Emotional burnout: symptoms and how to deal with it

In May 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) described the signs of burnout syndrome. It is defined as “feelings of depleted energy, increased mental distance from work, a cynical or negative attitude toward work, and a decline in professional productivity.” The news immediately caused strong reactions among less competent people - publications appeared and quickly spread that emotional burnout was officially recognized as a disease, although this is not true to this day.

The syndrome is defined only as a factor that can influence the development of the corresponding pathology, but burnout is not an independent disorder. This term first became known to psychological practice from the American psychiatrist G. Freudenberger. The professor observed his own colleagues for a long time, and later was able to generalize changes in their thinking and behavior, which became brighter and more noticeable with each working day. Today one of the leading experts in this field of knowledge is Christina Maslach. According to her classification, emotional burnout is directly related to constant forced activity that cannot be suspended.

According to public surveys, not only subordinates, but also managers suffer from burnout. Many call this phenomenon a full-fledged epidemic due to its massive spread. Thus, 23% of working Americans noted that they experience characteristic symptoms “often or constantly.” Modern researchers, practically psychologists, argue that today's realities invariably create conditions favorable for the development of emotional burnout, which is why it is especially important to know about risk factors, diagnose signs in a timely manner and take appropriate measures, including preventive ones.

Symptoms of burnout

Emotional burnout is a progressive syndrome; it is often extremely difficult to notice its first signs and predict the further development of the disorder. The psychological state changes qualitatively gradually, without sudden jumps, incrementally. Every year, emotional burnout covers more and more areas of professional activity. If previously the symptoms of the syndrome were experienced only by those who are forced to work within the framework of constant interaction with other people, today emotional burnout is diagnosed even among housewives. As the disorder progresses, the following signs may appear:

• Anxious thoughts - a person begins to doubt his professional suitability, fear excessive responsibility, doubt about a prosperous future
• Loss of interests - over time, those activities or hobbies that previously brought pleasure, helped to distract, cease to be important and meaningful
• Physical ailments – emotional burnout is characterized by physiological disturbances; most often people complain of nagging muscle pain, eye discomfort, appetite and sleep disturbances
• Excessive irritability, apathy, reluctance to interact even with the closest people - is explained by an unconscious desire to conserve the remaining energy
• Decreased self-esteem.

Fatigue is a normal and understandable state for the body. Emotional burnout is characterized by duration and the accumulation of symptoms, which over time become noticeable both to the person himself and to others. It is important to diagnose the symptoms of the disorder in time and prevent their further development - independently or with the help of specialists.

Modern consideration of the problem

Although it is still customary to primarily consider burnout in the social sphere, science has proven that this can happen in any profession, although human-to-human work remains the main risk group.

In modern thinking, emotional burnout is interpreted as a professional crisis in any work activity. It is connected with the activity and self-awareness of a person, and not with interpersonal relationships within the framework of work.

Then the components of the burnout structure change:

• exhaustion remains the same, but there is a greater risk of intrapersonal conflict and a crisis of the meaning of life;
• cynicism extends to the attitude towards the activity itself, its product (quality suffers);
• reduction is replaced by professional efficiency (the performance of work is simplified).

Why is it dangerous?

Emotional burnout negatively affects all areas of life of the person who experiences this phenomenon, as well as the people around him. In addition to the proven effect on a person’s somatic health, it is possible to classify the main dangers of emotional burnout for different categories of citizens, depending on their gender and age characteristics.

1. Consequences of emotional burnout for men. It is known that representatives of the stronger half of humanity strive for full professional self-realization. Their ambitions often exceed their real capabilities, but the craving for self-affirmation, prestige, and recognition always turns out to be stronger than circumstances. Emotional burnout is exactly what will prevent you from achieving success even if you have all the necessary competencies. A man’s self-esteem will suffer so much from unfulfilled and unjustified hopes that he is unlikely to be able to overcome the fear of failure in the future.
2. Consequences of emotional burnout in women. Burnout syndrome has a negative impact on your personal life. The desire to be alone and to replenish energy reserves is often perceived even by those closest to them as neglect. Subsequently, conflicts arise in the family, which can easily lead to separation - and this is an additional test for the already sensitive psyche of a woman.
3. Consequences of emotional burnout in children. The syndrome is especially dangerous in childhood, when the child is just learning about the world around him, learning to express and cope with emotions, and interact with people around him. The stress experienced can seriously affect the child’s psyche and his view of reality. The development of full-fledged fears and even phobias, disruption of the process of personal identification and establishing contacts with peers cannot be ruled out.
4. Consequences of emotional burnout for adolescents. During adolescence, boys and girls are especially susceptible to negativity. Having experienced the symptoms of emotional burnout, a teenager’s life can be forever changed - complicated by depressive, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, psychosomatic illnesses and even suicidal tendencies.

