Emotional burnout is a very difficult condition that extends to physical well-being and directly affects the psyche. With such a syndrome, a person's life changes abruptly in an unpleasant direction. On what basis can you suspect the development of burnout? What are the reasons provoking it? What is the specific danger of the condition?
Perhaps it is very difficult to find such an adult in the world, over whom the risk of emotional burnout would never hang. A teenager who experiences serious stress during training can also face such a condition. However, to a greater extent, it is customary to talk about emotional burnout within the framework of professional activities, although this condition of a person ultimately extends to all areas of his life.
Who is at risk
Although anyone can experience burnout, there are certain occupations that increase the risk of burnout over time. In addition, a certain type of personality, worldview, character can also affect the formation of such a state.
Most often, people who are prone to high responsibility, perfectionists, and idealists are prone to emotional burnout. Creative personalities, having a more mobile psyche and an excitable nervous system, also fall into the category of those people who can fall into the power of a negative emotional state. Workaholics, people who are used to setting several tasks for themselves at the same time, those individuals who do not know how to refuse and therefore undertake to perform any business in any quantity, sooner or later will face symptoms of emotional burnout. If a person does not know how to relax and rest at all, for him work, career, creativity or any other direction in life is dominant over rest and sleep, sooner or later a turning point will happen.
Among the most risky professions, which most often lead to personality deformation and professional emotional burnout, include all professions associated with a risk to life. Doctors, especially workers in emergency departments, ambulance and surgery, often find themselves in a pool of burnt out emotions and loss of energy. Teachers, writers and actors, psychologists, social workers, people working in constant stressful conditions are also at risk.
Why burnout can be dangerous
This mental state can lead to various health problems. A person will regularly encounter headaches and phantom body pains, and his sleep may be disturbed. In many cases, against the background of stress and a decadent mood, diseases occur that affect the gastrointestinal tract, affecting the cardiovascular system. There are often cases when a person, subject to emotional burnout, notes interruptions in the work of the heart, pressure drops.
Against the background of emotional burnout, various types of neuroses and anxiety conditions begin to form. A very common consequence is a nervous tic. Emotional burnout can result in asthenic syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome.
Another danger of burnout is the development of a depressive state. In this case, we are talking not just about apathy or blues, but about clinical depression. With such a disorder, a person can hardly cope on their own.
Such a state leads to the fact that a person loses interest in everything that happens. He begins to automatically carry out any business and assignments, he is not very interested in the final result. It is difficult for a person in a state of professional burnout to work normally, while it becomes difficult for him to perform even any everyday tasks. Until an exhausted body and a weakened psyche receive full relaxation and rest, life around will be in gray and dull colors.
Symptoms and causes
Among the main symptoms that give out emotional burnout, the following points can be distinguished:
- lack of desire to do anything, lack of goals that you want to achieve, complete indifference to what is happening both in the professional sphere and in personal life;
- a constant feeling of severe fatigue, sleep does not bring relief, and sweets designed to stimulate the production of the hormone of happiness do not work;
- physical ailment;
- mood swings, detachment, desire to retire, be in silence;
- a person in a state of professional emotional burnout may not see prospects for himself in the future, while striving to leave somewhere away;
- an acute feeling of dissatisfaction with oneself and life; in this state, a person perceives criticism more difficult, reacts more painfully to comments, is inclined to scold himself for even the slightest mistakes;
- a constant feeling of anxiety, unexplained anxiety;
- a person becomes very restrained in the manifestation of emotions, it is difficult for him to understand not only someone else's emotional background, but also to understand his feelings;
- there may be aggression towards other people, irritation;
- a feeling of frustration, constant doubts, insecurity in everything, which is adjacent to a feeling of complete indifference.
The reasons that provoke the development of professional emotional burnout in a person are very different. Here both external factors and internal factors can play a role. Physical fatigue is intertwined with mental fatigue, which leads to an inevitable negative result.
The following common causes of burnout can be identified:
- prolonged and excessive mental stress, increased physical activity for a long time while refusing to have adequate rest;
- multitasking;
- work for wear, while a certain long period of time a person works without a specific goal or not getting a specific result on a regular basis;
- created misconceptions, heightened expectations directed towards the future result; anticipation of any situation or any outcome;
- prolonged nervous tension and excitement, the constant replacement of one deadline for another;
- refusal of vacation, performance of work and household duties even in a state of illness or simply not feeling well;
- improper diet due to stress, lack of sleep, abuse of sedatives or alcohol in the evenings;
- regular pressure from the team or family;
- the reason may be the personal heightened emotionality / impressionability of the person himself;
- difficulties in relationships with people around;
- lack of a clear idea of how to behave in crisis or critical situations.
It is possible to fully cope with emotional burnout only if the affected person is provided with a long and good rest. Sometimes it is necessary to get the advice of a psychologist or psychotherapist in order to get out of such a swamp. However, it is most likely not to bring yourself to a difficult and unpleasant state, taking into account the reasons for the development of professional burnout and trying not to face them.
