Everyone has a breaking point and in most cases it's not just a single thing that's going to push us past it. More often than not it's a culmination of things or events that lead us to finally snap. That's how life is, it's not just one thing, but a series of things, the weight of which may eventually become overwhelming. It's the straw that people tend to focus on though. How many times have you found yourself losing your temper over something seemingly benign? You suddenly snap at someone who said something you didn't like or you see red when someone cuts you off while driving. The individual incident itself may have been frustrating, but all the events leading up to it contributed to the final melt down. Visualize all your stress as weights being added to your shoulders. Eventually you'll get to a point where you just can't hold it up any longer.
Frith told El-Ahrairah "All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and when they catch you, they will kill you... but first they must catch you." Some days it feels like the whole world is working against you. The frustration of feeling that way may be too much for us. Suddenly losing control of your emotions isn't fun, but what's worse is when you know it's coming and feel almost powerless to stop it. It's almost like watching an avalanche from the top. I guess an important question would be how do we know when it's all becoming too much before it actually overtakes us? It would come down to understanding what is it in your life that's working against you or even the things that contribute to your stress. Granted just about everything in life causes some kind of stress, either good or bad. There must be something that can be done to counter it at the time rather than letting it build up. I suppose that is something easier said than done though.
Some of the problem could originate within ourselves. We can have a tendency to overextend ourselves or underestimate the impact of certain things will have on our lives. Young children can be easily overwhelmed just by going too long without rest. If you've ever spent time around small children you'll know what I mean when it's around bed time or when they've been sick. Everything may seem fine to them and then it's like a switch was flipped and they completely lose it. Now sometimes it's just that one particular thing that sets them off, but in a lot of cases it's multiple things. They're overly tired or had just too much excitement that their tiny little brains essentially give out for a moment. For children they're just not mature enough to know how to identify that the situation is quickly moving out of control, much less understand how to cope with it. Instead they flip out and go straight into emotional reaction. Unfortunately as adults we may revert to this type of behavior from time to time. And in some cases people never learned how to appropriately deal with an accumulation of stress.
It makes me wonder if it's physiological thing, at least partially. There needs to be a certain level of emotional maturity there as well, but I wonder if some people are experiencing a physical reaction to stress. You know how some people carry their stress in their shoulders. That's just the part of the body that's taken to absorbing the stress the person feels. I think everyone has an area of the body that does that for them. For some it's their back. For others it's their stomach. Whatever it may be, the body is experiencing physical alterations to non-physical stimulus. Even if we're not conscious of it, our mind is registering that added stress in some way. Eventually the mind and body need to shed some of that stress, almost like venting heat from a reactor. It's when we go too long that things start to get really ugly for us. So maybe we should stop looking at the straw that broke our back and instead look at all the weight that was slowly being added before. It might save us a little bit of pain.
