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BurnoutThere is a rule: if within 72 hours, after receiving new information, a person has not taken any action to use the knowledge gained, then time, money and energy - all that was invested in learning, can be considered lost. Almost all creative people have encountered such a topic as “burnout.” The topic is now quite hackneyed, but this does not make it any less relevant, and let’s choose another analogue for this sore word. This includes a lack of inspiration, a lack of new ideas, and people stop liking their work. What are the most key factors (stages) of people’s burnout and ways to solve them. STAGES OF EMOTIONAL BURNOUT Let’s dive into the past. In 1974, Freudenberger, a New York psychiatrist, first published an article about volunteers who worked in social work on behalf of a local church. In this article he described their situation. These people had symptoms similar to depression. In their anamnesis he always found the same thing: at first these people were absolutely delighted with their activities. Then this delight gradually began to decrease. And ultimately they burned down to the state of a “handful of ashes.” All of them had similar symptoms: emotional exhaustion, constant fatigue. Just the thought of going to work tomorrow made them feel tired. They had various bodily complaints and were often sick. This was one of the groups of symptoms. I assume that many of us experienced this condition, if we compare it with the one described above. SO THE STAGES: 1). It is in the first stage that delight in one’s activities appears, yes, yes, this is exactly stage number one. Although there is no burnout itself yet, at this stage, such behavior of the individual triggers the burnout process. At this stage, a person has a lot of energy. He is full of ideas for his work, he is ready to move mountains, works hard and loves what he does! He sets goals, a bunch of tasks and is ready to achieve results. He sees nothing but work, completely concentrating on it. This is where an imbalance arises between life, which includes many aspects, from family to spiritual fulfillment, and work, which practically becomes the meaning of a person’s life at this stage. That is, in fact, a person does 100% for the area of ​​work and almost 0% for any other area (remember the balance wheel?!). / in the next article we will definitely touch on this topic / What happens at this stage: - an excess of energy directed at work - overtime work - a lot of energy is spent, but it is not replenished - the beginning of emotional exhaustion If you find yourself at this stage - congratulations , you have recovered in time. All you need at this stage is to stop idealizing work, urgently put all work aside, devote time to your family, relax properly and balance your time. If you find yourself in the following stages, then you need a serious list of activities to cure burnout, so read on. 2). The second stage is a feeling of irritation towards people and work, mild fatigue that does not end around the clock. You are constantly tired, but the engine still produces energy and you are, for now, productive. If at the first stage you were positive and active, then at the second stage your own child begins to irritate you, you become less able to concentrate on work, a certain misalignment occurs in your work and you start doing a little bit everywhere, but this does not bring as good a result as earlier. You become angry more and more often, snap at people: family and colleagues. You already feel tired when you work. The former fervor is no longer there, you don’t want results and achievements. 3).The third stage is difficult. You feel tired from the second you wake up. The first thought that arises in your head after waking up is: “Really again? Not this." Or in general, “It would be better to die, but not do the work.” In general, phrases like: leave the universe alone, I just want to lie down and lie. At this stage theself-esteem decreases because you work less, perform worse, there are no results or they are insignificant. You begin to consider yourself worthless, incapable of anything, stupid, impostor syndrome immediately appears, the voice in your head is the inner critic, who, whenever you make a mistake, speaks very loudly and you can no longer resist it. Emotions are expressed dryly or almost not manifested, in fact, you have forgotten how to feel. Looking at your child, you simply acknowledge the fact of his existence and that you love him, but you do not feel love. There are no tender feelings towards your spouse either, you don’t want to see friends and begin to think that everyone wants to use you or is betraying you, or you are simply different. Every person in your life is devalued by you. The person hardly smiles, and if he smiles, then this is only a habitual reaction of the body, nothing more. Here it would be appropriate to compare the state of burnout with a mask of duplicity: one thing on the face, another inside. Sexual relationships