Emotional burnout is a fairly common problem in the modern world. Characterized by a serious decrease in the level of quality of life due to psychological problems. It can also cause many very real diseases. For example, a person has a secondary benefit from his illness. To understand the reasons for the appearance and methods of overcoming emotional burnout, Zoj.kz turned to practical psychologist Anel SADIKOVA .
– What is emotional burnout?
– The term “emotional burnout” was first used in the United States in the 1970s. Burn-out is a metaphor, because there are no combustion processes at the physical level. Signs of this phenomenon were noticed among representatives of helping professions (doctors, social workers, psychologists), as well as among those who, due to their line of work, communicate a lot with people. After all, the result of the work of these particular people is not always obvious. They talk more about emotional burnout in relation to professional activities, but a non-working person can also be susceptible to it.
Emotional burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion. It is characterized by emotional coldness, irritability, apathy, fatigue, insomnia or drowsiness and a decline in energy, difficulties in mutual understanding and empathy towards oneself and people. It develops as a result of chronic unresolved stress, when there are difficulties in meeting one’s needs. It is important to note that there are always ways to satisfy them, but a person may not see them at the moment.
If you ask a person how he feels, then most likely he will answer: “I’m just tired of everything.” Burnout is not a complete absence of emotions. It is the psyche that has cut off their supply to some extent, so as not to waste resources on what a person experiences within himself as harmful. And here you need to understand what the human psyche protects him from with the help of burnout. The needs are not satisfied at this time - the psyche suggests looking for a new way.
– How can you tell if a person is experiencing emotional burnout?
– There are many signs of burnout. And if you look for them, you can find them in literally everyone. But this does not mean that emotional burnout threatens everyone. I would pose the question like this: “Where is the line between emotional burnout and emotional fullness, sufficiency? What actions lead to crossing this line back and forth? How much time and what effort does this require?”
A person always grows, changes, enters a crisis (normative, that is, corresponding to age or a new social status, or non-standard - an individual reaction to circumstances), loses strength, gains energy, reaches a qualitatively new level. Along this path there are exits from the comfort zone, therefore, temporary periods of emotional burnout will occur. So it's okay. Crises in this sense are a gift for the psyche and personal growth, an opportunity to pay attention to oneself.
The problem arises at the moment when emotional burnout becomes a common condition, a person develops automatic beliefs: “it won’t be better”, “this is how it should be”, “it will change, but not now, but someday, but not yet”, “ I seem to be able to achieve something, but then I fail again,” “there are no real opportunities to achieve my desires,” etc. Thus, the person gets stuck in a crisis.
– Is it possible to overcome emotional burnout on your own?
- Can. After all, a person changes every moment. You need to expand your knowledge and look for methods.
– What is at the other extreme from burnout? What should a burnt out person strive for?
– What is now fashionable to call emotional intelligence. This is the ability to recognize and understand one’s own emotions and the emotions of others. Then you can manage your emotions and exchange inspiration with people. The main task of a person is to acquire constructive emotional experience and turn it into the skill of communicating on his own terms.
Benefits of assessing burnout
If diagnostic tools do not reveal any personality deviations, you will have to work to ensure that the employer sees the positive qualities of the person, his personal or professional growth. Having received the results, the person independently or with a psychologist studies and works on weaknesses.
After assessing burnout, HR receives a practical tool for organizing team management, identifying areas of improvement, planning motivation and benefits.
The data obtained clearly shows who is experiencing stress and tension, who needs support and to what extent, who is offered a new project, and who is offered vacation or medical care, who has outgrown their position, and who is burned out.
Tests with employee responses on professional burnout provide an understanding of how to contact a specific employee. HR, in tandem with a corporate psychologist, gets the chance to assess the severity of symptoms, develop tools to improve employee well-being, and create an effective, motivated team.
Hopelessness every day
– How often do people come in with complaints of burnout?
