What to do to not "burn out" at work? Burned down of his own accord. What is burnout and what are its causes?

Corbis/Fotosa.ru

Over the past decades, the term "burnout syndrome", which was introduced by psychiatrist Herbert J. Freudenberger 40 years ago, has become familiar to many of us firsthand. Ambitious and responsible workers, people with a wide circle of contacts, overly zealous in business, without respite and recharging, experience one situation after another. Everyone sooner or later earns physical and.

“Workaholics, altruists, idealists, humanists, and maximalists are most prone to burnout,” says UC Berkeley psychology professor Christina Maslach, who has written several books on burnout syndrome. “In addition, observations show that women usually suffer more often than men, introverts more often than extroverts, loners more often than those who can boast of a full-fledged personal life.”

Symptoms

The syndrome of emotional burnout does not appear immediately. “Tension can accumulate for months and even years,” says Professor Maslach, “but sooner or later the human body, having exhausted its entire energy reserve, will begin to fail.”

There are many symptoms of this unpleasant scourge. Conventionally, they can be divided into three groups: psychophysical, socio-psychological and behavioral.

"Extinguishing" measures

Some measures will help stop the process of burnout, others will guarantee that a relapse will not happen. But both will require you to have a conscious desire to change the situation.

1. Take a day off or two. In fact, this is the same sick leave, only for nerves. If the boss is not Herod and not an enemy to his business, then, seeing that your disruption endangers the common cause, he is unlikely to refuse you a break. The main rule: these days, announce a complete moratorium on work! No calls to colleagues with questions: “How are you doing there? Is my help needed? Maybe I should come?"

2. Back to business, put things in order in the workplace, set tough deadlines. For example: "At 18.30 I finish work." If you find it difficult to force yourself to leave the office on time, every morning make a promise (and preferably not only to yourself, but to someone else) that you will return from work at the appointed time - then unconsciously you will strive to keep your word.

3. Devote at least a quarter of an hour every day (without exceptions). And don’t be fooled: washing the floors in a three-room apartment is not the same as doing, or. Cleaning or running for groceries is the same work that is perceived by consciousness as a duty and work. Whereas fitness brings not only physical satisfaction, but above all moral. Muscle fatigue after a workout should compensate for work fatigue, not double it.

4. Engage in practices aimed at increasing the level of internal energy - yoga, ikebana, etc. Since burnout syndrome is provoked, these techniques will bring quick relief.

5. . Sayings like “Horses die from work” perfectly illustrate the peculiarities of the Russian mentality - most of us subconsciously perceive work as nothing more than overwork and bondage. As soon as we get a job, we begin to treat it negatively. But work takes at least a third of our everyday life - eight hours out of 24! Psycholinguists say: if it is difficult to change your attitude towards something, you need to change the wording. Even something as small as daily use of the phrase “my business” instead of “my job” can turn mountains of emotional negativity.

6. Do not let your colleagues throw out negative emotions on you - for example, complain about the treachery of the authorities, cry about your relatives, or lament because the mushrooms did not grow this year. It's one thing if a person talks about trouble when answering your question, and quite another if he abuses your sympathy all the time. Change the topic of conversation, tactfully evade endless compassion, otherwise these emotions will take away a huge amount of energy from you.

7. Never drag food to your desk. Even drink tea away from the computer. And it's not that. But also in the fact that the body is not able to receive energy (when you eat) and spend it (when you work) at the same time - in this way you create an additional stressful situation for it. Not without reason, in the Feng Shui system, the dining and working areas are strictly separated.

8. Often, the syndrome of emotional burnout occurs due to an excessive social circle. “It doesn’t even matter if it’s real or illusory,” emphasizes Christina Maslach. - Ask yourself, can you fully exchange information and impressions with hundreds of unfamiliar people who have been picked up, for example, on Facebook? Why do you need these imaginary ratings? Your psyche becomes disoriented, not knowing how to actually relate to "friends" who are not actually friends. Avoid additional emotional stress.