are reduced to nothing. This stage is very similar to depression. And yet, burnout is different from depression. It is at this stage that psychosomatics manifests itself. Your body gives you the strongest signals that something is wrong with you, but you stubbornly do not see it. 4). The most dangerous stage. Strange things can happen at this stage: from taking drugs/alcohol to at least somehow begin to feel, to split personality and suicide. This same stage is a direct bridge between burnout and depression. Here there is complete apathy - indifference to everything. Loss of self-identification - when a person does not understand who he is and what he is, where he is going in life, he no longer wants to set goals, not seeing the meaning in them. In fact, everything around loses meaning. A person does not know why he lives. It truly seems to him that everyone will cope without him, that the world will be better without him. Self-esteem is low. A person may quit because it seems to him that this activity is no longer suitable for him and he will never cope with it. This is where relationships with friends and loved ones are severed. A person may not get out of bed for days and not eat. Each person at each stage either repeats all the symptoms described 100%, or adds something different. ABOUT PSYCHOSOMATICS It manifests itself very clearly, becomes noticeable at about stage 3. How it manifests itself: poor appetite, insomnia, hair loss, poor stool, stomach pain, rashes on the face, parts of the body fail: the stomach “stops”, the arm/fingers/leg fails, / the skin turns pale/becomes dry/no desire for sex, the back hurts/any muscle locks up and hurts, migraine.How example: people whose work is done with their fingers have their fingers fail. The person cannot hold a pen or type. Your work tool screams at you that it is broken, but the person, due to being in burnout, does not notice this, or goes to the doctors - and starts taking pills for non-existent diseases, while continuing to work, which is absolutely impossible to do. HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE BEGINNING OF BURNOUT. Everything here is simple and difficult at the same time: to notice what is wrong with you. The problem is that either you are euphoric from work and “what could possibly be wrong with this?” Or the problem is that you are already so deeply burnt out that you are no longer able to think straight. But there are some tips. 1 - If you want to set 10 tasks for tomorrow in your diary and want to get up every day at 5 am just so that by the evening you have a result, you are at the first stage. 2 - If you walk around thinking about work and you have a lot of plans, thoughts, things to do and you think “wow, there’s so much, how cool,” you’re at the first stage.3 - If you sat down to work in the morning and woke up in the evening, sitting in the same position, you’re at the first stage.4 - If you become irritated over little things, don’t want to do work, feel less confident than before, you’re at stage 2.5 - If you don’t want sex anymore, you’re at stage 2 or 3 (it’s different for everyone).6 - If you wake up in the morning already tired, you are at stage 2 or 3.7 - Ifyou are disgusted by work, friends, loved ones, you are at stage 3 or 4.8 - If you begin to feel bad, everything hurts, you are at stage 3 or 4.9 - If you don’t understand why you need what you do, you at stage 4.10 - If you feel like an insignificance, an unworthy person, without purpose and meaning in life, you have thoughts of suicide, you are at stage 4. Of course, it is ideal if a person finds himself at the first stage, when there is a lot of energy, mountains are moving, there are a million plans and life is planned for seconds until its end. Here you can still have time to reduce your ardor, fit time into your schedule for rest, family and other areas. If you find yourself in the second and further stages, you need to include a whole range of measures. About them below. HOW TO GET OUT OF BURNOUT. Quit work completely. If the work is online, through the phone, then we put the phone away from ourselves for several days, notifying everyone in advance that you will be out of reach. If you work on a computer, the situation is the same. If you are an office worker, be sure to take time off or vacation. As a rule, 3 days is enough. This is enough time to think about what is happening to you. But do not be under the illusion that during this time you will have time to get out of burnout. Of course, if you are just entering the second stage of burnout, then you can recover in one evening. If you are already in the second stage, then you can get out in a few days, but if you are already in the third stage, it may take weeks or even months, not to mention the fourth stage. Most often, when it comes to completely quitting the work process, people begin to have a mini-panic: how can this be? I’ll let people down, I won’t complete the work on time, I won’t be paid, I won’t be able to feed my family... But if you look at