The problem of professional burnout among teachers

More than 50 years ago in America, they first began to study a type of stress in which conventional therapy did not bring results.

Patients complained of an emotional crisis, disgust for their work, and a feeling of fading professional skills. At the same time, various psychosomatic disorders and loss of social contacts were observed.

The American Freudenberger, who identified this phenomenon as an independent form of stress, gave it the name “burnout.”

Burn out at work like a match - with roots in the USSR

The Soviet people understood no worse than the Americans what kind of attack this was. At least everyone knew how it ended. “Another one burned out at work” - this fatal diagnosis was honorable.

Within the framework of militant collectivism, this had some value for society, although for an individual person who died with such romanticism, it was probably still tragic. Everyone knew the 3 stages of the phenomenon of workaholism:

• “burn at work”;
• “to burn out on something”;
• burn.

Burn – that was our way! But it was possible to burn honorably - at work and ingloriously - from vodka. At first glance, workaholism and alcoholism have nothing in common. But if you look closely, you can recognize similar features and symptoms in these “excesses.” And the general last stage: the personality’s descent into degradation.

The Americans have nothing to brag about: we, too, have been burning, burning out and burning out for a long time. And it was even believed that this is exactly how one should live. Remember the fiery Sergei Yesenin: “For me, rather than rotting on a branch, it’s better to burn in the wind.” Poets, writers, actors, doctors, and social activists burned before their earthly term.

And long before Friendberger, his famous compatriot Jack London gave a comprehensive description of the burnout syndrome using the example of his hardworking genius Martin Eden in the work of the same name.

Martin, who worked 15-20 hours a day, striving for his goal, eventually achieved it. But, alas, by that time he no longer needed fame, money, or a lover. It burned to the ground. A painful state in which he no longer felt anything, did not want to and could not. Having achieved everything he dreamed of, he simply committed suicide. Well, another one burned out at work... More precisely, from work.

Once again about emotional burnout

I've been burning out for over 12 years now. I work, burn out and go on a binge for a week. Then, with pain and titanic efforts, I return to life, to clients whom I did not manage to lose during the weeks of non-existence, and the cycle repeats. More than 12 years. It’s not customary to talk about this publicly, but I have no other choice. I am sure that some of you have the same problems, and you are alone with yourself, not knowing what to do about it. You burn out, become exhausted, relax as best you can and return to this squirrel wheel... again, and again, and again.

Jumping off it seems unrealistic. If only because of bills, family, mortgage for 2000 years, and the desire to comply. You, a resident of a metropolis, want to be no worse than a neighbor, than the parents of other children, than a childhood friend and, in the end, to be on the top of the mountain, looking down on everyone. No? But you still work until your eyes bulge out, forgetting about your health, then about your friends, then about the fact that there is life around you outside of your monitor. You identify yourself with your work and all your energy goes into it. You are a workaholic and you probably burn out at work, just like me.

Let's figure out where the legs grow from. Namely, what to do if you are burnt out, how to get out of this state. And how to maintain a balance between life and work so as not to fall into this trap again. The post contains the opinions of psychologists, other people’s and personal experiences.

12 years of freelancing

Background

It all started a long time ago, even before I was born.
Like all of us, my parents were born and raised in the USSR. The spirit of collectivism, glory to work, you give a five-year plan in four years, only forward - at any cost, at the cost of human life. And don't care about personality. You are either the right cog that turns at the right speed in the overall mechanism, or you are a parasite and an outcast. In our kitchen I often heard the following phrases: “You know that working in life is the most important thing. Why don’t you do anything?”, “The boss is always right”, “Initiative is punishable.” This mentality was taught in schools and college. And already a university graduate was trained to please the system and was ready for work and defense. A step to the left, a step to the right - execution. And I’m not exaggerating, my parents’ parents are still afraid that the NKVD will come for them at the mention of the leader of the peoples.

But let me return to local events in my family, which, it seems to me, contributed to the formation of the excellent student syndrome in me, always being the first and never losing.

My father was a semi-professional football player. He played for the factory where he worked and was quite successful. His professional career did not work out, although he showed great promise, and many of the guys from his children’s team became future world football stars who won the Champions League and European Championship. Therefore, even before I was born, it hit him in the head that I should definitely become a professional football player. Yes, not ordinary, but the best. By the way, he named me in honor of the player who scored a goal in the USSR-France match on my birthday.

Having barely learned to walk, they threw me a ball so that I could hit it. Already at the age of 5-6, we regularly went out into the yard and my father taught me to play football. He taught me until I turned green and fell exhausted. Having learned to run quickly, hit and dribble players, we began to improve our skill - “one against all”

.

A crowd of kids gathered from the yard, my father stood on the goal, and I was the only field player on our team. That is, father and I, against 8-10 boys. And what is typical is that a goal could only be scored by dribbling around all the opponents, and if it didn’t work out, then you had to run like a shuttle to defend your goal. It was at that time that the first version of this software was installed on me:

• Program “I can act independently, even against the majority
  . In adulthood, a patch to the first version called “I Don’t Need Nobody” was released.
• Background program “I am the best in any case.
  And if this is not so, then I will persist, but I will prove the opposite .
• Belief “You can do anything.” Even alone"

You understand that with such software, others characterize a person either as a narcissist, or as an egoist or self-centered person.
But you are convinced to be the best in any case, so you don’t care about anyone. Otherwise why would you be here? Years passed. I played football quite successfully for the youth team of our city, of course I was the captain and leader, I had no other way.

