Emotional burnout: causes, stages, prevention and treatment

Despite the relevance of the problem of emotional burnout syndrome (EBS) today, attention was paid to this mental disorder back in the 60s of the twentieth century. At that time, special social services appeared in the United States to provide assistance to the unemployed, people who suffered from violence, the disabled and war veterans. As a result of the work of such rehabilitation centers, scientists learned about the existence of professional exhaustion. In 1974, the American psychiatrist Herbert Freudenberg introduced the concept of "emotional burnout syndrome", identified the causes, main signs and stages of the disease.

Emotional burnout syndrome: what is it

EBS is a person's loss of energy, comprehensive physical and mental exhaustion, a mechanism of psychological defense of the body, in which it completely or partially "turns off" emotions in response to irritants. In most cases, the disease is identified with professional burnout, which implies the destruction of the human self under the influence of stress at work.

Who suffers from emotional burnout

As strange as it may sound, 80% of doctors with a specialty in psychology and psychiatry suffer from this disease, with varying degrees of its severity.

Those working in the field of pedagogy, social policy and law enforcement are also at risk. In the modern world, CMEA chooses its "victims" not only among people of social professions - it shamelessly invades a person's personal life. The unlimited flow of information, the frantic pace of life, technological advances, all kinds of entertainment and a total lack of time - all this leaves its mark on the human psyche, making it more vulnerable and bringing people of different professions closer to emotional burnout.

People who are under regular control, or so-called over-controlled individuals, are often subject to emotional exhaustion. Such a mental disorder often manifests itself in housewives and creative individuals.

Many types of professional activities include 24/7 employee availability, regular business trips, round-the-clock active state of a smartphone, laptop, tablet or other gadgets. Fuss, high competition, the desire to be on the crest of success and the usual physical fatigue from the intense pace of life - all this increases the likelihood of burnout syndrome.

Symptoms of personality deformation

• a feeling of total emptiness and hopelessness (doubts about the right choice of profession, apathy towards a previously beloved business, regrets about wasted time);
• development of a negative attitude towards others (colleagues, clients, loved ones);
• a drop in self-esteem (a feeling of one's own helplessness, inability to do something good and high-quality, fading into the background);
• rapid fatigue and loss of interest;
• the world loses its colors, there is a feeling of hopelessness.

Don't bring yourself to a nervous breakdown. If you have found similar symptoms in yourself, but are unable to resist them on your own, contact a qualified psychologist so that the situation does not develop into a chronic depressive state.

People with bad habits (alcoholism, smoking, taking energy stimulants) are especially prone to such a qualitative transition, since they try to suppress the manifestations of the syndrome with additional doses of energy drinks, cigarettes or alcohol, which only worsens the situation.

Stages of burnout

Psychiatrists have created several types of gradation of the development of emotional burnout syndrome. American scientist George Greenberg identified five stages of psychological exhaustion:

• "Honeymoon": a person is happy with himself, his work, even feels enthusiastic to go further, but constant stress takes away the pleasure of the work done, the energy level gradually decreases.
• "Lack of fuel": unstable sleep, fatigue, additional motivation for action is needed, productivity drops, destabilization of self-organization, it is difficult for a person to concentrate on a task.
• Manifestation of chronic symptoms: a person drives himself into a dead end with excessive loads, works through force, which leads to physical exhaustion, the body becomes susceptible to various diseases. At this stage, manager's syndrome (a feeling of constant lack of time) appears.
• Crisis: partial or complete loss of working capacity due to exacerbation or occurrence of chronic diseases. Acute experience of dissatisfaction with life and one's own inferiority.
• "Breaking through a wall": nothing is going well at work, a career is on the verge of ending, the patient is surrounded by continuous problems, the impression that everything is going to hell. Physical and emotional exhaustion has reached the point of provoking life-threatening diseases.

The development of the syndrome is individual, the differences in the course of the stages depend on the motivational sphere in each individual case, as well as on the specifics of the professional activity of the employee (for example, a teacher and an official communicate daily with completely different categories of people, the type of activity and the monotony of the tasks set before them also differ).

Emotional exhaustion overtakes successful people too. For example, an entrepreneur has a thriving business, he has achieved everything: money, fame, recognition. However, the darling of fate, who is at the top, is overtaken by the understanding that there is nowhere to go further, that he cannot think of any further development for himself, has lost meaning and motivation, has gone from unbridled enthusiasm to emptiness.

Prevention and treatment

It is quite possible to prevent burnout, the main thing is to understand what can cause it. To cope with the disease, you first need to relieve yourself physically and emotionally.

• Share responsibility with others.
• Don't drive yourself into a framework.
• Set only realistic goals for yourself.
• Your attitude in life must be authentic, that is, correspond to your Self.

At more advanced stages of burnout, only a doctor can help. A person takes sick leave, goes to a sanatorium, but even there continues to exhaust himself. He has set excessive demands and, having failed to fulfill them, engages in self-flagellation due to acute pangs of conscience about his own failure.

Medicines in this case are no help, they provide short-term relief. Physical health is what is really needed. A doctor will tell you how to increase stress resistance, change your attitude towards yourself, and overcome the internal deficit of a sense of completeness.

If you feel that you are starting to "burn out", ask yourself simple questions:

• What is the point of what I do? Why am I doing this?
• Do I enjoy what I do? Do I like it?

If you have reached the extreme, ask yourself this question: are you ready to live for this? A negative answer is a signal to change jobs, environment, and take a long rehabilitation time-out.