Emotional burnout: stages, signs, how to cope and how to treat

In May 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) described the signs of burnout syndrome. It is defined as “feelings of depleted energy, increased mental distance from work, a cynical or negative attitude toward work, and a decline in professional productivity.” The news immediately caused strong reactions among less competent people - publications appeared and quickly spread that emotional burnout was officially recognized as a disease, although this is not true to this day.

The syndrome is defined only as a factor that can influence the development of the corresponding pathology, but burnout is not an independent disorder. This term first became known to psychological practice from the American psychiatrist G. Freudenberger. The professor observed his own colleagues for a long time, and later was able to generalize changes in their thinking and behavior, which became brighter and more noticeable with each working day. Today one of the leading experts in this field of knowledge is Christina Maslach. According to her classification, emotional burnout is directly related to constant forced activity that cannot be suspended.

According to public surveys, not only subordinates, but also managers suffer from burnout. Many call this phenomenon a full-fledged epidemic due to its massive spread. Thus, 23% of working Americans noted that they experience characteristic symptoms “often or constantly.” Modern researchers, practically psychologists, argue that today's realities invariably create conditions favorable for the development of emotional burnout, which is why it is especially important to know about risk factors, diagnose signs in a timely manner and take appropriate measures, including preventive ones.

Symptoms of burnout

Emotional burnout is a progressive syndrome; it is often extremely difficult to notice its first signs and predict the further development of the disorder. The psychological state changes qualitatively gradually, without sudden jumps, incrementally. Every year, emotional burnout covers more and more areas of professional activity. If previously the symptoms of the syndrome were experienced only by those who are forced to work within the framework of constant interaction with other people, today emotional burnout is diagnosed even among housewives. As the disorder progresses, the following signs may appear:

Anxious thoughts - a person begins to doubt his professional suitability, fear excessive responsibility, doubt about a prosperous future
Loss of interests - over time, those activities or hobbies that previously brought pleasure, helped to distract, cease to be important and meaningful
Physical ailments – emotional burnout is characterized by physiological disturbances; most often people complain of nagging muscle pain, eye discomfort, appetite and sleep disturbances
Excessive irritability, apathy, reluctance to interact even with the closest people - is explained by an unconscious desire to conserve the remaining energy
Decreased self-esteem.

Fatigue is a normal and understandable state for the body. Emotional burnout is characterized by duration and the accumulation of symptoms, which over time become noticeable both to the person himself and to others. It is important to diagnose the symptoms of the disorder in time and prevent their further development - independently or with the help of specialists.

Rest

17. Find your optimal sleep time. And stick to it. For some it is 8 hours, for others it is 4. The main thing is to sleep equally long on weekdays and on weekends.

18. Always go to bed and get up at the same time. Also, an hour before bedtime, do not use electronic devices and start an evening ritual. The brain loves routine. Over time, he will associate routine evening activities with feelings of sleepiness.

19. Help your body relax. Avoid caffeine after lunch and avoid strenuous work shortly before bed.

20. Don't work on holidays and weekends. No matter how much you have to do, make time for relaxation. It will reduce stress and improve your mood. As a result, you will be more cheerful and get things done faster.

21. Take breaks. There should be two two-minute breaks for every working hour. This will help you focus and feel less tired at the end of the day.

Why is it dangerous?

Emotional burnout negatively affects all areas of life of the person who experiences this phenomenon, as well as the people around him. In addition to the proven effect on a person’s somatic health, it is possible to classify the main dangers of emotional burnout for different categories of citizens, depending on their gender and age characteristics.

Consequences of emotional burnout for men. It is known that representatives of the stronger half of humanity strive for full professional self-realization. Their ambitions often exceed their real capabilities, but the craving for self-affirmation, prestige, and recognition always turns out to be stronger than circumstances. Emotional burnout is exactly what will prevent you from achieving success even if you have all the necessary competencies. A man’s self-esteem will suffer so much from unfulfilled and unjustified hopes that he is unlikely to be able to overcome the fear of failure in the future.
Consequences of emotional burnout in women. Burnout syndrome has a negative impact on your personal life. The desire to be alone and to replenish energy reserves is often perceived even by those closest to them as neglect. Subsequently, conflicts arise in the family, which can easily lead to separation - and this is an additional test for the already sensitive psyche of a woman.
Consequences of emotional burnout in children. The syndrome is especially dangerous in childhood, when the child is just learning about the world around him, learning to express and cope with emotions, and interact with people around him. The stress experienced can seriously affect the child’s psyche and his view of reality. The development of full-fledged fears and even phobias, disruption of the process of personal identification and establishing contacts with peers cannot be ruled out.
Consequences of emotional burnout for adolescents. During adolescence, boys and girls are especially susceptible to negativity. Having experienced the symptoms of emotional burnout, a teenager’s life can be forever changed - complicated by depressive, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, psychosomatic illnesses and even suicidal tendencies.

It is impossible to predict how burnout will affect a particular person, but the frightening range of possible consequences should serve as the main motivation for regular analysis of one’s own well-being.

Loss of purpose and disgust. Fighting severe burnout

If your burnout is already at the stage of loss of purpose/cynicism or depression/disgust, intensive tools are needed to limit energy expenditure on anything that does not help you recover. The most important thing is to overcome the inner feeling “if I start devoting time to something other than work, everything will collapse.” This is difficult to do. But burnout is already robbing you of your health and happiness—and if you do nothing, it will only get worse. The symptoms of burnout are similar to the symptoms of depression, and many experts even believe that they are the same thing. Treat the problem as seriously as you would treat a mental illness.

Step 1: Get out of stress

Burnout is the result of overwhelming chronic stress. There is stress—the tension we feel. And there is a stressor - something that causes this reaction. Each of them needs to be worked on separately. Until we have come out of the stress reaction, we have too little energy to study its causes and eliminate them. Therefore, you first need to reduce the severity of stress and increase the amount of resources. And only then move on to the stressor.

Living emotions.

