Fruitful Minds Counselling

Did you know that burnout does not apply only to work (occupational) burnout. You can experience the same response to overwhelming stress when you fill the role of care giver to a friend or family member.

It’s not what your relationship was meant to be, and it’s more difficult than any one else can understand, but you’ll do it willingly because of your love for your family member or friend. But, your life and yourself have changed. You’re struggling and perhaps you don’t fully understand why.

Burnout is a response to prolonged and intense stress which results in extreme and unending physical and emotional exhaustion. When your role with a family member or friend changes, it can be confusing or even upsetting, demanding you to give of your time, often money, and even your body. This role may seem to consume your whole life.

It is normal to feel like you are struggling. But there are ways to make you feel better, to manage the stress differently.

Stage 5 of the development of burnout is the Habitual Burnout Phase

The effects and symptoms of burnout from the previous four stages become a part of daily life at this stage. Your extreme exhaustion is consistent, pervasive, always. By now, you are not able to maintain a your normal daily routines and tasks. This puts your life as you knew it at risk; your relationships and work become at risk for implosion.

You and your life are changed and you feel like there is no way out of the pit of exhaustion and failure.

At this stage, it is highly possible that your burnout will lead to heightened, acute anxiety and/or depression. Your body and mind have taken such punishment that you cannot come out of this on your own. At this stage, it is best to seek clinical help for the physical impacts, the anxiety and depression.

Even at this stage, there is a way out of burnout. No matter what stage of burnout you find yourself in, there are ways to improve your mental and physical state and find a better way to manage your stress and life.

Take step towards a more fruitful, peaceful and whole mind. Contact us or another professional to move away from burnout.

Stage 4 of the development of burnout is the Burnout Phase

In this phase, your stress becomes noticeable to other people, as you are no longer able to successfully manage your stress and your work, relationships, and mood are affected.

You may truly struggle to get yourself out of, lacking motivation to do anything and being extremely exhausted. You may become physically sick, with prolonged or frequent headaches or stomach issues. This physical impact takes it toll on your work and other roles as you struggle to keep up with the life you used to.

You begin to doubt yourself in everything you do, so much so that even simple day-to-day tasks become impossible to do. You cannot motivate yourself to even do the things you once enjoyed. Your doubt becomes so severe that you not see yourself able to even be in relationship with - you distance yourself from other people more because of your doubt.

You may even become completely emotionally numb, without intending to. This is seen as unloving, unkind, callous or mean by others around you and supports your doubt even more.

These symptoms are risk factors for moving into a state of depression. They are not inevitable, there is a way out of burnout.

Stage 3 of the development of burnout is the Chronic Stress Phase

In this phase, your stress begins to make an impact in your daily life. This stress may become more than you feel you can successfully manage, and you may notice that your work and relationships begin to take strain.

Signs that you may be experience in more stress than you can manage may include:

A sense of apathy, towards people and activities in your life. This may include towards your work or stressful role which you previously enjoyed. Apathy can feel like a sincere lack of enthusiasm and interest. You may feel like this even when you don’t intend to, which often negatively impacts your relationships.

You may feel socially withdrawn, often by your own actions, as you may feel too exhausted to engage, or even like a relational failure. This is a self-preservation act, your body and mind feels the need to conserve energy in order to combat the stress as much as possible.

In your relationships, roles and tasks you may find yourself easily angered. You may find it happening without being able to control your outburst, but that your mind cannot grapple with additional stress or confrontation. This will affect your relationships more than other symptoms, as other people may not understand your emotional state.

In terms of your roles and tasks, you may find yourself procrastinating to a serious extent. This is procrastination beyond normal delaying tasks, to a point that it puts pressure on your work and responsibilities. This becomes noticeable to to others in your environment and may lead to conflict.

There are ways to mitigate and manage the stress and to prevent your stress from becoming even more severe, and prevent burnout from establishing itself in your body and mind. There is hope to get out of the cycle.