How to Understand Anxiety, Burnout & Your Window of Tolerance

Have you ever found yourself unable to concentrate, easily triggered, irritable or feeling numb and disconnected? These experiences could be understood as the result of being outside of your “Window of Tolerance”. Staying outside of your window can have a negative impact on your overall mental health overtime, which can lead to anxiety, burnout and feeling depressed.

Let’s dive in so you can learn what the Window of Tolerance is and explore the range of emotions that may be experienced while both inside and outside of it.

What is the “Window of Tolerance”?

The Window of Tolerance is a term used to describe the range of emotional and heightened states that you can tolerate while still being able to operate at your best. When you are operating within your window, you are able to make sense of information and respond appropriately to situations. It’s normal that throughout the day your levels of stress and emotional states will fluctuate, causing you to move in and out of your window.

For example, if you miss a deadline or face a difficult situation, your stress levels may increase, causing you to move out of our Window of Tolerance, potentially into a hyperarousal state (don’t worry, I’ll explain what this means after the next paragraph 😉).

If you struggle to get back into your window on a regular basis, and for extended periods of time, your window may gradually narrow. Which in turn can make it even more difficult to handle stress and more likely for you to experience burnout and anxiety. When you become hyperaroused, your brain becomes overloaded, making it difficult to handle information. When triggered, this can lead to feelings of overwhelm, rage, panic, anxiety and confusion, just to name a few.

When you are in hyperarousal states, you instinctively feel under attack and the need to fight, flight or freeze so you can survive. In these situations, the area of the brain responsible for planning and decision-making (the prefrontal cortex) shuts down, allowing you to react faster. However, this can make it challenging to make sense of things. This brings me back to my school days when I would spend weeks studying for exams. But then when I sat down to write them, I would notice my heart begin to race, my muscles tighten, and my stomach begin to get upset. All of this would be followed by the devastating understanding that every last drop of the information that I thought I understood, had suddenly been erased from my mind (snaps fingers), just like that 🤯!!!

As a result of studying intensely for multiple exams, without enough breaks or self-care, and feeling extremely hyperaroused while writing them, I would be left experiencing a deep burnout. This would lead to me withdrawing and shutting down in order to recharge.

Another experience of being outside of your window is the state of hypoarousal, which for some is a sense of burnout. In this state, you typically find yourself unable to handle information and may feel numbness, boredom, withdrawal, and a lack of motivation. Like in the state of hyperarousal, your prefrontal cortex also shuts down. For some, this state of hypoarousal can also be a bridge into zoning out or dissociation. Similarly to hyperarousal states, when faced with threats, instead of becoming overwhelmed and anxious you can instead end up shutting down, collapsing or zoning out.

If you keep running for a long period of time and pass your personal limits without rest, you will eventually collapse because you have nothing left in you. This is the same way you can experience anxiety and being in hyperarousal for too long. You can just collapse and go into an energy saving state, commonly known as burnout, which can be understood as a hypoarousal state. Just like with my exam experiences.

In both cases, when you notice yourself outside of your window it’s essential to get back into it. This can feel challenging! Ideally, it’s most helpful when you learn to notice that you are creeping outside of your window and use strategies to move yourself back into it.

What does hyperarousal feel like?

This is your flight, fight, or freeze response.

• Rapid or pounding heartbeat
• Muscle tension
• Urgent need to use the restroom
• Sweating
• Quick, shallow breathing
• On edge or irritability
• Anxiety or panic attacks
• Being paralyzed in fear

What does hypoarousal feel like?

This can be understood as a shutdown response.

• Slowed breathing
• Heart rate slows
• Relaxed muscles
• Feelings of numbness
• A lack of motivation
• Feelings of withdrawal
• Zoning out
• Feelings of shame
• Feeling a sense of helplessness
• Fainting/Collapsing like a possum

In our next blog, we’ll walk through how you can get back into our window plus give you some helpful tips that can help manage burnout and anxiety. In a future blog we’ll also explore the fawn response for those of you who are familiar with it.

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Works Referenced

Fisher, J. (2017). Healing the fragmental selves of trauma survivors: Overcoming internal

self-alienation Routledge.

Heller, L., & LaPierre, A. (2012). Healing developmental trauma: How early trauma affects self-regulation, self-image and the capacity for relationship North Atlantic Books.

Howell, E. (2020). Trauma and dissociation informed psychotherapy W.W Norton & Company, Inc.,.

Levine, P. A., & Maté, G. (2010). In an unspoken voice : How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.

Payne, P., Levine, P. A., & Crane-Godreau, M. (2015). Somatic experiencing: Using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy. Frontiers in Psychology; Front Psychol, 6, 93. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093

Wright, A. (2022). What is the window of tolerance, and why is it so important?https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/making-the-whole-beautiful/202205/what-is-the-window-tolerance-and-why-is-it-so-important