And the last tip: from time to time, perform a simple mini-test, which can show if you are in danger of "burnout". Draw a snowflake on a piece of paper. Each of its rays symbolizes one of your life interests: personal life, hobbies, friends, travel and recreation, health, sports, work, etc. On each of the rays, mark a point that, in your opinion, shows how satisfied you are with this area of ​​your life (we take the center of the snowflake as zero). Then connect all the dots - somehow you should get a wheel. The more places where your wheel clearly fails, the more likely it is that you will experience burnout syndrome in the near future.

What to do in order not to "burn out" at work. The causes of burnout are emotional overload and increased responsibility. “You know, I saw a psychologist, he said that I had a burnout syndrome, and recommended that I change my job,” a colleague told me a few months ago. After some time, she was no longer in the editorial office - saving her health, the journalist followed the advice of a psychologist.

Before leaving, I had time to elicit signs of this state from an employee. “I became irritable, I can’t concentrate, I do work purely according to the template,” she told me then. - It is not clear where in the soul there is constant anxiety, apathy and helplessness, a feeling of isolation from the outside world. Nothing pleases." Observing and communicating with acquaintances, I involuntarily applied this diagnostic template to them, and it seemed to me that almost everyone fell under its description. To find out how justified the suspicions, I went to a psychologist. “No one keeps statistics on this state, but, according to my personal observations, the burnout syndrome has grown tremendously in recent years. The scale of the problem allows us to talk about it both as an individual disease and as a disease of the whole society,” Evgeny Voronkov, head of the Center for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Practical Psychology, confirmed the suspicions. The specialist talked about the causes and signs of this problem and advised how to avoid it.

WHAT IS THE REASON?Burnout syndrome is a state of mental and physical exhaustion that occurs solely on the basis of work. Hence its second name burnout syndrome. The root of the trouble is an excess of communication “purely at work” (the so-called communicative overload), emotionally intense working conditions, for example, increased responsibility, irregular working hours, constant uncertainty about work plans and, at the same time, the lack of decent financial and moral rewards for all this "dog labor" Purely organizational “professional harms” also make their contribution: the crowding of the team and the lack of their own corner, as well as subjective factors, for example, such as the lack of mutual understanding with their leader and colleagues.

As a result of complete “immersion” in work, there is no time for yourself at all. And the less a person pays attention to his feelings and experiences, the more his soul “screams”. And the longer she "screams", the closer to the disease.

HOW IT APPEARS.In its development, burnout syndrome goes through four stages. First - "Honeymoon" . A person is very satisfied with work, tasks, but over time, interest in this begins to fade. Second - "lack of fuel" . Fatigue, apathy, sleep problems occur, interest in work is lost even more, a person begins to be late for work more often. Third stage - transition of the process into a chronic form . A person constantly does not have time to do his job, is irritated, feels himself driven into a corner. Often at this stage, bad habits appear, the character changes for the worse (rudeness, coldness, etc. appear), relationships with people become stereotyped. The body begins to experience the so-called chronic fatigue syndrome. Fourth stage - crisis . During this period, a person develops serious psychosomatic diseases: hypertension, ulcers, asthma, dermatitis, and in advanced cases, cancer.

RISK GROUP

2. Psychologists

3. Teachers

4. HR managers

5. Employees of law enforcement agencies

6. Officials

7. Any profession that involves frequent business trips, especially in different time zones

8. Service industry representatives who are in a situation of continuous communication with customers, for example, sellers of consumer goods

HOW TO NOT BURN OUT AT WORK

Consult with a psychologist. Before choosing a profession and place of work, consult with an occupational psychologist. He will determine if they are right for you and warn you of the likely difficulties that you may encounter along the way.

Express yourself. There is no better prevention of burnout syndrome than classes where you express your "I". People whose work is related to self-expression (for example, artists) practically do not suffer from this disorder. If there is no opportunity, say, to sing or play chess in a group, then at least share fresh and interesting impressions of your leisure time with each other more often, do not keep them to yourself.