But here's the problem. As a child I was quite sickly and frail. So thin that it was blown away by the wind. He weighed about 40 kilograms with a height of 160 cm.

So it turned out that I no longer had enough physical condition for the entire match. And the older we got, the faster I faded on the field.

See the connection with the title of the post? In sports this is called endurance, and I didn’t have it. 15 minutes of the match passed at the pace of “me alone against everyone, both here and there,” and for the remaining 75 minutes I hung around like a sausage without strength. So, from captains and leaders, I slipped into the second team and left football altogether. I left just at the moment when I became acquainted with PCs and programming and realized that this was mine. The trouble was that the operating system and software remained the same.

Freelancing

And then a successful career in IT began.
No, of course not right away. Dozens of books on programming were studied in a cavalry charge. As befits, they wrote their own calculator, their own toy programming language. And already entering the university, I was prepared for 3-4 years ahead in my specialty. Why, I started working already from the first year. And I wrote candidate’s theses to order already in the third year. In my fourth year, I went to university mainly to take classes and exams. And then freelancing appeared in my life. In my small town where I lived, there were no jobs for a developer in the early 2000s, so I was very happy that I would find use for my skills working with foreign customers.

And then the first symptoms of burnout began to appear...

Psychologist Evgenia Streletskaya in her video identifies 4 stages

burnout:
Video
1.
Hyperactivity
. When we are completely absorbed in an idea and don’t notice anything around us. We devote all our time to this project and work. At this stage, we frantically spend our resources in sprint mode, not noticing fatigue, not paying attention to sleep and rest patterns, nutrition and all other areas of life. The ending is a bit predictable and we inevitably end up at stage number 2.

2. Fatigue

. Chronic stress. At this stage, you may have severe irritability, increased sensitivity to loud sounds, cravings for fatty/salty/sweet foods, alcohol, and smoking. By the way, stages 1 and 2 are clearly observed in people with bipolar personality disorder (BAD). They alternate between manic enthusiasm and complete apathy and impotence.

3. Reversible wasting

. Those who are prone to depression become depressed. Those who are prone to psychosomatics begin to experience physical illnesses of still reversible stages. Hysterical symptoms (conversions): an arm or a leg is taken away, injuries of unexplained etiology occur, which do not respond to traditional methods of treatment and do not go away for a long time. Visual impairment, blindness, memory loss. Deterioration in concentration.

4. Irreversible exhaustion

.
Professional deformation, feeling of meaninglessness of work, hatred of work, employees, clients. You feel like a gloomy, unsociable person. Alcoholism. Life deteriorates in all areas, relationships with friends and family collapse. I do not fully agree with the irreversibility of the fourth stage, which is why I am writing this post to summarize my experience and everything I have seen on the topic of emotional burnout. But it is what it is. Projecting these stages onto myself, I get the following event-time scale: 1st stage.
A new project or a new interesting task appears. I am accumulating all my strength and all my attention to this task. I can work 10-16 hours a day, and even when I fall asleep I think about a new project, making notes on my phone, with one eye slightly open. I especially “stick out” if it’s a new technology stack or a promising freelance client. I also jump headlong into implementing my own grandiose ideas, but alone the fuse lasts for a week or two.

2nd stage.

Fatigue, apathy and chronic stress usually set in 2-3 weeks after the first sprint. You feel weak, the aforementioned irritability with your family, you try to avoid people around you because they also irritate you, and you are weakened. There is such a word “must” - they repeated it to me as a child, and I’m still able to survive for a few more weeks. With the help of psychologists and self-help groups, you can stretch this period to a maximum of 4 months. The end will still come if you don’t rest and identify your fatigue at the very beginning.

3rd stage.

Exhaustion. For me it manifests itself in such a way that my brain stops thinking. It just refuses to work completely. My head is foggy, putting a few words together is a problem. I have no strength for anything. If you're lucky, you can get through the weekend and extend your torment for another week. Then again. But the toggle switch is already turned on, and the brain will flash again to o. If you don't stop radically, it will...

4th.

Binge drinking

Psychologists' opinions

The video from Evgenia would be comprehensive if not for two facts that break me.
Namely, she argues that the only way to get out of stage 4 is to change profession. And being on the 3rd, you need to take the sabbatical. Both options are not suitable for me, for the reason that the work completely suits me, and it is unlikely that I will be able to change my occupation to something other than IT. And by definition, there cannot be sabbaticals in freelancing. At the very least, you need to collect a round sum for all possible expenses in the next month or two. Therefore, we continue to dig further.

For example, Zoya Skobeltsyna emerged from a state of burnout after spending 3 months in Thailand, not devoting a single minute to work, but focusing on her recovery.

