By Alena Gerst, LCSW | Founder, Director, Psychotherapist
It’s Tuesday afternoon.
You look at the clock and see that it’s time to do that thing. Sometimes you can’t believe you have to make this decision again. Every day, day after day, you have to decide what to eat for dinner. After a full day of scheduling, meeting, talking, planning, deciding.
Life is full of decisions—from small, everyday choices like what to eat to larger, more complex ones like choosing a career path, parenting, or navigating a significant relationship. While decision-making is an essential part of life, it can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially for you’re dealing with anxiety.
Decision fatigue, a state of mental exhaustion that occurs after a long session of decision-making, is a common experience for many. If you have anxiety, this fatigue can be particularly pronounced, leaving you feeling paralyzed, drained, and unsure about your choices. Fortunately, therapy tailored to anxiety can offer transformative tools to address and alleviate decision-making fatigue.
Understanding Decision-Making Fatigue and Its Connection to Anxiety
Decision-making fatigue occurs when the mental energy required to make choices becomes depleted. Think of your brain as a battery that drains a little each time you weigh options, evaluate outcomes, or deliberate over what to do next.
When the battery runs low, the ability to make sound decisions diminishes, leading to poor judgment, impulsive choices, or complete avoidance of decision-making altogether, which believe it or not, is also a choice!
Add anxiety into the mix, and this cycle can become even more challenging. Anxiety often magnifies the fear of making the “wrong” choice, creating a heightened sense of pressure and doubt. Over time, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, where the sheer volume of considerations leaves a person feeling stuck and unable to move forward.
Everyday decisions—like picking an outfit or deciding what to say in an email—can become monumental tasks. Left unaddressed, decision fatigue can erode self-confidence and contribute to feelings of frustration, hopelessness, or even burnout.
How Therapy Can Help
Anxiety therapy provides a supportive environment where individuals can learn to understand their decision-making patterns, identify triggers, and develop practical strategies to cope with decision fatigue. Below are some of the ways therapy can be particularly beneficial:
- Building Awareness and Understanding Patterns
Therapy often begins with creating awareness of how anxiety impacts decision-making. A therapist can help you identify thought patterns that contribute to decision fatigue, such as perfectionism, fear of failure, or a tendency to overthink and ruminate. By understanding these patterns, you can start to recognize when they arise and begin to challenge them. - Practicing Mindfulness and Grounding Techniques
Mindfulness practices can be a game-changer for those grappling with anxiety. Techniques such as deep breathing, body scans, or mindful observation help to quiet the mental chatter that often accompanies decision-making. When you’re in a calmer, more centered state, you’re better equipped to evaluate choices without becoming overwhelmed by them. - Learning to Prioritize and Simplify Choices
Therapists can work with you to develop strategies for prioritizing decisions. This might include breaking larger choices into smaller, manageable steps or categorizing decisions based on their urgency and importance. Simplifying choices can significantly reduce the mental load and provide clarity.
For instance, instead of trying to tackle every decision in one sitting, therapy might encourage you to focus on one priority at a time, so you don’t feel like you’re taking on too much. This step-by-step approach not only reduces overwhelm but also reinforces a sense of accomplishment. - Challenging Cognitive Distortions
Anxiety often feeds off cognitive distortions—unhelpful thought patterns like catastrophizing (“If I make the wrong choice, everything will fall apart”) or black-and-white thinking (“This decision is either completely right or completely wrong”). In therapy, you can learn to identify and reframe these distortions, replacing them with more balanced and realistic perspectives. - Building Self-Compassion
Decision-making fatigue can sometimes stem from an internalized pressure to always make the “best” choice, or fear of making the wrong one. Therapy emphasizes the importance of self-compassion—reminding you that it’s okay to make mistakes or change your mind. By releasing the need for perfection, you can approach decisions with greater ease and confidence. - Developing Coping Mechanisms for Anxiety
Underlying anxiety often exacerbates decision fatigue. Therapy equips you with tools to manage anxiety directly, whether through cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, or relaxation techniques. As anxiety decreases, the mental clarity needed for decision-making naturally improves.
Real-Life Benefits of Therapy for Decision Fatigue
Engaging in therapy doesn’t just help with managing anxiety—it fosters a ripple effect of positive changes in decision-making and overall well-being. Here are some tangible benefits you might experience:
- Improved Confidence: Therapy helps you trust your ability to make decisions, reducing the second-guessing and self-doubt that anxiety often fuels.
- Increased Efficiency: With tools to prioritize and streamline choices, you’ll find it easier to move through daily decisions without feeling bogged down.
- Enhanced Emotional Resilience: Therapy provides a safe space to process emotions, equipping you to handle the ups and downs of life’s choices with greater steadiness.
- More Energy for What Matters: By conserving mental energy and reducing decision fatigue, you’ll have more capacity to focus on meaningful activities and relationships.
Seeking Help: A Courageous First Step
If you find yourself stuck in the cycle of decision-making fatigue and anxiety, know that you’re not alone. Reaching out for help is a courageous and empowering step. Therapists are trained to meet you where you are, offering compassionate guidance and evidence-based strategies tailored to your unique needs.
If it helps, you can keep in mind that we are people too! So if you feel a connection with a therapist, even if we don’t share much about our own experiences, you may sense that we “get it.”
Therapy is not about telling you what to do or making decisions for you. Some people find that frustrating at first. But therapy for anxiety is really about equipping yourself with the tools to navigate your choices with confidence, clarity, and calm. Over time, you’ll find that the weight of decision-making begins to lift, allowing you to approach life with a renewed sense of purpose and ease.
Remember, every decision—no matter how small—is an opportunity to grow, learn, and move forward. Even when it’s just deciding what’s for dinner. With the support of therapy, you can transform decision-making from a source of stress into an empowering part of your journey.