Take time outs. If you're feeling information overload, retreat for 30-40 minutes. Only in this way can you fully comprehend the information received. A secluded corner will do, or if he is not at work, a walk in the fresh air alone.

Create interest groups. One of the best ways to combat burnout is to group-talk with people who are just like you but from different places of work. The group must be at least five people. In their circle, you can easily articulate your professional problems, laugh at them, and in the end it may turn out that in comparison with others, everything is not so bad with you. Meet once a week.

Get additional education. If at your job there is an opportunity to go to retraining courses, do not miss it: when a person works in one place for a long time, without being distracted, then even if he is a critical and intelligent psychiatrist, in 7-8 years he himself may have mental problems . And the longer the courses, the better it is for health. Ideally, additional education should last at least six months.

Move your chair out at the end of the day. Be professional only at work - do not take work experiences home so that they do not "burn" your precious personal time. A simple ritual will help to do this: after finishing work, slide the chair into the table, close the door and say: “That’s it, I’m no longer ... a doctor ... a teacher” or whatever you are by profession. And then be yourself.

Keep yourself in good physical shape. There is a close connection between the state of the body and the mind: the more you train your body, the stronger the nerves become. What a physically weak person reacts to at work is often just a joke for a strong person.

Finally, change jobs. If there is no opportunity to follow the previous tips and you want to stay healthy, then there is no other way out but to change jobs.

If you go to a new job, diagnose it. Ask if the new job has a high turnover rate. If yes, then think about whether it is worth going there: a strong turnover is the first sign of the burnout syndrome of an entire organization. Such work can easily turn into a waste of time and health for you. Also, learn about workflow organization. Give preference to the work where you can plan it at your own discretion, for example, "I work three days - I have a rest day."

And, of course, you need to clearly understand your goals and see the prospect of their implementation in this work.

Previously, your business activity could be envied, but now many say that you look tired and irritated. Yes, you yourself are concerned about your condition, but you don’t know what the reason is and what you can do. Let's try to figure it out

Today we will talk about a phenomenon that pretty much spoils the lives of many of us - professional burnout syndrome. It is hardly possible to develop a plan of five to ten points, the implementation of which would lead to a complete recovery. However, we hope that by reading our article, you will expand your understanding of this phenomenon and be able to find ways to overcome it.

The opinion of psychologists

Professional activity is saturated with stressogens. Among the main psychologists are the following:


  • The need to communicate a lot and intensively with different people, familiar and unfamiliar. Every day you have to deal with different problems of many people, and such contact from an emotional point of view is very difficult to maintain for a long time. If you are characterized by modesty, shyness, isolation and concentration on the problems of "working everyday", then you tend to accumulate emotional discomfort.
  • Frequent work in situations requiring high performance(should be consistently nice, charming, polite, organized, collected, etc.). Such publicity and strict external control on the part of both the leader and colleagues can eventually cause internal irritation and emotional instability.
  • Emotionally tense atmosphere(the flow of calls, cases "for yesterday", receptions, visits, dependence on the mood of the leader), constant control over the correctness of their actions. When demands exceed your internal and external resources, stress occurs as a natural reaction.

Unfortunately, managers are more likely to shift the responsibility for professional burnout to you, arguing this with poor preparation and personal characteristics. In fact, this syndrome arises as a result of the action of many factors: the environment in which one has to work; received education; working conditions and personal moments.

In psychology, professional burnout syndrome is defined as one of the manifestations of prolonged work stress, as well as some types of professional crisis. It arises as a result of the accumulation of negative emotions without a corresponding "discharge", which leads to the depletion of a person's emotional-energetic and personal resources.