Video
I think this method is the most effective, in fact, it is a sabbatical for the self-employed.
But there are conditions that must be met: 1) There is a financial airbag for half a year 2) There are no children who are tied to school or kindergarten 3) Clients or bosses will be understanding about your non-sudden long-term vacation. Or there is someone who will take on your tasks. As for point 3, in my opinion it’s easier to jump into freelancing than working full-time in the office. The main thing is not in the middle of a project that you mutually agreed to complete. I have just such a case now, and the issue with children is also present. Therefore, being lost in another country right now is not an option for me. But if you have the opportunity and you feel exhausted, then you shouldn’t even doubt it.

Another video from psychotherapist Pavel Bukov:

Video
In a 15-minute video, he talks about how he discovered the problem of exhaustion in himself and how he solved it.
For him, the way to recharge is his own country farm, where he spends time from Friday to Sunday, distracting himself from all the troubles of the metropolis. Another good piece of advice from Pavel. To recover from brain overstrain, you need to do something with your hands. Thus, the hemisphere responsible for mental work will turn off and the other one responsible for hand motor skills will turn on. Classes can be anything. As a geek, I'm looking towards assembling and soldering Arduino, perhaps assembling starship models or something from robotics. This also includes drawing, embroidery, apartment renovations, etc.

The same effect can be achieved by swimming 20 lanes in the pool, intensive walking of 2-5 km, running, and physical activity. I know how difficult it can sometimes be to force yourself to move somewhere when you are already in a deep energy deficit. Give a fight here so that Karosi does not happen. Therefore, the advice is more likely for the stage when we can still do something. If we can’t, then we just lie there and be stupid. Or we go to a psychologist/psychotherapist/psychiatrist, depending on the degree of neglect.

Psychologist Svetlana Komissaruk recommends shaking yourself up if you are emotionally exhausted

Video
She compares the intense emotional experience to defibrillation.
When a patient's heart stops, only severe shock can force the heart to beat again. And there is some truth in this. Where can we experience strong emotions? Skydiving, alpine skiing, fast driving, team games, possibly e-sports and virtual reality. In general, any new environment will cause stress. I personally decided to spend weekends in other countries and cities where I had never been before.

Video blogger Thomas Frank gives tips for recovering from burnout.

Video
Just like in previous videos, the first thing Tom did was take a full vacation, protecting himself from work.
He also shed some of his commitments to have a freer schedule. In my opinion, this is one of the main factors of rapid exhaustion - the strong pressure of obligations and deadlines to customers or superiors. In any case, you won’t be able to run a marathon in sprint mode. 3 tips from the video:

1. Think about how to reduce the number of commitments you make.

if you feel like you can't cope. This could be delegation, or a direct conversation with the manager. Write down all your obligations and decide what you could sacrifice. For example, Tom calculated how much he would earn if he reduced the number of videos he produced from four to two per month. It turned out that with such a scheme, his business would not be unprofitable and could exist just fine.

Drawing parallels with freelancing, we can calculate how many working hours or clients we need for a normal existence. For the last six months I have been working for 3 clients in parallel, including weekends. This worked out to up to 110 working hours a week. This is even more than what was written on the first T-shirts of Apple employees. You understand what it feels like for a person who has worked for about 400-500 hours without a break. Although 20 working hours a week is enough for me to live and pay bills.

2. You can't create all content at the same ideal level.

. Psychologist Svetlana Komissaruk also spoke about this in the video above.

The post-Soviet mentality is geared towards doing everything perfectly. Either 100% or not at all. While in the West, few people care if they do 70% of what is possible. Perfectionism is another one of the main reasons why your battery drains quickly. Our person may never complete the project to the end due to the excellent student syndrome.

3. Maintain a balance between work and life. I’ll add a note on my own about the well-known “life balance wheel”.

Just take and honestly rate each area of ​​your life on a scale from 1 to 10:

• Health
• Money
• Career/Business
• Environment/Friends
• Love / Family / Children
• Personal growth
• Hobbies and entertainment
• Spirituality

The spheres may have different names, but in general these 8 parts make up our life. For example, workaholics have a clear bias towards Money and Career, and by plus or minus one in other parts. Ideally, all parts should be harmoniously developed, and not necessarily perfectly developed.

Summary

I want to summarize and collect all the information about emotional burnout in one block.

• IT workers and people in creative professions are highly susceptible to burnout. The reason is the high load on the brain. We give more than we receive. Working under conditions of uncertainty and deadlines.
• The brain needs a lot of time to recover, unlike physical fatigue. This state is not easy to grasp, especially if you are passionate about work.

Short-term recovery options:

• Turn on motor skills - turn off your head. Doing something with your hands.
• Physical exercise. Walking, running, swimming pool, gym, team sports.
• Meditation and breathing practices.
• Lie down and be dumb.

Medium-term ways to overcome burnout:

• Change of scenery and weekend travel
• Extreme vacation. Mountains, skiing, skydiving, cycling, etc.

Full recovery:

• Long-term leave with limited access to work. Preferably in another country or locality.
• Afterwards, it is possible to change the type of activity, change jobs.

How are you doing?

I have been freelancing at a frantic pace for over 12 years with rare breaks.
As I wrote above, all this time, I suffered from overwork and burnout. He “rebooted” in a destructive way, dousing his impotence bordering on madness with alcohol. This year I reached a boiling point, and firmly decided that this could not continue. It all started with setting a goal for the year - “Become more confident and sociable.” As a result, I came to the conclusion that the first step to achieving the goal is to stop burning out at work and devote time to yourself.

