What are your strategies to avoid burnout?
Monday, 07 October 2024
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Do you have a strategy to make sure you avoid burnout?
It's WA Mental Health Week
ECU has a series of tips sheets to help people develop their own mental health plan, as well as an expert counselling team you can make an appointment with. One area people seek support for is burnout.
Burnout is a condition that can evolve slowly over a period of prolonged and gradual stress. When it begins to occur, a cycle can be detected. If you’re on the road to burnout you’ll often start to feel exhausted.
This might be due to excessive demands that are self-imposed or external ones, like family, jobs, study, friends, value systems or society. The period heading into exams is a time when some of us might find we're struggling to stay on top of everything.
Who is more likely to experience burnout?
People who are in nurturing roles, caring for others in their family/work, or who are isolated and feel a need to fill their lives with others to feel accepted and valued, can be at particular risk for burnout. People who are perfectionists or who are struggling with issues of their own identity may also be at high risk.
What are the signs?
Burnout doesn’t just happen overnight – it is a cumulative process with small warning signals along the way, which, if left unattended, may develop into a more serious psychological concern.
Signs of burnout can include:
1. An intense compulsion to prove (strive for control)
2. Withdrawal from others, observable behaviour changes
3. Depersonalisation, emptiness, depression
4. Exhaustion
5.Denial - estrangement from own feelings
6. Stress, anger, frustration, irritability, neglected needs, moodiness
7. Guilt and low self-esteem
8. Interpersonal problems
9. Health problems – colds, flu, sleep problems, headaches
10.Possible substance abuse in attempts to self medicate the increasing anxiety and depression
11. Declining study or work performance
12. Feelings of meaningless
How do you beat it?
Coping successfully with stress is the key to avoiding burnout.
The most common functional methods include:
1. Being realistic - developing a realistic picture of yourself and setting realistic goals
2. Knowing what you’re feeling and why
3. Recognising your individual symptoms of stress and burnout
4. Asking for help when it’s needed
5.Developing a structural and personal support system, e.g. a supportive routine and friends you can go to when needed
6. Maintaining an active personal/ social life outside of study
7. Taking ‘time-outs’ when you need them
8. Maintaining a regimen of proper nutrition and physical exercise
9. Developing self-therapies, such as meditation or relaxation methods to regularly discharge stress and anxiety
10.Learning to say “no” to additional demands on your time and emotions
11. Reassessing your values and pacing yourself
Download the tip sheet on avoiding burnout and checkout others in the series. You can also make an appointment to chat to a member of the counselling team.