When we’ve been overwhelmed in any area of life for too long, burnout is often the result. Burnout causes us to disengage from life, drowns us in hopelessness and drains us over every scrap of motivation. Relentless pressure, combined with a sense that our efforts aren’t helping or aren’t even noticed, creates burnout[1].  Although burnout isn’t a psychological disorder, it aggravates anxiety and worry and looks a lot like depression. It can also make any existing depression much worse.

Although some of the causes of burnout are beyond our control, the one variable in the burnout equation that we can change is ourselves. Looking at how we approach tasks and how we see ourselves can help us get a grip on what seems hopeless.

Psychological Traits Affecting Burnout

  • Perfectionistic approach to work and life. Anything less than completely perfect performance is terrible and perfect isn’t good enough.
  • A strong sense of ownership of one’s work and job
  • Over-identification with one’s job–feeling like rough times at work decrease the person’s value as a human being
  • A need to keep control over one’s work to an unrealistic degree
  • A pessimistic or cynical outlook that things are bad, can’t be changed and will only get worse
  • A tendency to value good work over good health and peace of mind

How Can Therapy Help Burnout?

It can be hard to learn to do the things we have to do to get past burnout. For example, a common task for beating burnout is to learn to say no to extra work. That’s hard to do on your own! After all, if you find saying “no” to working nights and weekends to be easy, you’d already be doing it. A local therapist can help you make all the small steps it takes to be free of burnout, particularly due to the mental rigors of breaking past burnout. Doing things a new way generates a tremendous amount of anxiety. Having a therapist helps you learn that it’s ok to be scared of new and strange methods of working–and doing them anyway.

Consider trying the following:

  • Learn to delegate as much as possible, and don’t get caught up in the trap of trying to find the “perfect” person to hand things off to. Understand that you won’t find that person rapidly and every minute missed keeps you stuck.
  • Tame your electronic devices. Sure, most of us are wired all the time, with laptops, tablets, and phones keeping us attached to work. Turn them off as much as possible. Once you try, you’ll start thinking of all the reasons you just can’t do it. This is where a therapist comes in. Trying to arrange free time from devices causes a lot of anxiety at first.
  • Cut back on mixing work and socializing. If your co-workers are your only friends, you never get truly away from work.
  • Cut back on taking work home. Again, you’ll be faced with a lot of anxiety, but your therapist will help you learn to reduce it.

If you’re experiencing signs of burnout, seek help from an experienced psychiatric nurse practitioner who can help you understand what you’re feeling, why you’re feeling it and provide you options to move forward.

Damaris Aragon, ARNP, BC provides a full spectrum of mental health care to people in Spokane, Washington and surrounding areas. She focuses on providing personalized care that adheres to current evidence-based standards. Reach out to Damaris through her contact page or calling 509-342-6592.

 

 

[1] https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397