What emotion is associated with stress: irritation, despair, anger, something else? It happens that inside you there is a ban on this or that feeling, because it seems wrong and destructive (this often happens with anger) or meaningless (“What’s the point of being sad? And anyway, my feelings are not that important”). Then it may be difficult not only to express, but even to recognize the emotion. Here is a technique that will help you recognize that very feeling. Afterwards, it needs to be thrown out in an environmentally friendly way - that is, without any address and in a safe environment. Anger can be expressed by tearing paper into small pieces. Or go into the forest and loudly swear, stomp your feet and scream. If you feel sad, but you can’t live through it, turn on sad music or a sad movie, call a friend and cry with him. You can also try: theater courses or trainings based on gaming philosophy, embodiment yoga or Ecstatic Dance to explore yourself through movements. These bodily activities, with a focus on self-discovery, help us connect with our senses when our minds disconnect us from them.

Release of the body.

Stress is necessary for us to do something: run away from a predator or fight with it. To complete the stress response, you need to let your body know: you escaped or won. Otherwise, the body will still be in anticipation of a threat and produce stress hormones. Sport is the easiest way to do this. Training mimics the fight-or-flight response, and by ending it, we end stress. You can go for a run or dance, the main thing is to move quickly and intensely.

Relaxation with breathing.

Another option is breathing using the Breathing Zone app. Breathing can be done according to the 4-7-8 pattern (inhale-pause-exhale count), when the exhalation is twice as long as the inhalation. Singing is an alternative. In the process, you will have to lengthen your inhalation and exhale long - this is exactly what is needed to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and calm down.

Attention management.

The Pomodoro method is work lasting 25-50 minutes, then a short pause. In this mode, you will be able to work focusedly throughout the working day (this is especially difficult if you are burnt out). Use a timer app for your smartphone or the desktop version.

What to do during a short break? 12 ideas

Put on headphones, turn on music, a podcast or audiobooks and take a walk around the house.
Go out onto the balcony, breathe in the air and look at the sky or another natural object.
Meditate or do breathing practice. An alternative is “neuron massage” in the Norbu app.
Dance or just jump to the music. Stretching exercises will also come in handy. This stimulates the production of endorphins and makes you less sensitive to any discomfort at work.
Be in darkness, silence and loneliness if there was a lot of communication during the day. You can take a shower or even lie in the bath.
Do local cleaning. For example, a desktop.
Turn on your favorite song and sing along. Or play musical instruments.
Draw the view outside the window or make something out of plasticine.
Place turrets and stone figures on the table.
Take care of plants in the garden or indoors: water, spray, replant, prune.
Talk to someone significant. Call a friend you haven't seen for a long time, or your beloved grandmother.
Think about what's important. For example, about your motivation in your current case. Why is what you do important to you?

Energy planning.

Write a list of tasks for tomorrow and rate the energy consumption for each on a scale from 1 to 10. For example, answering a letter in detail is 2, and speaking in front of colleagues is 8. Rate on a scale from 1 to 10 how much energy you have now. If there is less than you need to complete all tasks, you can increase the amount: relieve stress with a workout or breathing exercise, eat and sleep, do something that inspires you. The alternative is to reduce the number of tasks (delegate, postpone to another day) or reduce their complexity.

Making work tasks easier.

All tasks should be simple and feasible, otherwise burnout will increase. Add a separate task to your schedule: adapt tomorrow's tasks to your current level of strength. To do this, break large tasks into small steps. Imagine delegating them to a less experienced person or team. How would you formulate the task for them, what stages and details would you mention?

Step 2: Develop awareness

Practicing mindfulness is essential to preventing and recovering from burnout. Often a person burns out because he takes the results of his work too seriously. Mindfulness helps to expand the boundaries of perception and separate yourself from your emotions and thoughts - everything that happens in the field of consciousness.

Additionally, burnout is a result of chronic stress. And the practice of mindfulness, according to research, teaches us to control our emotions and reduces stress levels. This is how deep mind founder Max Timofeev

. Regular formal and informal mindfulness practice helps us better understand our current state, including how our body feels. The more developed this skill is, the better we understand how different activities and our reactions affect us - and we can protect ourselves from harmful ones. By being aware of our body and our condition, we also release accumulated stress reactions and emotions. And we do this not through external tools, but through internal skills.

When you are feeling burnt out, you should choose a comfortable mindfulness practice to help you relax and gain insight rather than stress. If you haven't meditated regularly before, start with a simple practice focusing on your breathing .

If it's difficult to meditate with written instructions, try audio-guided meditation. There are many good applications in English (Insight Timer, for example). In Russian, it’s worth taking a closer look at special practices to combat burnout

from deep mind. The technique is aimed at working through unpleasant emotions that we tend to accumulate under stress.

If you already meditate, add some time to your current practice, do your usual practice in a new environment (in the park, not at home) - or learn a new practice altogether. Take a closer look at practicing self-care and acceptance

to develop the skill of self-care or to the motor practice
of free movement
for a more complete experience of emotions (especially good for those who find it difficult to do still meditation).

At first it will be difficult to connect with the body: when we burn out, we feel bad about it, otherwise we would have stopped and rested a long time ago. It can also be difficult to concentrate on positive emotions: joy, happiness, peace. If you get distracted, don’t scold yourself, but support yourself: “Hurray, I noticed that my thoughts have flown away, now I can return to practice.” For this case, the noting

: As you practice, at a comfortable pace (every 3, 5, or 10 seconds, for example), name what you see, hear, or feel. It can be something material (I see a room, hear a sound outside the window, feel the pressure of a clothing seam) or something intangible (I see images, hear thoughts, feel joy).

Step 3: Address the cause of your stress

Now you can move on to the stressor. What causes the very situation of chronic stress at work that leads to burnout? Identifying a stressor and limiting its influence is not always easy, so at Deva.School we use the following algorithm for this.

Take a piece of paper and write down specific problems. First, you can outline the event in general terms, then highlight the details: how you feel and in response to what events. This will help you identify your stress trigger. Then you can act in two ways: remove the stressor or change your attitude towards it so that it does not cause so much stress. Here's what it might look like.