It is impossible to predict how burnout will affect a particular person, but the frightening range of possible consequences should serve as the main motivation for regular analysis of one’s own well-being.

Stages

Different researchers have defined the stages of development of emotional burnout in their own way, but in practice they most often turn to G. Freudenberger’s approach.

Herbert Freudenberger

Together with his colleague G. North, the professor identified 11 stages of worsening symptoms.

1. Obsessed with demonstrating one's own worth to more successful colleagues
2. Inability to escape from work, engage in favorite hobbies, or spend leisure time
3. Neglect of natural needs - normal daily routine, diet, social communication
4. Denial of the presence of a problem - irritability, feeling threatened, panic
5. Qualitative distortion of values, excessive obsession with job responsibilities
6. Deterioration of relationships with colleagues and immediate supervisors
7. A rapid reduction in social connections, the emergence of a tendency to bad habits as a means of getting rid of stress and relieving tension
8. Obvious changes in behavior that loved ones begin to notice
9. Depersonalization is a literal loss of the meaning of life, devaluation of everything that was previously dear
10. Feeling of internal emptiness, attempts to fill it with promiscuity, overeating, psychoactive substances
11. Severe depression – feelings of insecurity, exhaustion, mental and physical health problems.

Depending on individual characteristics, the development of skills to overcome stress, and the tendency to self-reflection, emotional burnout can occur with different dynamics, but in the end it all comes down to one thing - the development of full-fledged mental disorders.

Afterword

Mental burnout is a long process, at the beginning of which a person strives to “squeeze all the juices out of himself” and find new resources. But in fact, irritation, dissatisfaction, anxiety, frustration, depression only increase, and then exhaustion, depersonalization and reduction come.

Interestingly, not only personality traits influence the development of burnout, but burnout also causes changes in personality. Due to the adaptive, but different from social norms, behavior of a burnt-out person, professional deformations arise. This is a variant of self-justification of the individual, resolution of the existing contradiction. Professional deformations are the result of a restructuring of the individual’s inner world and the emergence of new formations.

Read more about deformations in the article “Professional personality deformations: what they are, factors, signs and prevention.” And about the causes of emotional burnout in the article “Professional emotional burnout: causes and factors.”

Causes

There are external and internal reasons that can provoke emotional burnout. The first category of unfavorable factors can be corrected quite simply. Internal factors are attitudes, behavior patterns, character traits and beliefs that guide a person when making life-changing decisions. External conditions can provoke emotional burnout when a person already has internal prerequisites for this. External unfavorable environmental factors include:

• Harsh working conditions – heavy workload, tight schedule
• Unsatisfactory salary
• Lack of ability to concentrate on job responsibilities - excess distractions
• Dissatisfaction with the choice of profession, inability to change occupation to a more attractive one
• Unfavorable atmosphere - tense relationships with colleagues or management, excessive pressure.

Among the internal reasons for the development of emotional burnout are hyper-responsibility, social stereotypes, dependence on other people’s influence, opinions, devaluation of one’s own desires and needs, fear of being unnecessary, unclaimed, and useless.

Causes, symptoms and signs

There are external and internal causes of the syndrome. External ones include, for example, working conditions, and internal ones include character traits, beliefs and attitudes of a person. As a rule, it is internal reasons that “start the work” of external ones; in other words, if a person is sure that everyone around him is deceiving (this is his belief), then he will automatically expect a dirty trick from his employer, see something suspicious in his every action, and so drive yourself into a stressful situation.

External factors include:

• overtime work, busy schedule;
• unsatisfactory wages;
• deadlines;
• unloved job;
• conflicts within the team;
• monotonous activity;
• inflated demands from the manager, etc.

As you can see, all factors are related to the work environment, which can be corrected; the main thing is to identify the “irritating factor” in time.

