Overwhelm: listener question

Hi Clare. 

I’m just re-listening to the Voice course I did with you a while ago. In it (on day 10) you mention about how our barriers go up and we literally can’t take in the information because we’re so busy trying to protect the I, the me. Is that what overwhelm is? 

I’ve noticed a lot recently when someone asks for advice or help or says something that threatens to take me out of my ‘hiding place’ of self protection that my system is doing its absolute best to stay in, I feel immediate overwhelm as if the mind is creating the overwhelm almost as a way to avoid doing the thing, to protect itself because it feels ‘too much’. 

Or perhaps it is a case of genuine fatigue, sensory overload and unmet needs, due to the system trying so incredibly hard to survive, because that really is how it feels. I can see there is a risk here of bypassing. 

Any insight around this would be great.