You worry that you're not doing your job well enough.
Because of this, you wake up at night thinking about how to improve the case. Then you need to formulate what it means to you to do your job well, what criteria you set for yourself. We look at the list and compare it with reality. Can one person do it all—or does it take a whole team? If there are too many tasks, changing your attitude towards them will not help much. We need to figure out how to reduce them. Think about what you can delegate to team members, find out how others solve the same problems.
You feel uncomfortable working with your boss.
After talking with him, you feel exhausted, and his way of formulating tasks is annoying. Think: do you want to change jobs? If so, make a detailed plan on how to do it. It may turn out that changing jobs requires too many resources. Or that working conditions in other companies are no better. Then it’s worth changing your attitude towards your boss (as much as possible) and including in your schedule actions that make you more resistant to stress before and after talking with him. Don't forget: you are not a victim. You have a choice - to change the situation or attitude towards it. The feeling that you have no influence on anything is dangerous: it leads to burnout.

Step 4. Return to yourself: your goals, values and priorities

All of us, including myself, tend to run away to work when we don’t want to worry about something or when we need to prove to ourselves our worth, which has been shaken in personal relationships. Therefore, in parallel with reducing the level of stress and the number of irritants, I recommend thinking about what kind of relationship you have with yourself and others - and how to make them more comfortable.

First, remember what values are most important to you. What did you want when you started a business that made you burn out? What result did you want to get? It's unlikely that you intended to burn yourself out. Perhaps you wanted to make a contribution to the world? How else can you do this without having to burn out in the process?

Exercise “Inner Compass”

It will help you remember your values and goals, which you have slightly forgotten in the pursuit of high results at work, and re-gain an understanding of which direction to move.

Think about five books or movies that have had the greatest impact on you. Why are they so important to you? Write five theses that answer this question.
Which five people have influenced you the most? And again - five theses why these people became special to you.
What do you value in people? Top 5 important qualities.
What intangible thing can you not imagine life without? List five values. For example: freedom, like-minded people, family, fulfillment, and so on.
To get started, what are the five factors you need? For example: energy, calm, silence.

Next, ask yourself: what else is important to you to include in your life besides work? What aligns with your values? Most likely, the first answer will be: nothing, there is so little strength, you need to put everything into work. But remember: it is the balance of personal life and work that protects us from burnout. Ask yourself: “Am I now the person I wanted to be? What is missing in my life? What was my dream before I burned out?” Perhaps it's playing an instrument, learning art, or volunteering. If you can’t find a non-work related activity that you like, take a closer look at nearby areas: mentoring, networking.

Stages

Different researchers have defined the stages of development of emotional burnout in their own way, but in practice they most often turn to G. Freudenberger’s approach.

Herbert Freudenberger

Together with his colleague G. North, the professor identified 11 stages of worsening symptoms.

Obsessed with demonstrating one's own worth to more successful colleagues
Inability to escape from work, engage in favorite hobbies, or spend leisure time
Neglect of natural needs - normal daily routine, diet, social communication
Denial of the presence of a problem - irritability, feeling threatened, panic
Qualitative distortion of values, excessive obsession with job responsibilities
Deterioration of relationships with colleagues and immediate supervisors
A rapid reduction in social connections, the emergence of a tendency to bad habits as a means of getting rid of stress and relieving tension
Obvious changes in behavior that loved ones begin to notice
Depersonalization is a literal loss of the meaning of life, devaluation of everything that was previously dear
Feeling of internal emptiness, attempts to fill it with promiscuity, overeating, psychoactive substances
Severe depression – feelings of insecurity, exhaustion, mental and physical health problems.

Depending on individual characteristics, the development of skills to overcome stress, and the tendency to self-reflection, emotional burnout can occur with different dynamics, but in the end it all comes down to one thing - the development of full-fledged mental disorders.

What are the stages of emotional burnout?

You can assess how bad everything is from a different point of view. There are three stages of emotional burnout:

Tension - the psyche resists. Acute experience of problems and conflicts, dissatisfaction with oneself, a feeling of being “caged in a cage,” anxiety, low mood.
Resistance - the psyche begins to give in. A person can break down, scream, cry (inadequate emotional response), many things simply no longer evoke emotions, more and more work a person does not complete as “unnecessary”.
Exhaustion - the psyche has given up. These are emotional deficit (emotional exhaustion), detachment, psychosomatic disorders.

Levels of emotional burnout gradually replace each other if nothing is done.

Causes

There are external and internal reasons that can provoke emotional burnout. The first category of unfavorable factors can be corrected quite simply. Internal factors are attitudes, behavior patterns, character traits and beliefs that guide a person when making life-changing decisions. External conditions can provoke emotional burnout when a person already has internal prerequisites for this. External unfavorable environmental factors include:

Harsh working conditions – heavy workload, tight schedule
Unsatisfactory salary
Lack of ability to concentrate on job responsibilities - excess distractions
Dissatisfaction with the choice of profession, inability to change occupation to a more attractive one
Unfavorable atmosphere - tense relationships with colleagues or management, excessive pressure.

Among the internal reasons for the development of emotional burnout are hyper-responsibility, social stereotypes, dependence on other people’s influence, opinions, devaluation of one’s own desires and needs, fear of being unnecessary, unclaimed, and useless.

Causes, symptoms and signs

There are external and internal causes of the syndrome. External ones include, for example, working conditions, and internal ones include character traits, beliefs and attitudes of a person. As a rule, it is internal reasons that “start the work” of external ones; in other words, if a person is sure that everyone around him is deceiving (this is his belief), then he will automatically expect a dirty trick from his employer, see something suspicious in his every action, and so drive yourself into a stressful situation.

External factors include:

overtime work, busy schedule;
unsatisfactory wages;
deadlines;
unloved job;
conflicts within the team;
monotonous activity;
inflated demands from the manager, etc.

As you can see, all factors are related to the work environment, which can be corrected; the main thing is to identify the “irritating factor” in time.

Here are the internal factors:

hyper-responsibility, pedantry;
attitudes like “I have to work hard, otherwise my life will collapse”;
the belief that work is the main value in life;
fear of letting down;
the desire to prove one’s importance and status to someone, etc. [D. Suseeva, 2021]

All these factors first cause stress, which, if you do not respond to the body’s signals in time and take action, develops into a serious illness.