Despite all this, I again took on a new tasty project and plunged into it headlong. As a result, after 3 weeks I gave up again and had no strength for anything. Having started to study this issue, I found something that I am sharing with you. Despite the new project and deadlines, in a week I’m flying to Central Europe for 3 days off. Then a week later to Spain, also for a few days. At the end of the working day, I definitely walk, at least 2-3 km. with a tracker. I go to the pool and gym. I've spent my evenings playing virtual games, but I'm going to change them to something more useful.

Take care of yourself.

Dangers and mechanism of burnout development

Burnout syndrome is a form of stress in which the body is exhausted on all three levels: emotional, physical and mental.

In short, burnout is a desperate attempt by the body to protect itself from excessive stress. A person acquires an impenetrable shell. Not a single emotion, not a single feeling can get through this shell. In response to any irritant, the “security system” is automatically activated and blocks the response.

This is useful for the survival of the individual: he plunges into an “energy saving” mode. But for the people around him, partners, patients, relatives, this is bad. Who needs a biological organism “switched off” from everyday life, which mechanically “pulls the burden” at work, strives to escape any forms of communication and gradually loses professional and communication skills. People begin to doubt their competence and professionalism.

The syndrome is dangerous both for the individual and for others. Imagine that the pilot of the plane on which you were planning to fly somewhere suddenly doubted that he would lift the car into the air and take you to your destination.

And the surgeon whose table you are lying on is not sure whether he will be able to perform the operation without mistakes. The teacher suddenly realizes that he is no longer able to teach anyone anything.

Why have the Russian people always treated law enforcement officers with hatred? What seemed to citizens to be rudeness, cynicism, and soullessness in the despicable “cops” was in fact the same “burnout.”

Three sides of exhaustion and emotional lability

Emotional burnout develops gradually, gradually, and can be greatly extended over time, and therefore it is problematic to notice it in the initial stages. In its development, the following 3 factors are conventionally distinguished:

1. Personal . Researchers have noted a whole range of mutually exclusive character traits of individuals susceptible to burnout. On the one hand, humanists and idealists, who are always ready to help, lend a hand, lend a shoulder, quickly “burn out.” Fanatics - people obsessed with super-ideas, super-goals, super-ideals - are also good fuel for the syndrome. These are people of the “warm pole”. At the other pole are people who are emotionally cold, both in communication and in work. They get very upset only because of their own failures: the intensity of their experiences and negativity are simply off the charts.
2. Role-playing . Wrong distribution of roles. Let’s say it is assumed that the team is working in one team, and the result will depend on the clearly organized teamwork of the employees. But no one has clearly stated the distribution of the load and the level of responsibility of each. As a result, one “plows for three,” and the other “plays the fool.” But both the one who “plows” and the one who “talks” have the same salary. A hard worker who does not get what he deserves gradually loses motivation and develops the so-called burnout syndrome at work.
3. Organizational . On the one hand, there is the existence of powerful psycho-emotional tension in a well-coordinated team. Against its background, there is a work process: communication, receiving and processing information, solving problems. And all this is aggravated by the fact that employees are charged and infected by excessive emotions from each other. On the other hand, there is a psychologically traumatic atmosphere at work. Conflict situations within the team, poor relations with superiors. Poor organization, poor planning of the labor process, irregular working hours and paltry pay for extensive overtime.

Causes and gradual development of the syndrome

The reasons for the appearance of emotional burnout usually arise from the fact that either we ourselves or something from the outside psychologically puts pressure on us and does not give us time for “time out”:

1. Pressure from within . A strong emotional load, be it with a “plus” or “minus” sign, which is greatly extended over time, leads to the depletion of emotional resources. This is an area of ​​personal space, and the causes of exhaustion may vary from person to person.
2. External pressure, or demands of social norms . Overload at work, demands to comply with social norms. The desire to comply with fashion trends: style and standard of living, the habit of vacationing at expensive resorts, dressing “haute couture”.

Topic article: Polycystic ovary syndrome

The syndrome develops gradually:

1. Warning and caution : immersion in work with one's head, neglect of one's own needs and refusal to communicate. The consequences of this are fatigue, insomnia, and absent-mindedness.
2. Partial self-withdrawal : reluctance to do one’s job, negative or indifferent attitude towards people, loss of life guidelines.
3. An increase in negative emotions : apathy, depression, aggressiveness, conflict.
4. Destruction : decreased intelligence, loss of motivation, indifference to everything
5. Psychosomatic disorders : insomnia, hypertension, palpitations, osteochondrosis, problems in the digestive system.
6. Loss of meaning in existence and irrational feelings.

Who takes the most risk?

Nowadays, everyone burns out, regardless of their profession. Emotional burnout is typical for the following professions and groups of citizens:

1. Doctors, social workers, teachers, volunteers , that is, all those who, due to their occupation, had to communicate closely with society.
2. Workaholics, overwhelmed by the goal : to do as much as possible in as little time as possible.
3. Writers who “can’t write,” composers who “can’t compose.”
4. Mothers who are ready to go to the logging site just to take a break from their noisy babies at least for a little while. Emotional burnout is especially common for mothers who raise their children themselves.
5. People raising “special” children . Caring for children with Down syndrome and autistic children is an ongoing and impenetrable stress that lasts for many years. In general, children with orphan (rare) diseases are strong stressors in the family.
6. Those who care for bedridden patients . This is a colossal work that requires constant endurance, patience, humility and dedication from a person.
7. People who go to work as if they were on a scaffold.