it with a clear eye , then you understand that taking time off from work is real, talking to clients to cancel consultations is real, not posting on a social network and not losing your blog is real. In general, putting work aside is possible! You gave so much energy that now you need to replenish it, but what if you keep working at the same pace, where is the energy being pumped out of you?! Another common misconception is that I’ll switch off from work, but I’ll do general work/cook/go to work. courses/read 10 books. Like, why waste time?! All these actions are of course useful, but you are replacing one job with another and this is a mistake. You don't let your brain just breathe out, but load it with new activities. On the contrary, you need time to think about yourself, the meaning of life, goals, desires, work, family, etc. I would leave spring cleaning as the only activity on the list, but only once and properly. It cleans not only the house, but also the brain. While you are cleaning, you are going through a bunch of thoughts in your head that will lead to some conclusion. Say “NO!” gadgets. This point is made separately, because gadgets have become an integral part of the life of each of us. Even if we work in an office on a laptop, we have a phone that we are glued to from the very morning, then at lunch, after work and until bedtime. Many have developed an addiction to the phone, but not everyone understands this. And if we talk about freelancers, and even more so bloggers, they generally won’t let go of their phone. That’s why our strong recommendation is to do a complete DETOX from gadgets. Here, in addition to empty information, especially when it comes to social networks, we see how the very beautiful, most often fake, life of strangers is presented, who show a far-fetched “success”. When a person is in a state of emotional burnout, his self-esteem drops, remember? So, against the backdrop of low self-esteem, photos of the wonderful lives of others, a person’s moral state weakens even more and he hates himself more and more. And then the moment comes to ask for help from relatives. There is only one problem: most often, relatives do not even know what it is emotional burnout. They think you have problems at work or someone just ruined your mood, etc., so you walk around like a sad harpy. Yoursthe task is to sit down and explain what it is. They must understand that you will be lying on the couch not just because you are a lazy ass, but because you really need it. Ask them to take on household responsibilities, by possibilities. So that the children go to their grandmother, and the husband shows more care and participation. Speak directly about the need to hug you more often and speak words of love to you, because you need them to raise your self-esteem. Don’t be shy about asking for this. This is important. ABOUT CHILDREN: It manifests itself very clearly. -). If you haven’t played with your children before, but have worked a lot and are burned out, then don’t send your children to their grandmothers, play with them like a child. You need to get out of the state of an adult and super-responsible person. Turn into a child, be on the same wavelength with your children. Draw, splash water, paint each other's faces with gouache, run on beds, play together in the playroom, go to the trampolines and jump heartily, watch a cartoon together, build a house out of cardboard. Charge yourself with the energy of your child, he will give you new emotions, thereby starting your extinct emotional engine.-). If, on the contrary, you are burnt out from maternity leave and spending too much time with your children, you need to send them to their grandmothers and father. Because children on maternity leave are your job, you need a break from work. Everything is logical. ABOUT YOUR LOVED PERSON: In addition to asking for help, you should also talk to him heart to heart. This is super important. You have accumulated a lot of questions inside of you, for yourself, for the world, for people, and you also have a lot of supposed problems for which you don’t see a solution. It is heart-to-heart conversations that will help you pour these problems out of yourself and free yourself. Without hesitation, sit down and tell us what you feel it. Tears are an incredibly powerful tool invented by nature to release negativity. Tears are cleansing, so to speak. Cry and talk as much as you want. And remember, problems are most often solved in conversation. Speak out and understand that all the problems are not so terrible, and the solution is here, lying in the palm of your hand. Now about the most important thing - REST! We relax a lot, don’t think about work and do what we’ve wanted for a long time. Sit down and think about what you would like to do now and what you wanted a long time ago? For example, dance/get drunk/sing karaoke/stretch/jump with a parachute/buy a dress/jump on trampolines/go to the cinema/go to a music concert/dismantle an old one, etc. think about what interesting activities