Understanding and Preventing Burnout: Tips for Restoring Balance and Well-Being

Have you ever felt tired, lost a sense of purpose, or felt like nothing you do matter at your job? If so, then you experiencing some form of burnout. Burnout is a state of exhaustion that comes from prolonged stress. This can come in the form of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. Burnout is usually associated with a job but this can happen to caregivers and stay-at-home parents as well.

Burnout comes from not properly taking care of or managing life stressors. This usually comes in the form of not maintaining a proper work/life balance, not resting properly, or not managing stress in healthy ways. Burnout can cause people to get irritable or use substances to help deal with the stress. These options can lead a person to make other choices that can either ruin relationships or get into legal trouble, or both. With this in mind, people must learn to deal with burnout before it gets out of hand. 

One of the important ways to prevent burnout is to have proper boundaries with your job or the people you care for. These boundaries help ensure that you can maintain a proper work/life balance. This can include setting boundaries around what your working hours are or the expectations for returning messages. For stay-at-home parents, boundaries can include working with your partner to create boundaries about daily schedules or when certain chores should be done. Boundaries can be difficult to enforce at first, but with practice, you can improve and discover how setting boundaries can reduce stress. Another important thing to consider is tkaing proper rest. Rest is important to ensure that not only that you in a good state of mind but to help maintain your physical health as well. This can include getting enough sleep or taking vacations.

Burnout is something that can sneak up on you when you don’t take care of yourself. If you feel like your experiencing burnout then you need to do something about. You start with trying some of the things mentioned here. Another great option is to seek help from a counselor. A mental health counselor can help you figure out ways to better to manage stress to reduce burnout. If you feel like you need then get the help you need the sooner the better. It is never to late to start taking better care of yourself.

Written by Nicholas Pujol, RMHCI