very good points about learning to say, No.

Sometimes you don't realize you're actually drowning when you're trying to be everyone else's anchor.

Overwhelm for me means I need to break it down into do-able chunks. I too have an incredible workload that sometimes intimidates me, but thankfully, mentors and bosses taught me over the years to A) let my manager know. Manager can assess if someone can help me and is much more supportive when I ask for help before anything blows up critical. prioritize & tackle the 1st most critical task. Yes, I am a multi-task queen but sometkmes it pays to make that To-do List, prioritize by ranking numerically, then knocking each item out in that order. This creates a nice roadmap that can help guide me and also documents how many projects I'm juggling. C) Eat healthy & get enough sleep. My brain & level of focus suffer if I'm not taking care of this body! Life is hard, and my job is technical (non-emotional) but I imagine that as a social worker, you might have all that business-stress plus some emotional exhaustion from your work. The people you help will benefit from your clarity and you will benefit the most from eating, sleeping, and doing any kind of regular physical activity tbst will keep your perceptions, emotions, and energy at a healthy level.