you can try ? Clay modeling/ballet/painting, etc. AND...DO IT! Don't pay attention to the sidelong glances of your family when they enter the room and you are dancing to loud music on the bed or when your husband is surprised to hear that you Do you want to go with him to sculpt clay pots? Remind them that you need it. And now about resting your inner child. Inside each of us there is an inner child, an adult and a parent. It’s just that our child is very tired that you forgot about him and worked hard, like a real adult. You forgot that sometimes he wants ice cream, sometimes cartoons, sometimes to play, sometimes to go for a walk and just NOT THINK about work, not to be constantly stressed by thoughts about the future/obligations/money/debts, etc. Now regain the trust of your inner child . Do everything he likes. And what does he like?1 Remember what you liked to do as a child. Singing, dressing up, dancing, walking, cartoons, sandboxes. So do this.2 Think about what you want to do now. You are like a child, not like an adult. Do you want to get your hands on it? Go to your loved one's arms or to your mother. Would you like someone to cook you something to eat and feed you? Ask your family about this. Do you want to act like a child, talk like a child? Lead! - This is permissible. Humor. Use humor as a way to pull yourself out of apathy. Let me explain: in psychology there is a direction called “laughter therapy.” This is when a psychologist prescribes a patient to laugh a lot as a treatment and it helps. Your job is to surround yourselfpositive, because inside everything is already black. Turn on comedies, read jokes, look at funny pictures on social networks, ask your family to make you laugh, etc. Just humor, of course, will not help you get rid of burnout, but it will be one of the cogs in the mechanism of the struggle to return to normal life. Humor helps you generally not give up in life and look at everything positively. If you are passionate about something besides work, believe me, you will burn out very rarely, if at all. At work you give energy, and your hobbies will help replenish it. For some it may be dancing, for others it may be singing, for others it may be boxing/skiing/knitting, etc., etc. The presence of a hobby in your life will greatly help you in life, like a stop valve for burnout. But while you are exhausted, you probably don’t want to do anything, or search, or be interested. But force yourself. This needs to be done right now. Again, remember what you love or loved to do before? Nature and sport. To replenish the energy that is so lacking now, you need to go to nature. And this is not just one of the options for spending time, but an obligatory point in healing from emotional burnout. Put away your gadgets, put on your sneakers and go for a walk in a clearing, in the forest, or on the river. Where there is peace and quiet, where there are no cars, but only clean air. You need to be there alone with yourself, and also be physically active. Sports are a prerequisite for getting out of burnout. Our body contains many hormones that help it function perfectly. Some of them are released during physical activity. This means that in order to feel life in us, so that the emotional background changes, so that thoughts also begin to change for the better, we need sports. Run, jump, dance, squat. Anything, just do it more than once, but at least 3 times a week. And if you are already in a state of burnout - every day! So we have reached the point - contacting a psychologist. If you feel that you cannot cope on your own, especially when you see yourself at the fourth point of burnout, then I strongly recommend contacting a psychologist. Because everything that happens with us - comes from the head. From the search for the meaning of life, to understand: am I going there? Maybe I don’t need all this? Maybe I just considered what I was told once to be true, but it’s not my truth? Guys, always, at least once every six months, think: am I on the right road? Does she bring me pleasure? Etc. An important rule of life: if you are doing something that makes you sick, then don’t do it. This is fraught with chronic burnout from which you either don’t get out or go into depression, which also becomes chronic, and then hello antidepressants and to at the end of your life you will turn around, and it will turn out that there was not a single happy moment and your life was lived in vain. Well, why do you need it?! There are sometimes difficult situations when you have 3 children in your arms, no husband and you have to work at least somewhere, just to feed the children. But the thing is that there are no hopeless situations. They don’t exist. It’s always easier to whine and complain to a friend about shitty life and injustice. And it is always more difficult to take responsibility and try to find ways out. WHAT TO DO AFTER COMING OUT OF EMOTIONAL BURNOUT1 Do not fall sharply into the first stage, when you want to move mountains and build megacities. I understand