Doctors at risk

Not long ago, it was believed that burnout syndrome was the exclusive privilege of medical workers. It was explained like this:

• the profession of a doctor requires from a person constant emotional involvement and warmth, empathy, compassion, sympathy for patients;
• Along with this, there is an awareness of enormous responsibility for the health and lives of patients;
• the likelihood of making a tragic mistake during surgery or making a diagnosis;
• chronic nervous tension;
• the difficult choice that has to be made (to separate conjoined twins or not, to take risks by performing a complex operation on the patient, or to let him die peacefully on the table);
• excessive loads during epidemics and mass disasters.

What causes the syndrome?

It is believed that burnout syndrome is an ailment of people associated with medicine, charity, helping and saving others. They are responsible for the life, health and well-being of those who find themselves in difficult situations. Because of this, they experience strong negative emotions and are stressed. For the same reason, many surgeons and law enforcement officers suffer from alcoholism. But in reality, anyone can experience burnout. This usually happens to those who are initially in love with their profession, are ready to work very hard and put their career first in life. Such people constantly live under time pressure - they strive to complete all tasks (and this is simply impossible, because each completed task generates a new one), work overtime, react very emotionally to setbacks and failures, and take any criticism to heart. In the end, the body gets so tired of worrying and being nervous that it simply gives up on everything. Imagine that you have been running at the limit for a very long time and now your strength is gone. And even if you really want to continue to rapidly fly forward, you simply cannot. I don't even have the strength to stand on my feet. It is logical that your body will leave you no other choice but to lie down and be inactive. Emotional burnout is a long process; you don’t suddenly lose interest in life. But recognizing the syndrome in the early stages - when you seem to no longer want to go to work and are quite fed up with everything, but nevertheless the drive to do something is present and you still get pleasure - is extremely difficult. In most cases, a vacation will help you - if, after returning to work after a vacation, you feel that you are again full of energy and the desire to overthrow mountains, then everything is fine with you. You're just really tired.

Mild burnout

Burnout at the level of reactions, the so-called “mild burnout,” looks the most harmless. It is characterized by the fact that it has a short impact time and passes as the reasons that caused it disappear.

Probably everyone has burned out “slightly” at least once in their lives. Such emotional exhaustion can be caused by the following reasons:

• mental or material crisis;
• sudden “time pressure” at work, requiring the dedication of all emotional and physical resources;
• caring for an infant who screams for 10 hours a day;
• preparing for an exam, a fateful interview, or working on a complex project.

Nature has calculated so that we are ready for such tests, without any breakdown in the body. But it happens if what a person does leads to overstrain of the nervous system.

It would seem that it is time to rest, but the situation requiring our intervention is not resolved, leaving us in constant anticipation, heightened alertness and tension.

Then all the symptoms of “burnout”, or, simply put, stress, occur. But finally the problem is resolved. Now you can remember to yourself: get enough sleep, go to the pool, get out into nature, or even take a vacation. The body rested and recovered - the symptoms of “burnout” disappeared without a trace.

Emotional burnout is

The response of the subject’s entire body to prolonged stress from any sphere of communication: home, work, environment, regular conflicts.

Altruistic professions are more susceptible to burnout.

People providing professional services (assistance) lose their emotional and physical energy, become dissatisfied with themselves and their work, and cease to understand and sympathize. To overcome emotional burnout, consultations with a psychotherapist and treatment are required.

Herbert Freudenberg, a psychologist from the United States, described in 1974 the phenomenon of emotional burnout - this is a mental disorder that affects the personality of the subject due to emotional “exhaustion.”

Causes of burnout include:

• Low wages, with a busy work schedule;
• Not meeting life's needs;
• Uninteresting, monotonous work;
• Manager pressure;
• Responsible work, no additional control;
• Inappropriate assessment of the specialist’s work by the manager;
• Work in a pressured, chaotic environment;

Methods to combat burnout to restore balance:

1. Monitoring the signs and preconditions of burnout;
2. Timely elimination of stress, search for support;
3. Constant control over emotional and physical health.

Burnout syndrome is

A state of systematic exhaustion of a person, paralyzing feelings, strength, as well as loss of a joyful attitude towards life.

It has been proven that people from a social profession experience burnout syndrome earlier than people from other professions. In personal, unfavorable relationships in the subjects' lives, symptoms of emotional burnout occur.

There are several stages of burnout:

1. Lung

Examples:

Tired of pleasant caring for children; elderly parents; took exams at school, university; performed chord work.

For a while they forgot about sleep, lack of basic services, felt uncomfortable, increased tension and irritation.

But all the work was completed on time, the situation returned to normal. The time has come to relax: take care of yourself, exercise, get a good night's sleep - the symptoms of emotional burnout have disappeared without a trace.

Consequently, the high-quality energy charge received by a person after a prolonged load restores energy, replenishing spent reserves.