Here are the internal factors:

• hyper-responsibility, pedantry;
• attitudes like “I have to work hard, otherwise my life will collapse”;
• the belief that work is the main value in life;
• fear of letting down;
• the desire to prove one’s importance and status to someone, etc. [D. Suseeva, 2021]

All these factors first cause stress, which, if you do not respond to the body’s signals in time and take action, develops into a serious illness.

Emotional burnout manifests itself in the following symptoms:

1. Physical: tiredness, tiredness, exhaustion, sudden weight changes, insomnia, general malaise, difficulty breathing, nausea, dizziness, high blood pressure, heart disease.
2. Emotional: pessimism, indifference, lack of emotions, feelings of hopelessness, frustration, anxiety, depression, guilt, nervous breathing, anxiety, feelings of loneliness.
3. Behavioral: during work, fatigue often appears, indifference to food, reluctance to show physical activity, impulsive emotional behavior, accidents occur (injuries, falls, etc.)
4. Intellectual: decreased or lack of interest in new knowledge, preference for routine over a creative approach, formal performance of one’s work duties.
5. Social: lack of time and energy for communication, isolation from everyone, the feeling that no one close to you supports you.

Although this syndrome is directly related to professional activity, it has an impact on all areas of a person’s life. It is characteristic of those employees who work in the “person-to-person” system and in the “helping” area. First of all, emotional burnout affects teachers, doctors, social workers, educators, managers, i.e. those who show maximum empathy. But recently, workers who, by the nature of their work, do not often interact with people (for example, programmers) are increasingly susceptible to it [G. Makarova, 2009].

There are three main signs that indicate burnout:

• extreme exhaustion;
• detachment from clients, students, patients and work activity in general;
• feeling of incompetence.

At first, a person shows increased activity in work, he immerses himself in it and does not even feel the need for other benefits, forgets about his own needs, after which exhaustion sets in - a feeling as if there are no emotions left, physical resources are at zero, and fatigue is such that Even sleep doesn't help to cope with it.

At this stage, the employee is in a hurry to go on vacation, hoping that a long rest will correct the situation, but as soon as he returns to work duties, the state of exhaustion immediately returns to him.

Next comes the second stage of burnout - detachment. A person tries to cope with his stress by isolating himself from interaction with other people. Interest in students, patients, clients is lost, the employee basically stops perceiving them and even gets irritated by their mere presence. And then there comes a depreciation of one’s professional qualities and work begins to bring less and less pleasure [G. Makarova, 2009].

It is important to diagnose the signs of emotional burnout in time and take appropriate measures, then serious consequences will be avoided.

Who is most often affected?

In practice, there is a clear risk group, certain professions or stages of life, for which emotional burnout is more common. Among these categories of people are students, teachers, doctors, mothers.

1. Emotional burnout among students. Studenthood is a special stage in the life of every person, a time of increased activity, self-determination, and responsibility. The student is already an adult, but demands still continue to be placed on him. Instead of spending time with friends or a favorite hobby, the student is forced to prepare for an important session in order to continue studying and become a competent specialist. Responsibilities associated with preparing for classes are not the only activities of students - research work, creative and social associations, participation in conferences, forums, outdoor events, all these conditions create a favorable environment for the development of the syndrome. In this case, it is useful to seek the help of a teenage psychologist.
2. Emotional burnout among teachers. Educators encounter a variety of students of all ages and personalities every day. It is very difficult to find a common language with each of them, but within the framework of the educational process, an individual approach is a priority area of ​​professional activity. The teacher feels direct responsibility for the quality of children’s preparation, the results of their intermediate and final certification, but at the same time, their inability to cope with such a volume of work alone. Over time, the profession ceases to bring pleasure, fatigue and lack of acceptance of one’s own competence appear. The situation develops especially quickly when working with difficult children, disobedient, self-willed, and lacking initiative.
3. Emotional burnout among doctors. Employees of medical institutions take on enormous responsibility for the health, and often the lives of patients. Constant work with negativity (complaints, poor health, unpleasant procedures, stress) invariably affects the mental state of doctors. All specialists are susceptible to burnout to one degree or another, primarily those caring for cancer patients, patients with immunodeficiencies, as well as workers in intensive care teams.
4. Emotional burnout in mothers. It would seem that the birth of a child is a happy, significant event in life that cannot lead to negative consequences. However, in practice, an increasing number of mothers complain of emotional burnout. The baby begins to take up all the time, attention, strength, and this will continue until he comes of age. You need to have enormous internal energy resources to overcome all crisis stages of a child’s development without consequences for your own mental health.