The concept of "professional burnout" appeared in the psychological literature relatively recently. It was first introduced in 1974 by the American psychiatrist Herbert Freudenberger to characterize the psychological state of healthy people who work in the "person-to-person" system, communicate intensively and closely with clients (patients) in an emotionally "loaded" atmosphere when providing professional assistance. Professor of Psychology at the University of California Christina Maslach and her colleagues have developed a scientific approach to the study of the problem of professional burnout, considering it as a three-component system that includes:


  1. Emotional exhaustion (decreased emotional background, indifference or emotional satiety).
  2. Depersonalization (deformation of relationships with other people or increased dependence on others, the appearance of a negative, even cynical attitude towards others).
  3. Reduction of personal achievements (a tendency to negatively evaluate oneself, one's professional achievements and successes, limiting one's capabilities, obligations towards others).

So, although science has long proven that a living being dies without stress, staying in stressful situations too often is toxic to the human psyche. With a heavy load at work, it is important to establish a level of stress that is safe for the nervous system. Then professional burnout will be brought under control or it can be avoided altogether.

Laying it all out

In order to assess your emotional state and the possible presence of symptoms of professional burnout, you need to get a clear picture of them. In psychology, it is customary to divide the symptoms of professional burnout into three groups:


  • psychophysical;
  • socio-psychological;
  • behavioral.

Carefully read the characteristics of each of them and try (only without fanaticism) to analyze your inner state.

So to psychophysical symptoms occupational burnout include:


  • a feeling of constant, persistent fatigue (a symptom of chronic fatigue);
  • feeling of emotional and physical exhaustion;
  • decrease in susceptibility and reactivity to changes in the external environment (lack of curiosity reaction to the novelty factor or fear reaction to a dangerous situation);
  • general asthenia (weakness, decreased activity and energy, deterioration of blood biochemistry and hormonal parameters);
  • frequent causeless headaches;
  • persistent disorders of the gastrointestinal tract;
  • sudden weight loss or sudden weight gain;
  • complete or partial insomnia (quick falling asleep and lack of sleep in the early morning, starting at 4 a.m., or, conversely, the inability to fall asleep in the evening before 2–3 a.m. and “hard” awakening in the morning when you need to get up for work);
  • constant inhibited, drowsy state and desire to sleep throughout the day;
  • shortness of breath or shortness of breath during physical or emotional stress;
  • a noticeable decrease in external and internal sensory sensitivity: deterioration of vision, hearing, smell and touch, loss of internal, bodily sensations.

Socio-psychological symptoms professional burnout is such unpleasant sensations and reactions as:


  • indifference, boredom, passivity and depression (low emotional tone, feeling of depression);
  • increased irritability to minor events;
  • frequent nervous breakdowns (“withdrawal”, outbursts of unmotivated anger or refusal to communicate);
  • constant experience of negative emotions for which there are no reasons in the external situation (feelings of guilt, resentment, suspicion, shame, constraint);
  • feeling of unconscious anxiety and increased anxiety (feeling that "something is not right");
  • a feeling of hyper-responsibility and a constant feeling of fear (“I can’t do it”, “I can’t do it”);
  • a general negative attitude towards life and professional prospects (“no matter how hard you try, nothing will work out anyway”).

TO behavioral symptoms Professional burnout includes the following actions and forms of behavior:


  • a feeling that the work is getting harder and harder and harder and harder to do;
  • a noticeable change in the mode of the working day;
  • regardless of the objective need, you constantly take work home, but do not do it at home;
  • feeling worthless, decreased enthusiasm for work, indifference to results;
  • failure to fulfill important, priority tasks and “getting stuck” on small details; spending most of the working time not corresponding to official requirements for the performance of automatic and elementary actions (little conscious or unconscious);
  • distance from employees and customers, increased inadequate criticality;
  • a sharp increase in the number of cigarettes smoked per day, alcohol abuse, the use of drugs.

Among the symptoms that appear first are a feeling of fatigue and increased irritability, turning into unmotivated aggression towards colleagues. The reasons for this behavior lie in internal tension caused by dissatisfaction with yourself or other internal conflicts that you are usually not aware of. Tension gradually accumulates, as a result of which it becomes necessary to "reset" it. When this need makes itself felt, then, unfortunately, any difficulties that previously did not cause you a violent emotional reaction become the “last straw”.