Undoubtedly, the human psyche and body are capable of many things: working for a long time, achieving a certain goal (to go to the sea); withstand difficulties (paying a mortgage).

2. Chronic

Symptoms of burnout occur with certain problems:

• lack of money: buy a washing machine;
• presence of fear: tense state, vigilance regarding superiors, afraid of big demands.

Such symptoms lead to overload of the nervous system. In the human body, painful sensations arise in the muscles, all over the place, and turns into chronic burnout. One of the symptoms of overexertion is teeth grinding at night.

The smooth transition from delight to indifference is called dehumanization. Attitudes towards people have changed from gentle, respectful, devoted to negative, rejecting, cynical.

Example:

At work, I feel guilty before my colleagues; I perform my work like a robot according to a template. A defensive reaction begins to take effect: retire at home, hide from all problems.

Burnout syndrome is the impact of constant stress, loss of interest in professional activities and motivation. Negative changes in your body are complemented by regular illnesses: colds, flu.

Burnout at work

After high work activity and heavy workload for a long time, a period of fatigue sets in: exhaustion, exhaustion. The employee’s percentage of activity decreases: he does not do his job conscientiously, rests a lot of time, especially on Monday, and does not want to go to work.

Examples:

The class teacher does not notice the excited state of the class. The nurse forgets to dispense the medicine on time. The head of the company sends the employee “through the chain of command.”

Such phenomena, emotional burnouts, occur regularly. The same words sound in a person’s head: “I’m tired,” “I can’t do it anymore,” “no variety.”

This means that emotional burnout at work has occurred, emotional energy has been reduced to a minimum.

Examples:

The teacher does not introduce new teaching technologies. The doctor is not engaged in research activities. The head of the company does not strive to advance his career to a higher degree.

If work activity is reduced and not restored, then professional growth and creativity remain at the achieved level. Therefore, you should forget about promotion.

Dissatisfaction in life and work leads to a lesser extent to depression, and to a greater extent to aggression. During a depressed period, the subject blames himself for personal and professional failures: “I’m a bad father,” “Nothing works out for me.” Aggressive reaction - blames others - loved ones, bosses.

In the initial stage of emotional burnout, psychosomatic symptoms appear: dissatisfaction, anxiety, which reduce the overall resistance of the body. Blood pressure and other somatic diseases increase. Irritation is present in family, friendships, and at work.

Indifference to interests, hobbies, art, nature becomes an everyday occurrence. The stage of emotional burnout begins, turning into a chronic disease process that requires the help of a specialist - a psychotherapist.

Down the burnout ladder

According to Freundeberger, there is a burnout scale, to which a person is consistently led by 12 steps:

1. The first step is enthusiasm (I can do anything, I can overcome anything), which pushes a person’s own needs into the background in order to achieve the goal. The obsession results in the fact that gradually he has no free time left either for himself or for others. Already at this stage, even the phone ringing is a reason for irritation and impotent anger (they are distracting again!).
2. There is still a lot of “gunpowder in the flasks” , motivation is high, but the person clearly overestimates his strength and neglects the needs for rest and relaxation.
3. At this stage, the individual tries to turn a blind eye to the growing troubles in the family and team . First, the method of consciously “repressing” unpleasant moments works, and then he simply does not notice these moments. A “burnout” person unconsciously ignores emerging problems.
4. A person cannot draw a line between himself and his work . The super task dissolves the personality in his own goal and turns a person into a biorobot - a performer of the necessary functions.
5. The pleasure from your activity disappears , interest in it drops sharply, and your performance gets worse.
6. All the signs of chronic fatigue : a feeling of powerlessness, sleep disturbances (insomnia is replaced by painful drowsiness). A person tries to isolate himself from the world, expresses antisocial thoughts, and loses the ability to empathize and participate.
7. The former enthusiast is completely exhausted, depressed, apathetic . It is hard work for him to maintain social contacts.
8. Loss of meaning in life, complete vacuum inside . Self-esteem is rapidly falling. One desire is to withdraw from all responsibilities and relationships.
9. General disgust for life , depression.
10. Crisis: nervous breakdowns for no reason, additional physical suffering, loss of performance.
11. Point of no return . A snowball of physical and emotional problems causes serious illness. Attempts to cope with this condition through alcohol, drugs or overeating make the situation worse. At this stage, urgent help from competent specialists is needed, but the person does not seek it.
12. It's called " jumped ". The patient is sick: he needs the help of therapists and psychiatrists, since he cannot cope with his condition on his own. At this stage thoughts of suicide come. Some even try to “bring them to life”

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Burnout syndrome

This is the exhaustion of the human condition: moral, mental, physical.

Let's look at the signs of this condition:

1. moral: evasion of responsibility, duties; desire for loneliness; manifestation of envy and anger; blaming others and loved ones for your troubles.

People try to improve their condition with alcohol or drugs.

2. mental: lack of self-confidence; indifferent state: in the family, at work, to events; disgusting mood; loss of professionalism; hot temper; dissatisfaction, lack of life goals; anxiety and restlessness; irritability.

Emotional burnout syndrome is very similar to depression. Subjects feel signs of being doomed to loneliness, so they suffer and worry. While doing work, they cannot concentrate for long.