Emotional burnout manifests itself in the following symptoms:

Physical: tiredness, tiredness, exhaustion, sudden weight changes, insomnia, general malaise, difficulty breathing, nausea, dizziness, high blood pressure, heart disease.
Emotional: pessimism, indifference, lack of emotions, feelings of hopelessness, frustration, anxiety, depression, guilt, nervous breathing, anxiety, feelings of loneliness.
Behavioral: during work, fatigue often appears, indifference to food, reluctance to show physical activity, impulsive emotional behavior, accidents occur (injuries, falls, etc.)
Intellectual: decreased or lack of interest in new knowledge, preference for routine over a creative approach, formal performance of one’s work duties.
Social: lack of time and energy for communication, isolation from everyone, the feeling that no one close to you supports you.

Although this syndrome is directly related to professional activity, it has an impact on all areas of a person’s life. It is characteristic of those employees who work in the “person-to-person” system and in the “helping” area. First of all, emotional burnout affects teachers, doctors, social workers, educators, managers, i.e. those who show maximum empathy. But recently, workers who, by the nature of their work, do not often interact with people (for example, programmers) are increasingly susceptible to it [G. Makarova, 2009].

There are three main signs that indicate burnout:

extreme exhaustion;
detachment from clients, students, patients and work activity in general;
feeling of incompetence.

At first, a person shows increased activity in work, he immerses himself in it and does not even feel the need for other benefits, forgets about his own needs, after which exhaustion sets in - a feeling as if there are no emotions left, physical resources are at zero, and fatigue is such that Even sleep doesn't help to cope with it.

At this stage, the employee is in a hurry to go on vacation, hoping that a long rest will correct the situation, but as soon as he returns to work duties, the state of exhaustion immediately returns to him.

Next comes the second stage of burnout - detachment. A person tries to cope with his stress by isolating himself from interaction with other people. Interest in students, patients, clients is lost, the employee basically stops perceiving them and even gets irritated by their mere presence. And then there comes a depreciation of one’s professional qualities and work begins to bring less and less pleasure [G. Makarova, 2009].

It is important to diagnose the signs of emotional burnout in time and take appropriate measures, then serious consequences will be avoided.

Who is most often affected?

In practice, there is a clear risk group, certain professions or stages of life, for which emotional burnout is more common. Among these categories of people are students, teachers, doctors, mothers.

Emotional burnout among students. Studenthood is a special stage in the life of every person, a time of increased activity, self-determination, and responsibility. The student is already an adult, but demands still continue to be placed on him. Instead of spending time with friends or a favorite hobby, the student is forced to prepare for an important session in order to continue studying and become a competent specialist. Responsibilities associated with preparing for classes are not the only activities of students - research work, creative and social associations, participation in conferences, forums, outdoor events, all these conditions create a favorable environment for the development of the syndrome. In this case, it is useful to seek the help of a teenage psychologist.
Emotional burnout among teachers. Educators encounter a variety of students of all ages and personalities every day. It is very difficult to find a common language with each of them, but within the framework of the educational process, an individual approach is a priority area of professional activity. The teacher feels direct responsibility for the quality of children’s preparation, the results of their intermediate and final certification, but at the same time, their inability to cope with such a volume of work alone. Over time, the profession ceases to bring pleasure, fatigue and lack of acceptance of one’s own competence appear. The situation develops especially quickly when working with difficult children, disobedient, self-willed, and lacking initiative.
Emotional burnout among doctors. Employees of medical institutions take on enormous responsibility for the health, and often the lives of patients. Constant work with negativity (complaints, poor health, unpleasant procedures, stress) invariably affects the mental state of doctors. All specialists are susceptible to burnout to one degree or another, primarily those caring for cancer patients, patients with immunodeficiencies, as well as workers in intensive care teams.
Emotional burnout in mothers. It would seem that the birth of a child is a happy, significant event in life that cannot lead to negative consequences. However, in practice, an increasing number of mothers complain of emotional burnout. The baby begins to take up all the time, attention, strength, and this will continue until he comes of age. You need to have enormous internal energy resources to overcome all crisis stages of a child’s development without consequences for your own mental health.

For those who study, work in a responsible position, interact with a large number of people every day, or are parents, it is especially important to pay attention to spending their own leisure time and organizing rest in order to prevent the onset of emotional burnout.

Idealism and exhaustion. Learning to rest correctly

If you are still at the stage of idealism and excess or exhaustion, the first thing you need to do is take care of rest. It must be sufficient (quantity) and effective (quality). Let's take a dream. You need to sleep 7–8 hours a day - it's about quantity. You need to sleep in silence and darkness - this is about quality. A signal that you are doing everything right - it’s easy to get up in the morning at the first alarm signal, or you even wake up without it.

Once you've secured healthy sleep and freed up your evenings and weekends, start incorporating some light support tools into your routine. These tools will reduce your exposure to work stress.

Step 1: Define work boundaries—and write them down

Draw up a written (oral, but a letter is more effective) agreement with you, similar to the one that the employer enters into with the employee. In it, write down the conditions under which you are willing to work, how much time and effort you are willing to invest in the work. And also - what would be a violation of the terms of the contract, what you definitely do not agree to do for the sake of work. For example, working late, missing birthdays of loved ones, answering work messages on weekends. Add any details that seem important to you. Save the contract, monitor how you follow it, and re-read it periodically to refresh your memory of the rules.

Step 2: Create routines that will keep you going throughout the day.

Rituals reduce anxiety and increase our productivity at work. In the morning you can meditate and do a mini workout. During the day, take a long break for lunch and go to a cafe with colleagues or friends, a new one each time. Or take short 15-minute breaks, and during them dance, do breathing exercises, or just lie in the dark if you are tired of communication and movement. And to relax before bed, take a shower and read a good novel.

There are two rules. The first is regularity

: Routines should become so familiar that you do them without thinking.
Secondly, giving up smartphones
: they make rest ineffective, in particular, they impair concentration and increase stress. The exception is if you meditate or breathe using an app.