For those who study, work in a responsible position, interact with a large number of people every day, or are parents, it is especially important to pay attention to spending their own leisure time and organizing rest in order to prevent the onset of emotional burnout.

Idealism and exhaustion. Learning to rest correctly

If you are still at the stage of idealism and excess or exhaustion, the first thing you need to do is take care of rest. It must be sufficient (quantity) and effective (quality). Let's take a dream. You need to sleep 7–8 hours a day - it's about quantity. You need to sleep in silence and darkness - this is about quality. A signal that you are doing everything right - it’s easy to get up in the morning at the first alarm signal, or you even wake up without it.

Once you've secured healthy sleep and freed up your evenings and weekends, start incorporating some light support tools into your routine. These tools will reduce your exposure to work stress.

Step 1: Define work boundaries—and write them down

Draw up a written (oral, but a letter is more effective) agreement with you, similar to the one that the employer enters into with the employee. In it, write down the conditions under which you are willing to work, how much time and effort you are willing to invest in the work. And also - what would be a violation of the terms of the contract, what you definitely do not agree to do for the sake of work. For example, working late, missing birthdays of loved ones, answering work messages on weekends. Add any details that seem important to you. Save the contract, monitor how you follow it, and re-read it periodically to refresh your memory of the rules.

Step 2: Create routines that will keep you going throughout the day.

Rituals reduce anxiety and increase our productivity at work. In the morning you can meditate and do a mini workout. During the day, take a long break for lunch and go to a cafe with colleagues or friends, a new one each time. Or take short 15-minute breaks, and during them dance, do breathing exercises, or just lie in the dark if you are tired of communication and movement. And to relax before bed, take a shower and read a good novel.

There are two rules. The first is regularity

: Routines should become so familiar that you do them without thinking.
Secondly, giving up smartphones
: they make rest ineffective, in particular, they impair concentration and increase stress. The exception is if you meditate or breathe using an app.

Which rituals to choose?

Take the Wellbeing Index test to determine the ones you need most. It will show you which areas of your life need the most attention right now: nutrition, physical activity, stress/emotions, time/focus, sleep and balance.

Step 3. Choose the right type of holiday

Vacations should always be completely relaxing

or be
as contrasting as possible
with your everyday activities. Complete relaxation is the format of a sanatorium, when the maximum effort you need to make is to get to a place where others will do the rest for you. It should be a safe and comfortable space. And the less novelty (even news) and the need to make decisions, the better. Examples: flotation tank, massage, meditation, yoga, spending the day in bed, progressive muscle relaxation, spending a day in nature swinging in a hammock and having a picnic. Just 8 hours of sleep will do.

The maximum contrast with what you do on weekdays can also be created with simple actions. If you spend all day with people, limit social activity and go for a walk in a park or forest alone. Conversely, if you work at home all day on a computer, your ideal relaxation is a rich social environment. And if you are a leader, accustomed to going forward and leading others, go to training, where the coach will tell you what to do and how to do it.

An alternative is to choose rest that stimulates oxytocin

or
adrenaline with dopamine
. The body produces oxytocin through support, care, touch, or the simple presence of other people. All this gives us a feeling of deep connection - “we are together.” If you want to feel the effects of oxytocin, look your loved one in the eyes. You will feel relaxed and protected. Oxytocin-filled rest is best for those who gain resources from caring for others. Suitable activities: have a heart-to-heart talk with loved ones and hug with them, go for a massage and SPA treatments.

There are people for whom effective protection against burnout is adrenaline plus dopamine: new experiences, moving forward every day. Almost all startup founders are like this. Three days without changes seems like stagnation to them, and when the project becomes stable, they are more tired than when they first started the business - even if objectively there are fewer problems. If this sounds like you, it's important to remember that the adrenaline and dopamine rush needs to be triggered in an environmentally friendly manner, not through gaming or watching porn. Anything that forces you to get out of your comfort zone, excites and inspires you will come in handy: learning a new language or mastering new skills, preferably complex ones, visiting new places, meeting new people with experiences and views that are different from yours.

Step 4. Devote half an hour a day to something that makes you feel happy and full of life.