3. physical: frequent headaches; “loss of strength” - fatigue; increased sweating; muscle weakness; decreased immunity; darkening of the eyes; dizziness; insomnia; pain in the lower back, heart; joints “ache”, digestive tract disorders; shortness of breath: nausea.

A person cannot understand what is happening to him: his immunity is reduced, he feels disgusting, his appetite is impaired. Some people experience an increase in appetite and, accordingly, weight, while others lose their appetite and lose weight.

We burn at sunset, we burn at dawn...

Burning out at the stage of disorder is already earning a chronic state of emotional burnout. The combination of all three symptoms makes us talk about “burnout” syndrome. The links that make up the syndrome:

1. Emotional exhaustion : a painful condition somewhat reminiscent of the symptoms of schizophrenia. The person suffers from emotional insensitivity. All experiences lose strength, color and meaning. If he is also capable of some emotions, then only those that have a negative balance.
2. Cynicism in relation to people . Negative feelings and rejection of those to whom just yesterday the attitude was loving and caring. Instead of a living person, one now sees simply an annoying object demanding attention.
3. Confidence in his own incompetence , in the fading of professional skills, the feeling that he is not capable of anything else, and “there is no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Here's what Growth Phase expert and psychologist Alla Demidenko says about burnout:

– When we enter into a relationship, we are connected by a feeling of passion, intimacy, novelty, and a hormonal surge. Basic, animal mechanisms are activated.

The highest level is a combination of three connections: bodily (chemistry works), emotional and intellectual (it’s interesting to be with him). This is a spiritual connection, at the level of consciousness.

Most often, burnout is relevant in cases where relationships have formed only at the level of physical intimacy. This is passion, attraction, sex, emotions.

They say that love lasts three years. Logically speaking, during this time the couple really comes to the realization of whether the partners are suitable for each other. A year to meet and get used to each other, a year to live together and a year to give birth and raise a child.

Many couples break up at this stage because they can’t stand it: the man wants the woman’s attention, she is completely captivated by the baby.

When we meet, we try to appear to be the best version of ourselves. We slow down some negative qualities, try not to show emotions in full force. We think this is normal.

But at some stage a person ceases to control himself, and we notice qualities in a partner that were not there before. The dopamine stimulation ends and the rose-colored glasses fall off.

This can be compared to the fact that when you love a certain dish and eat it rarely, you get a powerful surge of emotions. But if you cook it more and more often, then the impressions become dull, there is no such joy.

In relationships where we do not know how to be in harmony with our own needs: we try to adapt, turn a blind eye to shortcomings, we spend more energy.

And this is the next step in the development of relationships: reassess the situation, which will help avoid burnout

1. How much do I remain myself in relationships ? Try to work on your qualities, improve them, but honestly. If you have respect for yourself, you will have respect for your partner’s interests.

You will not sacrifice yourself, you will be able to find compromises. It all starts small: you go to a cafe and a guy asks: “What do you want?” And you answer: “The same as you.”

That is, a woman does not know her needs or is embarrassed to say, “I want this.”

And when, in the first, third or tenth year of marriage, a man finds out that you never liked those apples, seafood or porridge - he feels betrayed.

2. “She has changed” - when breaking up, men often say that the woman has become different: less caring, loving, attentive.

And here it is important to remember with what feelings you entered the relationship. What did you do for him and stop? We often encounter an imbalance in the “take-give” balance.

We charge a lot, but we don't make up for it with the volume we receive. Or, conversely, we invest more than our partner can give us.

At the energetic level, a person may not understand this, may not be aware of it, but he gets the feeling that you are irritating him, enraging him.

3. Relationships are built here and now . And we can change and transform habits in the family system. Relationships are built on mutual respect and agreements.

And if at the very beginning you see that there are things that you don’t like in your partner, but you think “Let him change!” or “It doesn’t matter because he has many positive qualities,” you will face the consequences.

4. Love doesn't happen right away . It comes with age. Most relationships today are opposites.

When we meet a person with qualities that we need to balance in ourselves. For example, you are overly punctual, but a man is not, you are scrupulous about your health, but he completely neglects it.

And what we call relationship burnout is when you run out of resources to work on yourself or your partner’s shortcomings.

Relationships will develop if both partners work on themselves. As soon as one of them stops (in personal, physical, emotional development) and becomes a stable figure, the resource, the energy, runs out. Feelings can be resurrected only with mutual desire.

Diagnosis of SEV

When diagnosing burnout syndrome, the following methods and tests are traditionally used:

• biographical : with its help you can trace the entire path through life, crisis moments, the main factors in the formation of personality;
• method of tests and surveys : a small exam to identify the presence or absence of the syndrome;
• observation method : the subject does not suspect that he is being observed, therefore he maintains the usual rhythm of life, based on the observation, a conclusion is made about certain symptoms of stress;
• experimental method : a situation is artificially created that can provoke symptoms of “burnout” in the patient;
• Maslach-Jackson method : an American system for determining the degree of professional burnout, carried out using a questionnaire.

Boyko's method

Boyko’s technique is a questionnaire of 84 statements to which the test taker can only answer “yes” or “no,” from which one can conclude what phase of emotional burnout the person is in. There are 3 phases, for each of which the main signs of emotional exhaustion are identified.