- Infrequently. People may not realize they are experiencing burnout. They come, for example, with self-diagnosed “depression” or unresolved conflicts. There is usually a core problem, and its consequences are signs of burnout.
More often, emotional burnout is discussed among those who came for career guidance or with difficulties/conflicts at work, in particular in communication with superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. It can also be a family problem - in a marital or parent-child relationship. For example, a person says: “I’m tired of my job, but I used to love it” or “My relationship with someone is not going well.” At the same time, he feels tired and hopeless, repeating every day. Or he may come with a question about fears. And during the consultation process, it turns out that the person regularly does not satisfy his important interests. Maybe he built communications in the family this way, took on more than he should have, and now the members of the household are “sitting on his neck.” You can burn out in any relationship.
– If emotional burnout occurs, does the person need to change activities?
- Not necessary. It may not help. Because in a new activity, in a new place, he will in any case communicate with people. And if his skills in this area remain the same, then after some time he will acquire the same types of relationships in a new area that will not satisfy him.
– You say: “The person is not meeting needs.” These needs are individual for each person, do they differ for all of us? Or are they mostly the same?
– This is a very good question. Because it is always possible to find what we are not satisfied with, what we lack, what we really want. And at the same time, we cannot absolutely always satisfy absolutely all our needs. Even basic needs - to eat, communicate or, conversely, remain silent. We are always missing something.
This is how a person works, he translates everything into specific, material, measurable issues: money, time, communication. But in fact the need is deeper.
Now a person has felt a shortage and is trying to understand what it is. And the thought pops up in my mind: “It seems like there is no money, that’s why I feel bad” or “It seems like I don’t have enough time for myself.” This is how a person works, he translates everything into specific, material, measurable issues: money, time, communication. But in fact the need is deeper. And just a psychologist can help a person understand it. Or a person himself, having certain skills, can find it.
– What is this need that is deeper?
– To put it simply, a psychologist in a consultation, where a special atmosphere has been created, makes sure that a person clearly hears himself and his strengths, and only then asks the question: “Why?” If a person doesn’t have enough money, then why does he need it? The person answers: “I want to always have money to meet current needs.” And indeed, it seems that without money they cannot be satisfied. But we continue to follow linear logic: “What specific issues do you want to solve with the help of money? Tell us examples from yesterday, today, tomorrow.” As a result, a person may suffer because of an unfulfilled childhood dream or something else important but forgotten. Previously, the person did not think in this way and assigned responsibility to someone else.
Job
I have already expressed my opinion many times regarding the work activities of girls. I am convinced that it is important for them to do work for their own pleasure, and ensuring financial wealth is the prerogative of a man.
When a girl works hard, the usual pattern is disrupted, and emotional burnout at work overtakes the woman by surprise. How does this manifest itself?
- You suffer from "excellent student syndrome." They are willing to stay late and perform additional duties in order to earn recognition and respect. As a result, you go too far and “burn out”
- You can't give yourself time to rest. You take on everything at once, but in the end the quality suffers.
- You take defeats and failures to heart. Don't give yourself the right to make mistakes.
Please also keep in mind that failures at work often overlap with emotional burnout among women in marriage and family. Girls cannot quickly move from one form to another.
Example. You are the head of a department and generally love your job. But bad luck! What kind of slow and lazy employees do you think? You spend the whole day chewing on this thought. And at home over dinner you complain to your husband about how bad everything is in the office. Naturally, he doesn’t like it, and you get angry and offended. And to all the work troubles there are also relationship problems. Do not do it this way…
As you can see, CMEA does not spare either careerists or housewives. And in order not to further fall into a depressive state, it is imperative to fight this insidious illness.
Money and illness
– How are burnout and career related?