As a rule, these are very simple things that we tend to put off until later, giving preference to more rational and urgent matters or procrastination. To remember them, think about what is important to you to do in life outside of work. What did you dream about at school, university and before burnout, when you had more strength? What would you like to remember on your centenary? Perhaps the answers will lead you to deeper relationships with family or loved ones. Or to a new activity that has nothing to do with work. Or maybe - to understand what the meaning and value of your current work is for you.

Add to these four tools basic body care: regular exercise and comfortable eating. If after this the condition has improved, you can not reduce the pace of work. But don’t forget: rest and self-care are as important as taking medications prescribed by your doctor. Neglecting them is like running towards a severe burnout.

How to combine productive work with self-care?

The answer is simple, but difficult to execute - to design your lifestyle correctly. Deva.School personal mentors will help you with this.

• First, you and your mentor analyze your current habits.
• Then you discuss your personal goals. Maybe you want to get more done. Or finally start exercising regularly and eating healthy. Or perhaps both at once.
• The mentor draws up a simple plan, you act according to the plan and mark your progress in the telegram bot.
• Once a week, you call your mentor to review the past week and set goals for the next. It's much easier and faster to change your habits to healthier ones than going it alone - and to stick to them.

Sign up for a trial appointment

A little test to test yourself

Emotional burnout is an extremely unpleasant condition that can lead to the development of all kinds of somatic and psychological ailments. The problem with diagnosis is that people often attribute the symptoms of the syndrome to banal fatigue and do not take them seriously.

The method for assessing emotional burnout, the Maslach questionnaire, is one of the most popular and reliable for assessing one’s own mental state. Diagnosis is carried out according to the main features - emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduction of professional achievements.

The questionnaire consists of 22 questions, for each of which you must select one answer option.

Question no.	Question	Answer options
1.	I feel pleasantly revitalized while working	Never – 0 points Very rarely – 1 point Rarely – 2 points Sometimes – 3 points Often – 4 points Read also:  Two-faced person: characteristics, reasons. How to recognize..? Very often – 5 points Every day – 6 points
2.	I can find the right solution in conflict situations that arise when communicating with colleagues
3.	After work I feel like a squeezed lemon
4.	After work, I want to get away from everyone and everything for a while
5.	At work I deal with emotional problems calmly
6.	I notice that my job is making me bitter
7.	Lately, it seems to me that colleagues and subordinates are increasingly shifting the burden of their problems and responsibilities onto me
8.	I want to retire and take a break from everything and everyone
9.	I feel emotionally drained
10.	I feel depressed and apathetic
11.	It happens that I really don’t care what happens to some of my subordinates and colleagues
12.	I feel like I'm working too much
13.	In the morning I feel tired and reluctant to go to work
14.	Lately I've become more callous towards those I work with.
15.	I feel indifference and loss of interest in many things that made me happy in my work
16.	I feel like I treat some subordinates and colleagues like objects (without warmth or affection towards them)
17.	I can easily create an atmosphere of goodwill and cooperation in a team
18.	I understand well how my subordinates and colleagues feel, and I try to take this into account in the interests of the business
19.	I have many plans for the future and I believe in their implementation
20.	Thanks to my work, I have already done a lot of really valuable things in my life.
21.	I'm sure people need my work
22.	My job is increasingly frustrating me

Decoding the results on the scale of emotional exhaustion - a feeling of emptiness, lethargy, the meaninglessness of what is happening, lack of positive emotions, mental and physical fatigue:

• 0-15 points – low level
• 16-24 – average level
• 25-54 high level.

Decoding the results on the depersonalization scale - indifference to work and its results, colleagues, partners, clients, lack of personal involvement:

• 0-5 points – low level
• 6-10 points – average level
• 11-30 points – high level

Decoding the results on the scale of reduction of professional achievements - decreased motivation to work, a negative assessment of one’s work in general and its results in particular, dissatisfaction with responsibilities, avoidance of them:

• 0-11 points – low level
• 12-18 points – average level
• 18-48 points – high level

If emotional burnout syndrome is not stopped in time, then its continuously increasing influence can significantly worsen the quality of life and lead to serious psychological problems and somatic diseases.

So what is it?

Burnout syndrome is increasing emotional exhaustion, which can lead to personal changes in communication with others. This is a condition in which the body turns on a psychological defense mechanism in response to traumatic factors, expressed in the complete absence of any emotions. The concept was introduced in 1974 by psychiatrist Herbert Freudenberger [V. Boyko, 1999].