Which rituals to choose?

Take the Wellbeing Index test to determine the ones you need most. It will show you which areas of your life need the most attention right now: nutrition, physical activity, stress/emotions, time/focus, sleep and balance.

Step 3. Choose the right type of holiday

Vacations should always be completely relaxing

or be
as contrasting as possible
with your everyday activities. Complete relaxation is the format of a sanatorium, when the maximum effort you need to make is to get to a place where others will do the rest for you. It should be a safe and comfortable space. And the less novelty (even news) and the need to make decisions, the better. Examples: flotation tank, massage, meditation, yoga, spending the day in bed, progressive muscle relaxation, spending a day in nature swinging in a hammock and having a picnic. Just 8 hours of sleep will do.

The maximum contrast with what you do on weekdays can also be created with simple actions. If you spend all day with people, limit social activity and go for a walk in a park or forest alone. Conversely, if you work at home all day on a computer, your ideal relaxation is a rich social environment. And if you are a leader, accustomed to going forward and leading others, go to training, where the coach will tell you what to do and how to do it.

An alternative is to choose rest that stimulates oxytocin

or
adrenaline with dopamine
. The body produces oxytocin through support, care, touch, or the simple presence of other people. All this gives us a feeling of deep connection - “we are together.” If you want to feel the effects of oxytocin, look your loved one in the eyes. You will feel relaxed and protected. Oxytocin-filled rest is best for those who gain resources from caring for others. Suitable activities: have a heart-to-heart talk with loved ones and hug with them, go for a massage and SPA treatments.

There are people for whom effective protection against burnout is adrenaline plus dopamine: new experiences, moving forward every day. Almost all startup founders are like this. Three days without changes seems like stagnation to them, and when the project becomes stable, they are more tired than when they first started the business - even if objectively there are fewer problems. If this sounds like you, it's important to remember that the adrenaline and dopamine rush needs to be triggered in an environmentally friendly manner, not through gaming or watching porn. Anything that forces you to get out of your comfort zone, excites and inspires you will come in handy: learning a new language or mastering new skills, preferably complex ones, visiting new places, meeting new people with experiences and views that are different from yours.

Step 4. Devote half an hour a day to something that makes you feel happy and full of life.

As a rule, these are very simple things that we tend to put off until later, giving preference to more rational and urgent matters or procrastination. To remember them, think about what is important to you to do in life outside of work. What did you dream about at school, university and before burnout, when you had more strength? What would you like to remember on your centenary? Perhaps the answers will lead you to deeper relationships with family or loved ones. Or to a new activity that has nothing to do with work. Or maybe - to understand what the meaning and value of your current work is for you.

Add to these four tools basic body care: regular exercise and comfortable eating. If after this the condition has improved, you can not reduce the pace of work. But don’t forget: rest and self-care are as important as taking medications prescribed by your doctor. Neglecting them is like running towards a severe burnout.

How to combine productive work with self-care?

The answer is simple, but difficult to execute - to design your lifestyle correctly. Deva.School personal mentors will help you with this.

First, you and your mentor analyze your current habits.
Then you discuss your personal goals. Maybe you want to get more done. Or finally start exercising regularly and eating healthy. Or perhaps both at once.
The mentor draws up a simple plan, you act according to the plan and mark your progress in the telegram bot.
Once a week, you call your mentor to review the past week and set goals for the next. It's much easier and faster to change your habits to healthier ones than going it alone - and to stick to them.

A little test to test yourself

Emotional burnout is an extremely unpleasant condition that can lead to the development of all kinds of somatic and psychological ailments. The problem with diagnosis is that people often attribute the symptoms of the syndrome to banal fatigue and do not take them seriously.

The method for assessing emotional burnout, the Maslach questionnaire, is one of the most popular and reliable for assessing one’s own mental state. Diagnosis is carried out according to the main features - emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduction of professional achievements.

The questionnaire consists of 22 questions, for each of which you must select one answer option.

Question no.	Question	Answer options
1.	I feel pleasantly revitalized while working	Never – 0 points Very rarely – 1 point Rarely – 2 points Sometimes – 3 points Often – 4 points Very often – 5 points Every day – 6 points
2.	I can find the right solution in conflict situations that arise when communicating with colleagues
3.	After work I feel like a squeezed lemon
4.	After work, I want to get away from everyone and everything for a while
5.	At work I deal with emotional problems calmly
6.	I notice that my job is making me bitter
7.	Lately, it seems to me that colleagues and subordinates are increasingly shifting the burden of their problems and responsibilities onto me
8.	I want to retire and take a break from everything and everyone
9.	I feel emotionally drained
10.	I feel depressed and apathetic
11.	It happens that I really don’t care what happens to some of my subordinates and colleagues
12.	I feel like I'm working too much
13.	In the morning I feel tired and reluctant to go to work
14.	Lately I've become more callous towards those I work with.
15.	I feel indifference and loss of interest in many things that made me happy in my work
16.	I feel like I treat some subordinates and colleagues like objects (without warmth or affection towards them)
17.	I can easily create an atmosphere of goodwill and cooperation in a team
18.	I understand well how my subordinates and colleagues feel, and I try to take this into account in the interests of the business
19.	I have many plans for the future and I believe in their implementation
20.	Thanks to my work, I have already done a lot of really valuable things in my life.
21.	I'm sure people need my work
22.	My job is increasingly frustrating me

Decoding the results on the scale of emotional exhaustion - a feeling of emptiness, lethargy, the meaninglessness of what is happening, lack of positive emotions, mental and physical fatigue:

0-15 points – low level
16-24 – average level
25-54 high level.

Decoding the results on the depersonalization scale - indifference to work and its results, colleagues, partners, clients, lack of personal involvement:

0-5 points – low level
6-10 points – average level
11-30 points – high level

Decoding the results on the scale of reduction of professional achievements - decreased motivation to work, a negative assessment of one’s work in general and its results in particular, dissatisfaction with responsibilities, avoidance of them:

0-11 points – low level
12-18 points – average level
18-48 points – high level

If emotional burnout syndrome is not stopped in time, then its continuously increasing influence can significantly worsen the quality of life and lead to serious psychological problems and somatic diseases.

