Are You Feeling Burnt Out And Tired Due To Life Stressors?
Do you lack the energy you once had? Do you feel a constant sense of exhaustion and fatigue? Perhaps you’ve started to dread getting up in the morning because of the responsibilities that await you.
Maybe you feel like you don’t have time to engage in activities you once enjoyed. You may have too much else on your plate and feel overwhelmed with your current responsibilities. It’s possible you even feel guilty when taking time for yourself.
It could also be that you’re more irritable or anxious than normal. Perhaps you snap at friends and family for things that wouldn’t have bothered you before. Or maybe smaller stressors—such as having to find time to do the laundry—feel much bigger than they are, and you can’t bring yourself to try and tackle them.
You may even have started experiencing physical symptoms of burnout. Perhaps you have trouble sleeping, get headaches, or have digestive issues caused by stress. And maybe you’ve tried seeking help for these symptoms, but nothing seems to work.
Likely, you’re exhausted and worn at the end of the day, but you know that you’ll have to go through this all over again tomorrow. You’d probably like to just disengage and find time to relax, and yet, you’re not sure how to get rid of the guilt and stress following you.
Many People Experience Burnout Symptoms In Today’s Culture
Throughout history, many have experienced burnout. It can happen whenever people become overwhelmed and overworked. While it is especially prominent in leaders, caregivers, and individuals with high-stress jobs, it can happen to anyone who takes on too much work with too little downtime.
That’s a problem especially noticeable in today’s world. In fact, about 13 percent of adults say they have trouble unwinding after work, and 37 percent state that they’ve felt increasing stress over the last year.
One of the major problems that feeds into this issue is our culture’s mentality surrounding work and productivity. We emphasize putting in a lot of hours and champion people working without breaks, which isn’t sustainable in the long run. And it doesn’t help that there is often very little support for people in high-stress positions. It can leave them feeling like they have to do everything themselves, which can worsen the burnout symptoms.
The bottom line is that if you don’t take time for yourself, you can fall into depression, anxiety, and even issues with physical health.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. With a little help, you can get treatment for your symptoms and learn how to live a more balanced life.
Burnout Recovery Is The First Step Towards Healing
When dealing with burnout, people often feel like they can’t take the time to relax. This also means that they’re unlikely to be able to identify the underlying beliefs that may lead to burnout. Therapy addresses that issue by giving you a space to receive affirmation and time to explore those beliefs with a professional therapist.
I offer a safe environment where we can address some of the underlying issues that may be causing your burnout. Together, we will explore the things preventing you from taking care of yourself, change unhealthy patterns, and validate your experiences.
Sessions are very client-centered. I believe that everyone’s situation is different, and so there is no one-size-fits-all solution to anyone’s burnout. We will spend some time discussing your symptoms, desires, and situation so that we can collaborate on creating a treatment plan that works for you.
A general goal of burnout treatment would be to help you learn stress management techniques—tools you’d be able to use every day in order to relax. We might do breathing exercises, meditation, or mindfulness practices depending on your needs.
Sometimes there are deep-rooted beliefs that make it difficult to actually practice these techniques. You may have had ideas of perfectionism or self-sacrifice ingrained into you from a young age, and now may have difficulty breaking free from those beliefs. We will explore those thought processes together to understand what may be blocking you from truly relaxing. After that, I will teach you the skills you need to overcome and change those damaging beliefs into something more useful.
Many times, I use psychodynamic therapy—or talk therapy focused on examining unconscious thoughts—to figure out what damaging beliefs a person may hold. From there, I will often employ Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in order to change those beliefs into something positive.
I have been working with people who struggle with stress and burnout since 2007. As someone who works in a high-stress job myself, I understand that sometimes people can get overwhelmed—and I also know the best ways to combat it.
Moreover, I want you to know that burnout isn’t permanent. You can change the way you cope with stress, and you can finally reclaim the passion and peace you may have lost.
You may still have reservations about burnout recovery…
I’m already familiar with a lot of these techniques, and nothing’s worked. How do I know this will be any better?
Part of the problem may be that you simply weren’t able to get past the underlying beliefs leading to burnout. They may have prevented you from practicing true self-care, and thus, have caused the techniques to be unsuccessful. One of the goals of therapy is to redefine how you approach self-care and to unravel those unhealthy beliefs so that you can truly experience the relief you desire.
I don’t have the time or energy.
While I understand that it can feel like you don’t have time for one more thing in your life, taking care of your mental health is very important. Sometimes you need help and support in order to really heal—and that’s something therapy can provide.
Isn’t therapy a selfish use of my time when I have more important things to do?
The truth of the matter is, it’s very difficult to help others when you yourself are falling apart. By taking the time to go to therapy and get help, you are actually learning to be more effective in your other roles.
Learn More About Burnout Recovery
If you have any questions, I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation at 505-264-0698. Overcoming burnout is very possible—you might just need a little help to do it.
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