This syndrome is often confused with overwork. These conditions have different weight categories: emotional burnout is, in fact, a disease that requires treatment, and overwork is temporary fatigue that goes away after a good rest. By the way, initially burnout syndrome was not equated to a disease, and only in 2001 it was included in the tenth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).

There are several theories that explain burnout syndrome from a psychological point of view. The most popular is the multifactorial theory of burnout, developed by American scientists Christina Maslach and Susan Jackson. In their opinion, this is nothing more than an employee’s reaction to chronic stress at work.

Christina Maslach identified three symptoms of this condition:

1. Emotional exhaustion: This feeling is similar to indifference - a complete absence of any emotions. A person feels exhausted and exhausted to such an extent that he does not even have the strength to communicate with other people. According to the authors, the source of this feeling is work overload and conflict situations.
2. Depersonalization: This refers to negative and cynical interactions with people. This is the body's response to emotional exhaustion.
3. Reduction of professional achievements: the feeling when an employee underestimates his competence and productivity. It occurs when it becomes impossible to cope with professional responsibilities, and intensifies when a person does not receive any support and does not see prospects for his development.

As you can see, this condition is associated with the professional sphere of life, and its main symptom is cynicism and devaluation of one’s work [N. Vodopyanova, E. Starchenkova, 2008].

To determine the level of emotional burnout, Christina Maslach and Susan Jackson created the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which you can take at the end of the article.

Another model explaining this phenomenon was proposed by Baron Perlman and Emil Hartman. According to scientists, burnout has three dimensions:

1. Physical: emotional exhaustion manifests itself on the physical level, fatigue, insomnia, etc. appear.
2. Affective-cognitive: the syndrome affects a person’s attitudes and feelings (lack of emotions, depersonalization).
3. Behavioral: Burnout affects a person’s behavior, such as decreased productivity.

According to this model, stress has several stages of development. First, the situation itself arises, leading to nervous tension: the person understands that he does not have the required skills and abilities to complete the task, or there is a discrepancy between expectations and reality (the work does not correspond to the person’s ideas and values).

The second stage of stress development depends on the employee’s perception of the most stressful situation. Next, a reaction to what is happening occurs in the form of deterioration in physical condition, changes in behavior, etc. And at the final stage, the body feels the consequences of stress; it is at this stage that emotional burnout occurs, i.e. this condition occurs as a result of prolonged exposure to a stressful situation [N. Vodopyanova, 2009].

Jerrold Greenberg, author of Managing Stress, described the stages of burnout as follows:

1. “Honeymoon”: at this stage, the employee willingly performs his work duties, but as soon as the workload increases, he begins to lose interest in work.
2. “Lack of fuel”: the syndrome begins to manifest itself in the form of sleep and appetite disturbances, the person feels tired and detached, and begins to avoid work in every possible way: being late, taking frequent breaks, going home early.
3. “Chronic symptoms”: at this stage, a person becomes irritable, aggressive, stops taking care of his appearance and constantly complains about lack of time.
4. “Crisis”: at this stage, chronic diseases appear, which causes complete or partial loss of working capacity.
5. “Breaking through the wall”: this is the most dangerous step, because due to the exacerbation of physical and psychological problems, the risk of developing life-threatening diseases increases [D. Greenberg, 2002].

So, now that we have looked at the main theories that explain what burnout syndrome is, we propose to talk in more detail about the causes of its occurrence and symptoms.

How to fight

Chronic fatigue, decreased ability to work, loss of interest in life, apathy, a feeling of hopelessness - all these are symptoms of emotional burnout. Constant internal tension, unfavorable living and working conditions, daily stress, excessive workload, unfulfilled dreams directly affect the development of the syndrome and the time required to eliminate it. When you notice the first signs of burnout, it is important to take appropriate action immediately.