So what is it?

Burnout syndrome is increasing emotional exhaustion, which can lead to personal changes in communication with others. This is a condition in which the body turns on a psychological defense mechanism in response to traumatic factors, expressed in the complete absence of any emotions. The concept was introduced in 1974 by psychiatrist Herbert Freudenberger [V. Boyko, 1999].

This syndrome is often confused with overwork. These conditions have different weight categories: emotional burnout is, in fact, a disease that requires treatment, and overwork is temporary fatigue that goes away after a good rest. By the way, initially burnout syndrome was not equated to a disease, and only in 2001 it was included in the tenth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).

There are several theories that explain burnout syndrome from a psychological point of view. The most popular is the multifactorial theory of burnout, developed by American scientists Christina Maslach and Susan Jackson. In their opinion, this is nothing more than an employee’s reaction to chronic stress at work.

Christina Maslach identified three symptoms of this condition:

Emotional exhaustion: This feeling is similar to indifference - a complete absence of any emotions. A person feels exhausted and exhausted to such an extent that he does not even have the strength to communicate with other people. According to the authors, the source of this feeling is work overload and conflict situations.
Depersonalization: This refers to negative and cynical interactions with people. This is the body's response to emotional exhaustion.
Reduction of professional achievements: the feeling when an employee underestimates his competence and productivity. It occurs when it becomes impossible to cope with professional responsibilities, and intensifies when a person does not receive any support and does not see prospects for his development.

As you can see, this condition is associated with the professional sphere of life, and its main symptom is cynicism and devaluation of one’s work [N. Vodopyanova, E. Starchenkova, 2008].

To determine the level of emotional burnout, Christina Maslach and Susan Jackson created the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which you can take at the end of the article.

Another model explaining this phenomenon was proposed by Baron Perlman and Emil Hartman. According to scientists, burnout has three dimensions:

Physical: emotional exhaustion manifests itself on the physical level, fatigue, insomnia, etc. appear.
Affective-cognitive: the syndrome affects a person’s attitudes and feelings (lack of emotions, depersonalization).
Behavioral: Burnout affects a person’s behavior, such as decreased productivity.

According to this model, stress has several stages of development. First, the situation itself arises, leading to nervous tension: the person understands that he does not have the required skills and abilities to complete the task, or there is a discrepancy between expectations and reality (the work does not correspond to the person’s ideas and values).

The second stage of stress development depends on the employee’s perception of the most stressful situation. Next, a reaction to what is happening occurs in the form of deterioration in physical condition, changes in behavior, etc. And at the final stage, the body feels the consequences of stress; it is at this stage that emotional burnout occurs, i.e. this condition occurs as a result of prolonged exposure to a stressful situation [N. Vodopyanova, 2009].

Jerrold Greenberg, author of Managing Stress, described the stages of burnout as follows:

“Honeymoon”: at this stage, the employee willingly performs his work duties, but as soon as the workload increases, he begins to lose interest in work.
“Lack of fuel”: the syndrome begins to manifest itself in the form of sleep and appetite disturbances, the person feels tired and detached, and begins to avoid work in every possible way: being late, taking frequent breaks, going home early.
“Chronic symptoms”: at this stage, a person becomes irritable, aggressive, stops taking care of his appearance and constantly complains about lack of time.
“Crisis”: at this stage, chronic diseases appear, which causes complete or partial loss of working capacity.
“Breaking through the wall”: this is the most dangerous step, because due to the exacerbation of physical and psychological problems, the risk of developing life-threatening diseases increases [D. Greenberg, 2002].

So, now that we have looked at the main theories that explain what burnout syndrome is, we propose to talk in more detail about the causes of its occurrence and symptoms.

How to fight

Chronic fatigue, decreased ability to work, loss of interest in life, apathy, a feeling of hopelessness - all these are symptoms of emotional burnout. Constant internal tension, unfavorable living and working conditions, daily stress, excessive workload, unfulfilled dreams directly affect the development of the syndrome and the time required to eliminate it. When you notice the first signs of burnout, it is important to take appropriate action immediately.

Rest – every person needs a complete and healthy rest, physical relaxation, and relief from nervous tension. It is important to be able to distribute your own resources in such a way that the time allocated for work does not require sacrificing leisure, and vice versa. At work, it is advisable to take short breaks every time you feel emotional stress. This could be breathing exercises, minor physical exercises, or just listening to pleasant music - this will have enough energy for the whole day. At the same time, it is not advisable to neglect vacation or often stay overtime at the workplace.
Systematization as a means of organizing a large number of things will help you plan your work schedule correctly - don’t be nervous, don’t rush, but methodically and consistently follow the plan, highlighting the highest priority tasks and minor ones that bring less benefit than they require energy costs.
There is no limit to perfection. Continuous self-development is a good quality of a person, but in an attempt to outperform all colleagues, acquaintances and idols from TV, even if possible, it will not be at such a price. Self-improvement should bring pleasure, to some extent, even relaxation, but not be based on feelings of envy and an irresistible desire to gain dubious authority.
Accepting mistakes. Appropriate perfectionism and an uncontrollable pathological desire to do the job perfectly are polar different concepts. It is important to understand that mistakes are part of any development; they are useful experiences that often do more good than harm. In an effort to complete a task perfectly, a person spends much more time correcting, redoing, and improving the project, sacrificing other job responsibilities and his own natural needs for rest.
Versatility. It is not advisable to focus your whole life solely on the sphere of professional employment. It is important to pay attention to hobbies, social contacts, dreams come true, spending leisure time in pleasant company, mastering new knowledge, skills and abilities not related to direct job responsibilities.

The most important rule in the fight against emotional burnout is the correct placement of life priorities. If a person is positive, knows how to dream and realize diverse desires, then he is unlikely to ever be at risk.

What to do if you notice signs of burnout?