How to determine your emotional state

The syndrome of professional burnout begins, as a rule, so quietly that it is not always possible to notice its appearance. At first, emotions are simply muffled, dissatisfaction with oneself is felt, or, conversely, insensitivity appears to things that usually cause an acute reaction. At the same time, unexplained headaches and back pains, endless colds and insomnia begin to haunt a person.

In the second stage of this syndrome, the psychological state manifests itself at the level of emotions. Like a mirror reflecting the inner world, your emotional sphere begins to produce negative energy. It is during this period that an unfriendly attitude arises towards people with whom you have to communicate every day: they annoy, anger. To avoid these negative experiences, you may unconsciously distance yourself from colleagues and visitors by doing only the bare minimum of work.

But it can't last forever. There comes the third stage - exhaustion. There are no more emotions, strength, will... The work is done on autopilot. Sharpness, anger, rudeness, detachment, isolation, reassessment of professional values ​​appear. You are offended by the whole world and yourself. Fortunately, this phase is rarely reached.

In the first two stages of the syndrome of professional burnout, you can recover, but, to return to normal life, you must either learn to live with what you have, or change the situation .

To manage the situation, it must be studied. Therefore, we suggest that you check your emotional state using the Burnout Syndrome technique. It will allow to determine the severity of the main components of this syndrome and thus to establish the overall indicator of professional burnout. Regardless of the results, even if it seemed to you that this problem does not concern you, we believe that preventive measures will not be superfluous.

We create defense mechanisms

With a lower health risk of professional burnout, people with the following characteristics experience:


  • good health;
  • conscious, purposeful care of your physical condition (constant sports and maintaining a healthy lifestyle);
  • high self-esteem and confidence in oneself, one's abilities and capabilities.

In addition, professional burnout threatens to a lesser extent those who have experience of successfully overcoming professional stress and are able to change constructively in stressful conditions. They are sociable, open, independent and strive to rely on their own strength, constantly improve their professional and personal level. Finally, an important feature of personalities resistant to professional burnout is the ability to form and maintain optimistic attitudes both towards themselves and other people and life in general.

So, it must be remembered that low performance during a crisis does not deprive you of professional qualities and you continue to be a valuable employee.

There are several methods of psychological way out of a difficult situation that will help neutralize professional burnout. The latter in the early stages is almost completely amenable to correction without the help of psychologists and special medical equipment.

is a panacea for almost all ills and a cure for all mental trauma. For some, auto-training or meditation is more suitable, for some - daily exercises or dousing with cold water, and for some - running or modern dancing.
  • Complete rest. Without it, effective work is impossible. What is your vacation - decide for yourself. Only one condition - you need to spend some time on rest, and not just "take a nap in the subway." A change of scenery, new experiences, an emotional shake-up will renew you and, upon returning, you will be able to continue working productively.
  • The art of rationalization. Remember that your work is not your whole life. Treat it like a small piece of your life film.
  • Psychological suspension. In a situation where you are insulted by visitors or a leader, create a mental barrier in the form of a glass in a car through which you can see the other, but not hear him.
  • Creating physical distance. You may stand or sit a little further from visitors than usual, make eye contact less often, use signals that implicitly indicate the transience of the conversation. Talk to visitors on superficial, general topics. This will require far fewer personal resources from you.

  • Starting to work in a new place and being young and energetic at the same time, we take up business with passion and great zeal. Imagination draws rosy pictures... But every day, for some reason, reality becomes less and less like a dream.

    There is no expected sound of fanfare, instead of it there is vanity, burning deadlines, an evil boss and a rapidly disappearing gleam in the eyes. The person "burns out".