1. Rest – every person needs a complete and healthy rest, physical relaxation, and relief from nervous tension. It is important to be able to distribute your own resources in such a way that the time allocated for work does not require sacrificing leisure, and vice versa. At work, it is advisable to take short breaks every time you feel emotional stress. This could be breathing exercises, minor physical exercises, or just listening to pleasant music - this will have enough energy for the whole day. At the same time, it is not advisable to neglect vacation or often stay overtime at the workplace.
2. Systematization as a means of organizing a large number of things will help you plan your work schedule correctly - don’t be nervous, don’t rush, but methodically and consistently follow the plan, highlighting the highest priority tasks and minor ones that bring less benefit than they require energy costs.
3. There is no limit to perfection. Continuous self-development is a good quality of a person, but in an attempt to outperform all colleagues, acquaintances and idols from TV, even if possible, it will not be at such a price. Self-improvement should bring pleasure, to some extent, even relaxation, but not be based on feelings of envy and an irresistible desire to gain dubious authority.
4. Accepting mistakes. Appropriate perfectionism and an uncontrollable pathological desire to do the job perfectly are polar different concepts. It is important to understand that mistakes are part of any development; they are useful experiences that often do more good than harm. In an effort to complete a task perfectly, a person spends much more time correcting, redoing, and improving the project, sacrificing other job responsibilities and his own natural needs for rest.
5. Versatility. It is not advisable to focus your whole life solely on the sphere of professional employment. It is important to pay attention to hobbies, social contacts, dreams come true, spending leisure time in pleasant company, mastering new knowledge, skills and abilities not related to direct job responsibilities.

The most important rule in the fight against emotional burnout is the correct placement of life priorities. If a person is positive, knows how to dream and realize diverse desires, then he is unlikely to ever be at risk.

Treatment and prevention of emotional burnout

It’s great if you are confident in your psycho-emotional state and that you are not threatened with burnout syndrome, because... you love your job, have a healthy assessment of your strengths and know how to distribute the load. But, as recent events show, this is not enough.

The pandemic, as one of the external factors contributing to the emergence of emotional burnout, has shown that there is always a risk of causes beyond our control that force us to radically reconsider our work activities. Many had to adapt to remote work, work several times harder and even change their field of activity in order, as they say, to stay afloat.

And it is not surprising that such a situation contributed to the emergence of stress, which just led to the point where a person is emotionally and physically reset. So what to do if you find yourself trapped in burnout syndrome?

Here are a few ways to help you get out of it:

1. Perform breathing exercises: by controlling breathing, a person influences muscle tone and his mental state. To reduce nervous tension and relax muscles, you need to breathe slowly, while fast and frequent breathing, on the contrary, maintains physical and emotional tension.
2. Meditation: stress affects the physical condition, stiffness and muscle tension appear. The ability to relax your body will help you quickly cope with tension in the body and give you a surge of strength and energy.
3. Hypnotherapy: This method of psychotherapy is used to treat neurosis, stress, depression and helps to get out of a difficult emotional state.
4. Working with affirmations: emotional burnout is accompanied by negative thoughts and self-doubt, which further aggravate the situation. Speak positive attitudes, for example, “I can easily cope with all my responsibilities,” “I am a good worker, I am valued and respected,” and then you will subconsciously start the healing process.
5. Visualization technique: imagine how easy and productive your working day will be, or any situation that bothers you (the main thing is to visualize it in a positive way). This way you will get rid of negative thoughts and a depressing emotional state [L. Vlasova, 2020].
6. Self-regulation: there are excellent techniques that allow you to cope with stress, difficult relationships in a team, apathy, depression, and procrastination. You can learn these techniques by taking our online course “Mental Self-Regulation”. We recommend!

Of course, independent treatment of burnout syndrome is effective only if we are not talking about its advanced form. Don’t be afraid to contact specialized specialists if you can’t get out of this difficult situation on your own, and most importantly, don’t ignore the problem.

Observational results show that even a completely “burnt out” person is able to return to a resourceful state. For example, as a result of experiments, it turned out that after a two-month vacation, specialists in “helping” professions were able to regain their strength and return to normal life. But this trend was observed only among those who were positive and received support from loved ones.

But you shouldn’t hope that passive rest for several months will work wonders. Step-by-step work is important here: first you need to be alone with yourself, distance yourself from negative emotions, then work on your thoughts and beliefs. It is at this stage that the techniques described above will be useful. Next, you need to decide on your plans and begin to implement them.

Several interesting techniques that allow you to cope with such an emotional state are offered by the authors of the book “Burnout Syndrome” N. Vodopyanova and E. Starchenkova. One of them is called “Self-renewal” and its essence is simple: you need to draw up a personal plan for self-renewal, which should include setting goals and objectives for personal growth; mastering techniques that help restore “burnt” resources; acquisition of new communication skills; optimization of work and rest schedules; working on the microclimate in the family, etc.