First of all, acknowledge that they exist. It is difficult to admit to yourself: “I am suffering from professional burnout.” Moreover, in difficult life situations, internal unconscious defense mechanisms are activated. Among them are rationalization, repression of traumatic events, “petrification” of feelings and body.

People often evaluate these manifestations incorrectly - as a sign of their own “strength”. Some protect themselves from their own difficult conditions and problems by becoming active: they try not to think about them and devote themselves completely to work and helping other people. Helping others can actually bring relief for a while. However, only for a while. After all, overactivity is harmful if it distracts attention from the help you need yourself.

Remember: blocking your feelings and being too active can slow down your recovery process.

Anti-stress techniques:

1. Get distracted:

A five-minute walk in nature can bring many benefits.
try to switch your thoughts to another subject.
Look around and take a closer look.
Pay attention to the smallest details.
Slowly, without rushing, mentally “go through” all the objects one by one in a certain sequence. Mentally say to yourself: “Brown desk, green curtains, etc.”

2. Reduce the significance of events:

It should be remembered that the true cause of stress is not people, not disappointments, not mistakes, but how you feel about it.
Use the principle of positivity in everything with attitudes such as: “I didn’t really want to,” “this is not the main thing in life, you shouldn’t treat what happened as a disaster,” etc.;
“there’s no need to beat yourself up”, “stop being dramatic”;
He who worries earlier than he should worry worries more than he should.

3. Take action:

any activity, especially physical labor, acts as a lightning rod in a stressful situation;
Stress is a very powerful source of energy. You can unwind in the simplest way: clean up your home or workplace;
take a walk or brisk walk;
go for a run;
hit a ball or pillow, etc.

4. Create:

Any creative work can heal from experiences:

draw;
dance;
sing;
sculpt;
sew;
design, etc.

5. Express emotions:

Pushing emotions inside, trying to hide them, is very harmful!

Learn to show emotions, “throw them out” without harm to others.

Emotional release is necessary to maintain health (physical and mental),

The ability to talk about your problems will help you establish contacts with others and understand yourself.

depict emotions using gestures, facial expressions, and voice;
crumple, tear paper;
throw objects at the target on the wall;
try to draw your feeling, then color it, make it funny or tear it up;
talk to someone, emphasizing your feelings (“I’m upset..”, “I’m offended by this..”).

6. Reframing (The word 'reframing' comes from the English word 'frame' (frame), so it can literally be translated as reframing. Changing the point of view, attitude towards something, without changing the situation itself):

Make it a rule to reframe at least three times:

Whenever something negative happens, try to find three positive consequences or wins that can be derived from this trouble.

7. Visualization of the resource state:

A group of methods aimed at developing the ability to manage one’s condition.

A person, in a state of deep relaxation, evokes any pleasant memory: place, time, sounds and smells, gets used to this state, remembers it and trains the ability to recall it at will.

This state is called a resource state, and having learned to quickly evoke it, one can turn on this state in difficult moments.

8. Kinesiological set of exercises:

One palm is placed on the back of the head, the other on the forehead. You can close your eyes and think about any negative situation that is relevant to you. Take a deep breath and exhale. Mentally imagine the situation again, but only in a positive aspect, think about and realize how this problem could be resolved. After the manifestation of a kind of “pulsation” between the occipital and frontal parts, self-correction ends with inhalation and exhalation.

Relaxation (when we accumulate energy) includes the following:

Sleep (7-9 hours)
Trance (meditation)
Breathing exercises
Energy gymnastics (strangely enough, this is relaxation – and at the level of the internal environment)
Prayer
Being in the temple
Solitude (solitude greatly restores strength!)
Color visualization
Leisurely walk
Swimming
Drinking water
Listening to classical music (and organ music is especially valuable in this sense)
Aromas (smells of forest, sea, field, essential oils)
Massage
Acupressure
We accumulate energy when we sincerely admire someone!
And of course, forgiveness - from it the return of energy wasted on offense comes in double volume (and if you have at least once managed to sincerely forgive someone, you know this well)
And gratitude.

Your condition can be alleviated by physical and emotional support from other people. Don't give up on it. Discuss your situation with others who have had similar experiences and are feeling good.

DO NOT hide your feelings. Show your emotions and let your friends discuss them with you.
DO NOT avoid talking about what happened. Take every opportunity to review your experiences alone or with others.
DO NOT let your feelings of embarrassment stop you when others give you a chance to speak or offer to help.
DO NOT expect the severe symptoms of burnout to go away on their own. If you don't take action, they will visit you for a long time.
Allocate enough time for sleep, rest, and reflection.
Express your desires directly, clearly and honestly, talk about them to family, friends and at work.
Try to maintain a normal routine in your life as much as possible.

Methods of helping with emotional burnout:

1. Physiological (effects on the body): sunlight, physical exercise, sunbathing (tanning), fresh air, air baths, walks, bathing, swimming in reservoirs, baths (Russian, Finnish), solarium, infrared radiation, breathing Strelnikova, breathing exercises.

2. Physiotherapeutic: physiotherapy, electrosleep, acupuncture, acupuncture of all schools, massage, homeopathy.

3. Biochemical (effects at the cellular level): healthy food, medications.

4. Psychological: auto-training, meditation, biofeedback method, self-regulation methods, music, prayer.

If you understand that combustion is already happening and has reached deep stages, remember: special work is needed to respond to the traumatic experience and revive feelings. Real courage is admitting that I need professional help.

First comes the difficult work, the goal of which is to “remove the shell of insensibility” and give permission to your feelings to come out. This does not lead to a loss of self-control, but suppressing these feelings can lead to neuroses and physical problems. At the same time, special work with destructive “poisonous” feelings (in particular, aggressive ones) is important. The result of this preparatory work is the “clearing” of the internal space, freeing up space for the arrival of something new, a revival of feelings.

The next stage of professional work is a revision of your life myths, goals and values, your ideas and attitudes towards yourself, other people and your work. Here it is important to accept and strengthen your “I”, to realize the value of your life; take responsibility for your life and health and take a professional position in your work.