Phase "Voltage"

For her, the leading symptoms of burnout are:

• repeated negative thoughts in your head;
• dissatisfaction with oneself and one's achievements;
• the feeling that you have reached a dead end, trapped;
• anxiety, panic and depression.

Phase "Resistance"

Its main symptoms:

• strong reaction to a weak stimulus;
• loss of moral guidelines;
• stinginess in expressing emotions;
• attempts to reduce the range of their professional responsibilities.

Exhaustion Phase

Characteristic manifestations:

• emotionlessness;
• attempts to withdraw from any manifestation of emotion;
• detachment from the world;
• disorders of psychosomatics and autonomic nervous regulation.

After passing the test using a specially developed scoring system, you can determine:

• degree of symptom severity in the burnout phase (undeveloped, emerging, established, dominant);
• the stage of formation of the phase itself (not formed, in the process of formation, formed).

Take the Boyko test for emotional burnout right now!

Saving someone who is burning out is the work of the person who is burning out.

It happens that two people do the same job and spend the same amount of time and effort on it. But some people gradually experience burnout syndrome, while others do not. What is the reason?

The meaning of life and career advancement are two different things. Those whose lives are filled with meaning and true values ​​are not subject to stress.

And the most successful businessman can suffer greatly from burnout syndrome due to the fact that making money cannot replace the meaning of life and the real joys of life.

To put it briefly this way: if what you do brings you joy, a feeling of happiness and fulfillment in life, you are not in danger of burnout at work. Interest in your business, a feeling of satisfaction, joy prevents “burnout” from raging.

If you simply “pull the burden”, postponing “real” life for later, then stress cannot be avoided.

Take a couple of tips:

1. Understand your motives . Make sure that the business you are doing is the meaning of life for you.
2. Check your feelings . Do you feel joy from your activities, do you consider them useful, do they fill your life with positive energy?

Necessary prevention, which is available to everyone, at the first symptoms of emotional burnout:

1. You need to relieve tension : for this there are a sea of ​​methods, practices and effective psychological relief groups.
2. Zigzag method : Immediately stop what you are doing at that moment, get off the path and turn to the side. For example: get up from the table and take a good 2-3 hour walk down the street until you sweat. A sudden change of activity tones up, refreshes the head and fills with positivity.
3. Relieve yourself from work: “work is not a wolf . Follow this popular doctrine from time to time. Learn to pause and distribute tasks according to time and as needed.
4. Share your responsibilities with someone . Throw something from your “cart” to the next one, if the driver doesn’t mind. There is no need to think that “if not me, then who?” History has proven that no one is irreplaceable.
5. Place bets on real projects and “give up” on known projects . Simply put: “Carry what you carry with you so you don’t fall when walking.”
6. Take a day off, or a vacation , choose a good sanatorium, or pitch an assault tent in the mountains (whichever you prefer).
7. Get a good night's sleep: in sleep, the body heals itself, and the psyche becomes stronger.
8. Change job . This is, of course, more difficult than changing socks. But in a peak situation, don’t be afraid to take it to new heights.
9. Reconsider your lifestyle : active movements in the fresh air can bring you back almost from the other world. And life spent sitting on the fifth point causes self-poisoning with excessive release of “stress hormones”.

How to deal with burnout:

Symptoms

There are more than a hundred symptoms of burnout syndrome. The first signs are a decrease in motivation to work and learn new things, increased dissatisfaction with the type of employment, increased distraction of attention, an increase in the number of mistakes at work, deviation from the work plan, and missed deadlines.

The main symptoms of burnout syndrome are classified into 5 groups:

• Physical and somatic: headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, increased sweating, dizziness, body discomfort, constipation or diarrhea, decreased appetite, increased sensitivity to light and sound.
• Emotional signs: flatness of emotions, cynicism towards work, colleagues and friends; emotional isolation – fear of experiencing new sensations; irritability, impulsiveness and aggressiveness; anxiety and feelings of inner restlessness, collapse of ideals; apathy, anhedonia.
• Behavioral signs: avoidance of stressful situations, a person is often late for work, often takes time off without a good reason, indifference to food or overeating, development of alcoholism or drug addiction, dependent behavior.
• Cognitive impairment: decreased speed of thinking and memory capacity, employee offers fewer ideas; approaches with less creativity than before; increased boredom; preference to work according to instructions and standard templates; reluctance to attend trainings, courses or seminars to improve competence.
• Social signs. Symptoms of emotional burnout include decreased interest in hobbies, indifference to social contacts, and decreased emotionality in interpersonal contacts.

Different authors have considered the clinical picture of burnout syndrome in their own way. Maslach and Jackson identified 3 groups of symptoms in the combustion structure:

1. Emotional exhaustion. All emotions and sensations become dull, a person becomes “colder” and has less contact with the environment.
2. Depersonalization. The perception of oneself is distorted: self-esteem and adequate perception of the strengths and weaknesses of one’s own personality are disrupted.
3. Reduction of professional skills. Professionalism decreases and ability to work decreases.

To assess these symptoms, a questionnaire was created - the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which evaluates the symptoms of each of the three groups.