You should pay special attention to the ability to manage your time, because lack of time leads to a nervous state and dissatisfaction with your results. The most popular “time traps” include avoidance of activities that do not bring pleasure, “empty” communication with people, excessive effort and pedantry in business, irrational emotions (anger, rage, resentment), lack of a clear plan of action, etc. [L. Seiwert, 1990].

Any disease can be prevented, or at least its course can be alleviated, if prevention is taken up in time. To avoid burnout syndrome, you need to:

1. Learn to plan your time, do not put things off until tomorrow, accumulating them.
2. Keep your workspace tidy: Keep the space as comfortable and stress-free as possible.
3. Don't take work home. Yes, situations are different, but you still won’t be able to work properly at home, because, firstly, the workload is beyond the norm, and secondly, the home environment is not very conducive to performing work duties.
4. Follow a daily routine: sleep at least 8 hours, don’t go to bed too late, eat well and don’t forget to take breaks from work.
5. Doing what you love during the day: a hobby is a great way to emotionally release and recharge at the same time [L. Vlasova, 2020].

It would seem that everything is extremely simple, but in the bustle of everyday life we ​​forget to do basic things, for example, rest on time and take time for ourselves, thinking that someday tomorrow we will definitely rest. If you still live by this principle, you should quickly reconsider your life attitudes and pay attention to your health.

Recovery stages

Having diagnosed the signs of emotional burnout and made attempts to get rid of it, a person has already made a huge effort on himself. After all, the rehabilitation path is the hardest – always at the beginning. The more effective the techniques for overcoming a stressful situation are, the more often they are used in practice, the faster a person will notice qualitative changes in himself:

• Specific life goals
• Awareness of the presence of external traumatic factors, development of a plan to overcome them
• The desire to spend time with loved ones and do something new
• Predominance of positive thoughts.

This is the only positive feature of emotional burnout. If a person successfully copes with the syndrome, his life changes forever for the better.

Summarize

Burnout syndrome is not uncommon today, especially when it comes to those specialists whose duty is to help other people. Increasingly, people began to devalue their health, hunting for a big salary, high position and prestige. Of course, it’s good to have aspirations and goals, but don’t forget that without the main resource it will be impossible to achieve them.

In order not to fall into an emotional trap, when you don’t even have the strength to express your feelings, you need to work on yourself every day: do not overload yourself with work responsibilities, avoid stress, observe a work-rest schedule, devote time to hobbies and sensibly assess your resources. This way you can achieve your most cherished goals and at the same time save energy and strength.

Be healthy!

We also recommend reading:

• Storytelling
• Emotional burnout
• How to sleep and relax more
• The need-information theory of P. V. Simonov
• Professional burnout: what is it and how to prevent it?
• Emotional Labor
• 10 factors of professional burnout
• Munchausen syndrome
• How to avoid burnout
• Stendhal syndrome
• Emotional eating

Key words:1Psychoregulation

Prevention

The most important prevention of emotional burnout is taking care of your health. An integral part of every person’s life should be walking or jogging, playing sports, eating right, and giving up bad habits.

Refusal from modern technologies is no less important for stabilizing the mental state. All kinds of gadgets have become firmly established in the life of every person - they serve not only as a means of communication, but as a tool for self-development, leisure time, vacation planning, and so on. Despite all this, numerous researchers insist that frequent use of smartphones contributes to the accumulation of nervous tension.

To prevent the development of the syndrome, one should master control over emotions. Relaxation techniques, relaxation, meditation will help cope with stress, which cannot be completely eliminated from life, but learning to respond to it is easier - quite.

Nutrition

1. Start your day right. Eat a balanced breakfast that includes complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, protein and healthy fats.

2. Don't overuse coffee. And don’t get carried away with other stimulating drinks either.

3. Carry a bottle of water with you. Try to drink enough liquid. Then you will feel more energetic.

4. Avoid junk food, processed foods and processed foods. Or at least reduce your consumption of such foods.

5. Carefully study the menu in cafes and restaurants. Choose meals that are rich in protein and vegetables.

6. Drink less alcohol. And if you have enough willpower, give it up completely.

7. Pack healthy snacks. Then you won’t have to buy chips and chocolates when you want to eat.

8. Watch when and how much you eat. Try not to overeat or eat late at night.

9. Eat more greens, vegetables and fruits. Nutritionists advise eating more plant foods per day.

10. Enrich your diet. Most likely, you are not getting all the substances your body needs.