Feeling Irrationally Upset Over Little Things? Here's What You Should Do.

As the adage goes, “don’t sweat the small stuff.” But that might be easier said than done for many of us.

“It’s not uncommon to become upset over small things sometimes,” Nicole Raines, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told HuffPost. “Especially after the collective past few years that we have lived through, the uncertainty and grief experiences may have you feeling a little more on edge than you may have felt before.”

We all have our moments of frustration and emotional outbursts, but pay attention to the frequency of these incidents. You might start to feel like you have a short fuse all the time.

“If someone finds themselves repeatedly becoming upset over seemingly small events, it can be an indicator of underlying stress,” said licensed marriage and family therapist Becky Stuempfig. “Everyone has ‘off’ days at times where even the smallest of problems seem to bring irritation, but if there’s a pattern of big reactions to relatively minor events, it can be a red flag that something deeper is causing this irritability.”

She pointed to a wide array of issues that might be behind your low emotional tolerance ― relationship struggles, financial instability, food insecurity, past unprocessed trauma, grief, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, sleep issues, isolation, undiagnosed mental health conditions and more.

“The key element is that there is a need that has not been properly met that is manifesting as irritability,” Stuempfig said.

So what should you do to deal with this situation? Raines, Stuempfig and other experts shared their advice for those who find themselves getting upset about little things more often than feels healthy.

Track your responses.

“Be curious about what you are experiencing,”