    123RF/Felix of Britain

    Happy are those who do not know the state of "I want nothing." But there are practically no such people. Sooner or later, each of us becomes apathetic, reacts to all the proposals of friends and relatives with a monotonous refusal, prefers to withdraw into himself, not seeing any interest in the surrounding life. But if at home they can still somehow understand us and give us time to restore mental strength, then things are much more complicated with work. The boss doesn’t care whether you are “burned out” or not, you have to work. Meanwhile, “burnout”, or, as it is also called, “burnout”, is a rather dangerous phenomenon, which, first of all, indicates that a person is morally exhausted, that he is in a state of chronic stress, overworked and does not see motivation for further work. As a rule, when “burnout” occurs, people do not want to communicate with colleagues, they believe that no salary is able to stir up their interest in work, they wake up broken in the morning, they do not feel rested even on weekends.

    Getting out of this state is much more difficult than trying not to get into it. We have put together a few tips for you to help you avoid burnout.

    1. Leave work at work

    We sin by taking documents home, “hanging” on the phone, sitting at the table in our own kitchen, while the children are waiting for us to play at least a little with them. Work turns into slavery, which accompanies us everywhere: at home, on weekends, even abroad during the holidays. As a result, we do not even understand that in addition to work duties, there is another life, family, relationships, hobbies. Due to the inability to restore mental strength, our body eventually says “stop”, and the level of performance drops sharply.

    123RF/ammentorp

    2. We sit at work - we move on vacation

    If you spend 8 hours in the office at the computer, and then just “rest” at home, how does your vacation differ from work? You again do not let the body understand that now you can relax. Therefore, on the weekends, forget about apathetic pastime, it is better to go for a walk, to the skating rink, to the park. All in all, . This is really capable of preventing "burnout".

    3. Don't take on too many responsibilities

    If your boss is giving you one task after another while others are sitting idle (or at least less busy than you), don't try to carry everything on your own. Feel free to say that you won't be able to prepare all 5 documents at the same time, because each requires attention, and you don't want to make a mistake.

    Believe me, it’s better to have the courage once and give up the imposed duties than to suffer later that you can’t do something and don’t have time to take a breath at all.

    4. Don't work at night

    If you are at home and you have a free schedule, then, of course, there is a temptation to postpone all business for the night, for a time when the household is sleeping and no one bothers you. And even more so if you consider yourself a "night owl", then you are sure that this option is right for you. However, do not confuse day with night. At first you will like to work in the dark and sleep during the day, but then you will feel how life passes by, because all other people live when you have the tenth dream. The mood will worsen, and you will slowly begin to hate your work, believing that it takes up all your free time.

    123RF/Anna Kraynov

    5. Learn to relax

    And again, we are trying to convey one message: sitting at the computer is not a vacation. A warm fragrant bath, yoga, meditation, a slow walk in the fresh air will help you relax. If you want to relax in the office, then just close your eyes and take a deep breath, then exhale. Breathe into your belly so that your diaphragm goes down as you inhale and goes up as you exhale. Repeat this exercise 10 times.

    6. Don't get carried away

    Often, burnout occurs because we want everything at once: to become a boss, to earn a million, and to learn Japanese. Determine for yourself the main goals for the next six months, write them down on paper and try not to spray on trifles. Of course, a million and the Japanese language are not trifles, but the essence of this approach is also that goals must be set realistic.

    The path that a person takes in the process of combustion is approximately the same for everyone: a person with deep-seated self-doubt. His opinion of himself depends on the situation: like he is talented, and like not. In the morning he seems attractive to himself, and in the evening - somehow not very. And in general, those around you probably know better. Therefore he…

    10 Signs of Burnout Syndrome:

    1. severe fatigue and fatigue;
    2. decrease in initiative, loss of interest in what used to be important;
    3. dulling of the ability to enjoy and experience vivid emotions;
    4. sleep disturbance;
    5. headaches, pain in the back and chest area;
    6. weight gain;
    7. painful cravings for food (cigarettes, sex, shopping, gambling, alcohol);
    8. it is difficult to cope with things that used to work out well;
    9. depression, detachment, disappointment, irritability;
    10. a feeling of loneliness and, at the same time, any communication is a burden.

    depends on someone else's opinion. For such a person, it is very important what not only the family and the school, but also Princess Marya Alekseevna will think and say about him. And more importantly, to think well of him. Therefore, he tends to fulfill the expectations of others. And because this person doesn't like something about himself, he...

