When You Can’t Shut Your Brain Off: Understanding Emotional Overwhelm in BIPOC Women

Anxious & Overwhelmed
Written By Lorrie Bertrand

You’re not overreacting. You’re overloaded—and it makes sense.

You lie awake at night replaying conversations, planning for every possible outcome, trying to figure out how to make everyone okay.

You’re emotionally aware, high-functioning, deeply caring—and exhausted.

You don’t need to “calm down.” You need to be understood.

What Emotional Overwhelm Really Feels Like

For many BIPOC women, emotional overwhelm isn’t just about having too many things to do. It’s the mental, emotional, and relational weight of:

  • Managing others’ expectations

  • Navigating microaggressions with grace

  • Holding space for your family while carrying your own pain

  • Performing strength while hiding your sensitivity

  • Constantly scanning for “what’s next” to stay safe or in control

It’s not that you can’t handle life. It’s that you’ve been asked to hold too much for too long, without enough space to rest or be held yourself.

Why Your Brain Won’t Turn Off

Your brain is trying to protect you.

If you were raised in emotionally unpredictable environments or had to grow up fast, your nervous system learned to stay alert—even when you’re “off the clock.”

That chronic alertness shows up as:

  • Overthinking every decision

  • Difficulty relaxing without guilt

  • Anxiety about what you might have missed

  • A mind that races, even when your body is tired

  • Fear of slowing down because something might fall apart

This is your body saying, “I’ve had to stay ready—because no one else had me.”

The BIPOC Experience of Emotional Overload

Mainstream self-care advice often misses the mark.

For BIPOC women, emotional overwhelm is layered with cultural silence, family expectations, racial fatigue, and internalized pressure to “do it all” with a smile.

You weren’t given many safe spaces to fall apart. So you hold it in. Until your body forces you to listen—with tension, insomnia, fatigue, or shutdown.

You don’t need more discipline. You need restorative care that meets the depth of what you carry.

How EMDR and Brainspotting Can Help

These trauma-informed therapies work by gently processing the emotional backlog your nervous system has been holding.

Together, we:

  • Identify where your alertness and overthinking began

  • Help your brain release unprocessed stress and fear

  • Rewire the belief that rest is dangerous or undeserved

  • Build nervous system safety—so your brain can slow down

You don’t have to “talk it out” endlessly. We go to the root and start clearing space.

What Healing Looks Like

  • Falling asleep without a war in your mind

  • Feeling present—not just prepared

  • Trusting that it’s safe to take a break

  • Holding emotional space for yourself first

  • Reclaiming peace as your baseline—not just a brief escape

You are not “too emotional.” You are overdue for support.

Ready to Quiet the Noise and Reclaim Your Calm?

I work with emotionally aware women of color who are ready to stop overthinking and start healing. Let’s help your nervous system finally exhale.

Start your healing journey here
Learn more about EMDR and Brainspotting for emotional overload

You were never meant to hold it all alone. Let’s begin to let it go.

Lorrie Bertrand