Available on YouTube: here
Duration: 9 minutes
Language: English (easy to understand for intermediate speakers; I recommend watching with subtitles)
Why I Recommend This Video
This short and insightful video by American therapist Emma McAdam explores a four-phase cycle many of us get stuck in:
Anxiety → Overactivity → Exhaustion → Depression → New Motivation → Repetition.
Emma explains the entire pattern clearly and compassionately, while offering practical advice on how to respond differently in each phase to break the cycle.
Why Chronically Overloaded People Should Watch This
The video fits perfectly into the concept of chronic overload that I describe: external acceleration, internal rigidity, loss of rhythm, and eventual exhaustion.
It illustrates the typical scenario where a person keeps doing things but feels emotionally numb — or more accurately, overwhelmed by tension they can’t tolerate and try to drown out with more activity.
This attempt to “do more so the feeling goes away” only deepens disconnection from the body, emotions, and natural rhythm. The quiet phase of overload might look like productivity, but it’s often an escape from losing one’s sense of self.
Emma captures this dynamic with precision and warmth, while offering a powerful invitation: to finally see the cycle, accept it, and gently begin to interrupt it.
Key Takeaways for the Overloaded
The video identifies the internal mechanisms behind overload:
- The urge to “handle everything”
- A need for control
- Subsequent fatigue and self-criticism
- And the recurring resolve to “do better,” which paradoxically restarts the whole loop.
It helps you understand that hyperactivity isn’t a solution to anxiety, it’s a disguise, and that our relentless productivity often stems from inner restlessness, not real energy.
Emma also shares simple tools to break the cycle: grounding, scheduled rest, self-compassion instead of guilt, and embracing a slower pace instead of sprinting through life.
Chronically overloaded people often rely solely on willpower, which, according to Emma, is a direct path to burnout.
The 4 Phases of the Cycle & Emma’s Advice
- Phase 1 – Anxiety: You feel uneasy, worried, and pressured, and want to do something — anything to suppress the feeling.
- Phase 2 – Acceleration: You try to gain control, adding tasks, activities, and responsibilities to make the anxiety disappear.
- Phase 3 – Exhaustion: Your body crashes, motivation fades, and you feel tired, aimless, and possibly depressed.
- Phase 4 – Reset of Illusions: After some rest, new energy returns — but so does the old belief: “This time I’ll do it better.” And the cycle repeats.
Emma’s Tips for Each Phase
- Pause, ground yourself, and pay attention to your breath.
- Don’t push your body in a desperate attempt to gain control.
- Schedule rest before collapse forces it.
- Observe your personal cycle, take notes, and learn your natural rhythm.