that you have more than enough energy and generally so much joy, because burnout is behind you, hurray! But you can make this mistake again. Sit down and put REST (+) HOBBY into your schedule. Here are 3 important things that will help you stay in good shape. Rest: At lunch and after 6-7 pm. Rest means completely disconnecting from the phone, spending time with family, devoting time to yourself and forgetting about work, no matter how many messages there are unanswered, no matter how many debts hang on you. You REST! Hobby: even 30 minutes a day is good! If you like to dance, turn on the music right in the morning, before the start of your work day, and dance for 30 minutes. Sports: 3 times a week will be great. BUT, it is important that you like this sport. Don't force yourselfdo something you don’t like as long as your health is in order, otherwise you’ll burn out on this sport too. There is Time Management. There are different time management schemes. At the same time, in order not to burn out from this task that you don’t really like, but need to do, after it, have a pleasant rest and do what you enjoy. Thus, rewarding yourself. - Don’t fit a bunch of things into your schedule, maximum 5. A large list is already depressing, not to mention completing every item on the list. A large list obliges you to implement it all. And if you don’t implement it, then you feel unproductive, worthless, and incapable of serious work. And this threatens a decrease in self-esteem, which leads to burnout. - Do not fit into the schedule what you will already do without it. For example, mothers love to fit walks with their children, cooking, and general cleaning into their schedule. And if you don’t include these things in your schedule, won’t you do all this - of course you will! So why then drive yourself into such a strict time frame? You are not terminators, relax. - Fit all the small things into 1 hour, otherwise you will do them all day, scatter yourself and at the end of the day it will turn out that you haven’t really done anything. Small tasks like: order cosmetics/write with a designer/write 2 posts/write out a checklist plan/go for help, etc. Turn them on at the same time and do them sequentially one after another until you are done. - Realize clearly the time you spend at work. You won't believe it, but a lot of people are very wrong about the time frame. That is, they think that they will spend only 30 minutes on this task, but it turns out that it actually takes 1.5 hours and then the person is surprised; The day has passed, and I only did 2 things on the list instead of 5! How so?! Be sensible about the time you spend on business. This is almost the most important rule in time management. Rest is included in the schedule as a separate work responsibility. Yes, they don’t pay for vacation, that’s why many people don’t vacation, but then you’ll pay many times more to psychologists to help you get out of depression. Take responsibility for your rest. - The rule of “eating the elephant piece by piece” will always be relevant. Well, or it is also called decomposition. Take a big task, divide it into smaller ones and do it little by little. If you write 5 things on your schedule for today, one of which takes the whole day to complete, then by the end of the working day you will feel like a nonentity who couldn’t complete 5 things. - Change your activity if you understand that you don’t like it. I understand that this is difficult and you won’t be able to give up everything right away, but nothing prevents you from starting to learn about new activities, becoming interested, and then smoothly moving from what you don’t like to what you like. Realize who you are - a Specialist (diver) or a multi-potential (scanner). Burnouts occur in multi-potentials at those moments when they have already cooled down to the activity they are doing now and did not realize it in time, and as a result did not move on to a new activity that they are greatly inspired. Having lost sight of this important point, the scanner no longer sees the point in anything and does not understand what to do next? That’s why he falls into burnout, and quickly. Realize who you are: multipotential or specialist? Watch Emily Vapnik's TED talk. If everything she says is about you, then it’s time to accept yourself and not be afraid to change your activity the moment you get bored with it. If you are a specialist, then think about why you might burn out? You love your activity, most likely, and you are ready to study it deeper and deeper. But where do the legs of burnout come from? Are your bosses putting pressure on you/the team is bad/a lot of stupid work that distracts you from your main job? If you realize what the problem is, solve it, otherwise burnout can lead to aversion from the activities that you have always loved. Why are teachers in a state of chronic burnout and depression? Although half of them probably once loved their job. But the system itself forced them to hate school, children, and lessons. Eventually