– Emotions are clearly linked to motivation, burnout often occurs due to job dissatisfaction. Many people reduce job satisfaction to a big salary, but it’s not that simple. This is also a matter of age and individual level, which changes over time. In addition, each person is unique and constructs the meaning of their activities differently. In addition to monetary remuneration, there are many more motives for professional activity: career growth, independent business, leadership, relationships with interesting people, constant expansion of new knowledge and its integration into one’s profession, physical comfort at work, distribution of tasks over time, a sense of usefulness, new technology, changing places, preserving traditions and others. Some people prefer to work not steadily day after day, but in “rush marches.” There are people for whom it is important to change their profession: they changed their profession 6 times and are happy.
Pathogenesis
The phenomenon of emotional burnout as a mental disorder received attention back in 1974. American psychologist Herbert Freudenberg was the first to note the seriousness of the problem of emotional exhaustion and its impact on a person’s personality. At the same time, the main causes, signs and stages of development of the disease were described.
Most often, burnout syndrome is associated with problems at work, although such a mental disorder can also appear in ordinary housewives or young mothers, as well as in creative people. All these cases share the same symptoms: fatigue and loss of interest in responsibilities.
As statistics show, the syndrome most often affects those who deal with the human factor every day:
- working in emergency services and hospitals;
- teaching in schools and universities;
- servicing large flows of clients in service services.
Every day when faced with negativity, someone else’s mood or inappropriate behavior, a person constantly experiences emotional stress, which only intensifies over time.
A follower of the American scientist George Greenberg identified five stages of increasing mental stress associated with professional activity and designated them as “stages of emotional burnout”:
- The man is happy with his job. But constant stress gradually undermines energy.
- The first signs of the syndrome are observed: insomnia, decreased performance and partial loss of interest in one’s business.
- At this stage, a person finds it so difficult to concentrate on work that everything gets done very slowly. Trying to “catch up” turns into a constant habit of working late at night or on weekends.
- Chronic fatigue is projected onto physical health: immunity decreases, and colds turn into chronic diseases, and “old” sores appear. People at this stage experience constant dissatisfaction with themselves and others, and often quarrel with colleagues.
- Emotional instability, loss of strength, exacerbation of chronic diseases are signs of the fifth stage of emotional burnout syndrome.
If you do nothing and do not start treatment, the person’s condition will only worsen, developing into deep depression.
Prevention and correction
– How do you work with those who are showing signs of burnout?
– I prefer to combine the best tools from different directions. I know how they are combined, and I select the right one for a specific person together with him. With this approach, the problem can be solved in 3–5 sessions.
Sometimes you can come across recommendations: find a hobby, change your environment. But a person in a state of burnout often does not have enough energy for this. To him “whatever he wants, what he wants.” Therefore, you need to start not with introspection. You need to start with a physical change of environment, space, you need to move your body, but not in the usual ways. Since previously the resources were going in the wrong direction, then we need to include something new. The psyche will temporarily come out of the “blocking” due to the instinct of novelty in order to figure out whether it is now in the right direction.
Causes of professional burnout
In order to clearly understand the problem, it is necessary to find out the reasons that contributed to the development of burnout in the workplace, then it will be easier to outline ways out of the current situation. Experts have identified groups that are most at risk of professional burnout: 1) people who made a mistake in choosing a profession or are forced to do something they don’t like for various reasons (for them, work is like hard labor); 2) employees experiencing serious internal conflict associated with an inconsistency in the balanced relationship between home responsibilities and the demands of the professional sphere; 3) individuals who are forced to firmly defend their compliance in the field of activity in a competitive confrontation in the work team.
A work environment in constant stress negatively affects employees, reducing labor productivity, which causes losses to the enterprise. Depletion of vitality can cause psychosomatic disorders. The following negatively affect the employee's condition: • long working hours, busy schedule, work without breaks and days off; • forced need to constantly be in emotional contact with different people; • psychological tension in the work team, unfavorable emotional and psychological atmosphere; • regular stressful situations in the workplace in the absence of emotionally unloading places where tension is relieved and professional burnout is prevented with the participation of a psychologist.
