ADHD glossary · Family perspectives
Overwhelm: let the person explain what feels too much
In their workplace study, Dael, Meister, and Krings use overwhelm for an emotional state at the point where a person perceives demands as exceeding the resources available to them. [1]
General education and practical perspectives. Editorial standards.
This is one research team's contextual use, not a universal checklist. In everyday conversation on this page, “overwhelmed” belongs first to the person reporting it. The word is an invitation to hear what feels too much, not a conclusion about their ability.
Four requests, with no shared order
In this fictional example, Jo is coordinating a neighborhood book exchange. One message asks for a location decision, another asks for poster wording, and two volunteers ask what they should bring. Jo says, “I'm overwhelmed by all of this.”
A friend counts the messages and responds, “But there are only four.” Jo explains that the problem is not simply the number: each sender seems to be waiting for a different answer before proceeding, and Jo does not know which decisions belong to her.
Counting messages has answered one question. It has not answered what Jo meant. Her explanation concerns responsibility and simultaneous expectations. The scene does not establish a threshold at which four messages, or any other number, becomes overwhelming.
A request can be smaller than the whole explanation
Jo might send the organizer this optional message:
“I have several questions awaiting decisions. Which decisions are mine, and which should go to you? I have not promised answers to the volunteers yet.”
This is a coordination message, not a method for treating overwhelm. It does not require Jo to explain private feelings to every volunteer. She could describe the practical uncertainty without using the word at all.
If someone offers to help, a useful follow-up is to name the proposed task: “I could check the room availability; would you like that?” Jo remains free to decline or ask for something else. An offer is not an automatic transfer of authority.
Do not translate the word into a measurement
The cognitive-load page discusses a different, source-defined concept. We would not infer a cognitive-load value from Jo's message. Likewise, the stress page concerns context-specific vocabulary, not a scale into which her experience can be placed.
The cited paper draws on adults' accounts of workplace experiences. [1] This article does not extend that research to children, establish a diagnosis, or adopt the paper's proposed interventions. Its narrow contribution here is an attributed definition centered on perceived demands and resources.
Listen for the missing part of the account
A partner might want to know whether “too much” refers to the amount of work, the timing, or uncertainty about ownership. A student might want an educator to distinguish required assignments from optional opportunities. These are possible topics to ask about, not explanations supplied in advance.
For Jo, the missing piece was who could decide. For another fictional scene it could be something else entirely. Leave “I can't put it into words yet” available. This page does not make a complete explanation the price of being heard, and it does not promise that clarifying the task will change how someone feels.
Source
[1] Nele Dael; Alyson Meister; Franciska Krings. Reaching point break: understanding the lived experience of being overwhelmed. Frontiers in Organizational Psychology. 2025;3:1590159. Published September 29, 2025. DOI: 10.3389/forgp.2025.1590159. Accessed September 6, 2026. Introduction, particularly the authors' statement of usage; Methods participants and data collection; Future directions and limitations. Supports [1] and [1] only; fictional illustrations and optional wording are not source procedures or evidence of benefit.
Related guides
Sources and what they support
These sources support the specific statements identified below. Our practical exercises are suggestions to consider, not evidence of a treatment effect.
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Reaching point break: understanding the lived experience of being overwhelmed — Frontiers in Organizational Psychology
Source type: primary study.
Published . Accessed .
Source check, September 6, 2026: Scoped source check. Passage: Introduction, particularly the authors' statement of usage; Methods participants and data collection; Future directions and limitations. Limits: Only the authors' contextual usage is adopted, not all proposed features of their model. Retrospective narratives from 94 working adults, mainly salaried employees in an English-speaking context; self-report and no independently verified demand-resource balance. No causal findings, prevalence, child generalization, diagnostic threshold or intervention recommendation adopted.
DOI: 10.3389/forgp.2025.1590159.
Supports: In their workplace study, Dael, Meister, and Krings use overwhelm for an emotional state at the point where a person perceives demands as exceeding the resources available to them. The cited paper draws on adults' accounts of workplace experiences.
Correction check: No correction text was found by a find check of the accessible article. The footer has a Crossmark update widget, but its live status was not independently resolved. No publisher-API, Crossref or exhaustive correction/retraction audit performed; this is not a clean-status certification. A DOI-specific web search restricted to the publisher and PubMed surfaced original article records and no identified correction or retraction; search coverage is bounded, not exhaustive.
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