    … forms an image of the ideal self, which would please his environment, and in which he himself would be comfortable. Most often, this image is associated with a lack of some thing or some quality. A person wants to become a department head, buy a Land Cruiser, become an ideal wife and mother. For the period when the desired state is achieved, a person has high hopes and ...

    takes effect under the motto "we brought this day closer as best we could." In the chosen business, he tries to be perfect, takes on mountains of work, suffers from perfectionism. And it is quite clear that...

    the chosen activity becomes a super task for him. Our hero puts all his strength on the altar of victory. He does not have more time (and then desire) for friends, for hobbies, for entertainment. Yes, this is not necessary, he thinks. He diligently drills himself, does not allow himself to relax, limits his rest and treats his activities without a drop of humor. And then…

    internal conflict arises. Swollen like a cancerous tumor, the priority area of ​​​​activity obscures the rest of the world. A twist occurs. The body begins to react to the lack of vital things - relaxation, disconnection from the annoying topic of work, live communication. Fatigue turns into disappointment, lethargy, depression. Successes are no longer encouraging, the goal that I strived so hard for before seems meaningless and stupid. Emotions disappear, both positive and negative. At this stage, connect...

    health problems. Which ones - depends on the individual: it can be headaches, back pain, insomnia, dizziness. Often “burnt out” complain about weight gain: with the help of overeating, they try to drown out the “voice of reality”. For the same reasons, they may pay increased attention to alcohol, smoking or shopping. And finally, the last chord - ...

    complete emotional burnout: Loss of interest in life and work.

    Burned down by choice

    Burnout syndrome begins with the usual fatigue, irritability, anxiety. It is difficult to “catch” it in the early stages - you won’t go to the doctor with such complaints. And in vain: after a while the situation worsens: priority activity causes disgust, a person engages in it through force, goes to work through force, becomes irritable, reacts inadequately, explodes, etc. The last stage is complete emotional exhaustion, when a person is busy with his activities on autopilot, detached. He no longer sees the slightest sense in his own work.

    “Of all the cases when patients are diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, only 1-2% of true CFS, everything else is an unrecognized burnout syndrome”

    Safira Antaniosovna Naddour Director of the NEP Clinic (Neurology Aesthetics Psychotherapy)

    Who is most likely to fall victim to burnout syndrome? Initially, it was believed that these were people whose work is connected with people: workers in helper professions, in the service sector. Then burnout became an attribute of office workers, it was even renamed the "manager's syndrome". But at the same time, people of creative professions and housewives who bear the cross of an “exemplary mother” are also subject to the burnout syndrome. All of them are people with inflated claims in relation to themselves, setting themselves high and complex tasks on which their self-respect depends, and eventually realizing that there is not enough resource for fulfillment.

    So what should one do who has become a servant of his work?

    • Understand which life goals are personal and which ones are imposed by the environment. Separate the wheat from the chaff, and in the future focus only on your own goals.
    • Learn to respect your wants and needs. Love yourself the way you are now, not the way you are going to be in the future. Understand that you are valuable to others not only because of your achievements. To be sure that your friends will love you even in the absence of any success, otherwise what kind of friends are they? Stop depending on the approval of others.
    • Learn to rationally organize your time, combine work with rest, switch to other activities in time and realize yourself in several directions at the same time.
    • Do not elevate your task to the rank of a super task, do not put everything at stake for the sake of a single goal.

    Keep in mind that advanced burnout syndrome often requires the intervention of a psychotherapist!

    Svetlana Malevich