And only after this, step by step, attitudes towards other people and ways of interacting with them change. There is a new development of one’s professional role and one’s other life roles and behavior patterns. A person gains confidence in his abilities. This means that he has come out of the emotional burnout syndrome and is ready to live and work successfully.

Psychologists believe: in order not to become a victim of the syndrome, you must, first of all, have the right attitude towards yourself, other people and your work.

The main thing is to remember: burnout syndrome is not a disease or a death sentence, it is just the ability of your psyche to respond to emotional overload.

Prepared by: educational psychologist Konon Svetlana Nikolaevna

Recovery stages

Having diagnosed the signs of emotional burnout and made attempts to get rid of it, a person has already made a huge effort on himself. After all, the rehabilitation path is the hardest – always at the beginning. The more effective the techniques for overcoming a stressful situation are, the more often they are used in practice, the faster a person will notice qualitative changes in himself:

Specific life goals
Awareness of the presence of external traumatic factors, development of a plan to overcome them
The desire to spend time with loved ones and do something new
Predominance of positive thoughts.

This is the only positive feature of emotional burnout. If a person successfully copes with the syndrome, his life changes forever for the better.

Summarize

Burnout syndrome is not uncommon today, especially when it comes to those specialists whose duty is to help other people. Increasingly, people began to devalue their health, hunting for a big salary, high position and prestige. Of course, it’s good to have aspirations and goals, but don’t forget that without the main resource it will be impossible to achieve them.

In order not to fall into an emotional trap, when you don’t even have the strength to express your feelings, you need to work on yourself every day: do not overload yourself with work responsibilities, avoid stress, observe a work-rest schedule, devote time to hobbies and sensibly assess your resources. This way you can achieve your most cherished goals and at the same time save energy and strength.

Be healthy!

We also recommend reading:

Storytelling
Professional burnout: what is it and how to prevent it?
How to avoid burnout
Stendhal syndrome
Emotional eating
How to sleep and relax more
Emotional Labor
Emotional burnout
10 factors of professional burnout
Munchausen syndrome
The need-information theory of P. V. Simonov

Key words:1Psychoregulation

Prevention

The most important prevention of emotional burnout is taking care of your health. An integral part of every person’s life should be walking or jogging, playing sports, eating right, and giving up bad habits.

Refusal from modern technologies is no less important for stabilizing the mental state. All kinds of gadgets have become firmly established in the life of every person - they serve not only as a means of communication, but as a tool for self-development, leisure time, vacation planning, and so on. Despite all this, numerous researchers insist that frequent use of smartphones contributes to the accumulation of nervous tension.

To prevent the development of the syndrome, one should master control over emotions. Relaxation techniques, relaxation, meditation will help cope with stress, which cannot be completely eliminated from life, but learning to respond to it is easier - quite.

Nutrition

1. Start your day right. Eat a balanced breakfast that includes complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, protein and healthy fats.

2. Don't overuse coffee. And don’t get carried away with other stimulating drinks either.

3. Carry a bottle of water with you. Try to drink enough liquid. Then you will feel more energetic.

4. Avoid junk food, processed foods and processed foods. Or at least reduce your consumption of such foods.

5. Carefully study the menu in cafes and restaurants. Choose meals that are rich in protein and vegetables.

6. Drink less alcohol. And if you have enough willpower, give it up completely.

7. Pack healthy snacks. Then you won’t have to buy chips and chocolates when you want to eat.

8. Watch when and how much you eat. Try not to overeat or eat late at night.

9. Eat more greens, vegetables and fruits. Nutritionists advise eating more plant foods per day.

10. Enrich your diet. Most likely, you are not getting all the substances your body needs.

Tips for dealing with burnout syndrome

What to do with signs of burnout at work? Protection against emotional burnout exists at every stage of its development.

At the first stage.

Here, the rules of simple mental hygiene will help you cope with the onset of the burnout process and prevent it from developing further.

Lead a balanced life

. In other words, along with work, find a place for family, friends, sports, and recreation. But at the same time, try to understand why most of the time is still spent on work. Setting various kinds of tasks and successfully solving them is an excellent opportunity to increase self-esteem and feel like a hero.

Reduce work pace

. If you like to rush at full speed to fulfill your next plan, try to look at this situation from a realistic perspective. It only takes two or three months to record everything you do to understand whether such a pace is necessary.

Ensure the support of others

. More often these are people close to you, friends and family members who can support you in difficult times, but they can also be work colleagues. For example, the activity of a psychologist is considered one of the most susceptible to emotional burnout. Professional help from colleagues is a powerful support factor. With them you can sort out a difficult situation, ask for advice, or simply complain about the heavy workload when a wave of fatigue hits.

At the second stage.

Learn to rest properly

. At the second stage this is very important. Just don’t think that it will be household chores, self-development courses or gym workouts.

Combating burnout syndrome
Adequate rest should also include:

Daily
. You charge your smartphone every day, so you should find time for yourself to recuperate.
Weekly
. Take at least one day a week off and try not to think about work during this time.
Annual
. You have to take a vacation every year. Let it be not a full month, but a week, but four times and at different times. It is very important that during vacation periods there is complete isolation from work.

A complete, relaxing holiday involves two factors: irresponsibility (no need to be responsible for implementing a plan or delivering products) and carefree (no need to worry about clients). It is not always possible to fulfill both conditions in real life, but it is worth striving for.

Build boundaries

. In theory, this should be done all the time, but it is at the third stage that it is important to distinguish between personal life and work, to separate them from each other with a bold line. Try to reinforce in the minds of your employees and clients the idea that calling you after hours is useless, do not take urgent tasks and do not rush into embrasures. This would be ideal. But if you try to build boundaries, it will very soon become clear that 90% of the “burning” tasks are actually not that urgent.

At the third stage.

It’s too late to drink Borjomi when your kidneys have failed. At the stage of exhaustion, only a full vacation for three months, no less, will help. It is impossible to deceive the body. A depleted nervous system can only be restored by long-term rest, which can last up to six months.

At the fourth stage.

How to deal with signs of burnout at work in this case? Only quality rest and a complete review of activities will help, perhaps even changing your profession. Because burnout syndrome will make you hate what you did before.