21 Mar How To Manage Burnout And Balance Your Life- Counseling for Work related Stress in Chicago and New Orleans
In one average day, we make meals, pay bills, clean our homes, go to work, spend time with family or friends, and theoretically find time to relax. And that’s not an abnormally busy day for most people. At work, we’re expected to accomplish as much as physically possible in an 8-hour stretch, no matter how we’re feeling. And if we don’t keep on top of all of this, we consider ourselves failures or under-achievers.
This is the environment that is making people experience burnout faster than ever before. Burnout is the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion brought on by prolonged stress. It occurs when we try to do too much and deplete our reserves.
What Causes Burnout?
You can experience burnout from a job that’s too stressful, from caring for loved ones without getting a break, or just from keeping a schedule that doesn’t allow you to take time to care for yourself. If you are working too many hours with too many demands on your time, or if you don’t get along with your coworkers, this can make work feel draining and discouraging. If your responsibilities at home have increased due to caring for children, aging parents, or other changes to your home environment you will have these feelings too. And problems both at work and home are compounded when you don’t have proper resources or a steady support system. All these factors are hard enough to handle, but if you are handling them alone you will feel the stress even more keenly. It doesn’t take long for a small list of stressors to become so large that you can no longer cope.
What Are The Signs Of Burnout?
The symptoms of burnout don’t show up all at once. As your stress grows and your energy drains, they get stronger and have a greater impact on your life. It is important to know the signs so you can catch them early and start making changes to help yourself. Burnout takes a tole on your physical and mental health, and you should take it seriously if you notice it showing up in your life. It is something you can treat, but you must allow yourself to acknowledge it.
Some signs to watch out for include:
- Increased anxiety
- Low moods/depression
- Pessimism
- Detachment and isolation from the people around you
- Insomnia or other sleep disturbances
- physical aches
- Loss of productivity
The Beliefs That Contribute To Burnout
Burnout isn’t just caused by external stressors; it’s brought on by mental conditions too. Many of our beliefs about productivity and our personal value contribute. We may believe that we are only valuable if we are productive, so getting tired is not an option. We also think that our personal morality, whether we’re good people, is tied to our jobs or our commitments, rather than who we are as people. This gets worse when we think our bosses or coworkers only like us for what we can do and not who we are. This encourages us to work harder and harder, until we are giving everything to our jobs, and we have nothing left to sustain us. This is a common source of burnout in ‘hustle culture’, where you see people working 80+ hours a week at 2-3 different jobs because they’re always striving for the next level of success.
Many of us also believe that we are in charge of our own emotions. Reaching out for help is just for weak people and complainers. But rejecting the support of family, friends, or professionals significantly increases our chances of experiencing burnout. We’re all coping with a lot, and we should be able to share that with other people. Learning how to reach out for help is strong and proactive. But we assume we should be able to handle things alone.
What Can You Do About Burnout?
There are a few ways to deal with burnout, and the earlier you start the easier it will be to take care of yourself. It becomes more difficult to be proactive when you’ve drained all your energy.
Take time off work: Burnout can actually make you less productive, and it’s not a problem you can just work through and hope it’ll go away. Rather than pushing yourself further into the ground, take a vacation day or two and just let yourself rest. In the end, it’ll probably help you get more done (though this shouldn’t necessarily be the main goal).
Try Mindfulness and meditation: However, you choose to do it, find some way to clear your mind and ground yourself. This might mean yoga, or breathwork, or going for a long walk by yourself in nature. Let your mind rest by giving it quiet and peace.
Prioritize Your Interests: It’s easy to let our hobbies drop when we’re busy and stressed. But taking time for these things is important. If life becomes all about working, we will fade quickly. Even if you don’t find a lot of time, consider things you like to do and try to work them into your schedule when you can. It’s okay to prioritize yourself.
Reach out for support: Isolation is another symptom of burnout, and one of the most defeating. We pull away from friends and family, and we don’t have the time or energy to talk to anyone about our problems. You have to make sure you let other people help you through your hard times, though. It’s not weak to let people support you. If you don’t have a dependable network, or if you want to get some active help outside of your family, you can also reach out to talk to a therapist.
At Issa Counseling, we specialize in helping people work through burnout. If you are located anywhere in Chicago, New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, River Ridge, or Covington, we can help you find your energy and your joy. We use EMDR, Brainspotting, and Internal Family Systems therapy, among others, to help you find the beliefs you have that contribute to your burnout and empower you to make the changes in your life that will let you find peace and fulfillment. We offer both in-person and Telehealth appointments, so you can choose whatever works best with your schedule and adds the least amount of stress into your day. Call us to schedule a consultation, and we will match you with a therapist who will help you rebuild a healthier life.
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