Busy represents a term that many individuals identify with the world over. From students shuffling classes, a session of homework with occasional assistance to do my homework online, and home chores, to adults juggling family and work obligations. Not a lot of people make time for other rejuvenating activities. Because of this, you can feel mentally, emotionally, and physically spent, which can result in a total non-function or functioning on autopilot.
Suffering from burnouts often occurs to individuals, and some don’t even notice it until a time where someone else points it out. So what burnout stages should you become aware of throughout your yearly day to day activities?
Burnout Stages
- The compelling feeling of proving yourself
When you start experiencing this feeling, it’s the first exhibition of burnout in as much as you may not classify it as one at the moment. It’s at this stage where the pressure to continuously prove yourself, builds, and as a result, you try to perfect everything you indulge in.
- Working harder. The stage builds from the first phase, and in this, you try to focus on working every time. It’s always the case that work proves endless from attending meetings, researching, to finishing projects. However, you should avoid bringing work home to cut out the cycle that leads to burnout.
- Neglecting needs. You can easily abandon your needs with your motivation for work. Because of work, you can start forgoing sleep, eating healthily, maintaining a respectable standard of hygiene, etc.
- Conflict displacement. At this stage, your level of stress has developed, and you end up taking it on people around you. You begin blaming people for faults they have not role or idea about. As a result, you can end up ruining friendships.
- Value revision. It’s the stage where you begin to truly feel it because your relationships start going on a downhill trend. You then begin to miss vital events of family and friends and end up justifying your decision.
- Living in denial, especially on emerging challenges. The stage entails assuming your problems and letting it have control over your life. It will result in a level where you don’t value your colleagues, which can result in you becoming aggressive to them.
- An individual gets overwhelmed by stress at this level and ends up absconding responsibilities and avoiding people. The level often features a person getting solace into alcohol, overeating, or at times, drugs.
- Odd social changes. At this stage, your burnout becomes apparent to the people around you. It can result in behaving differently and uncharacteristic of you.
- The struggle becomes graver, and you end up classifying everyone and everything as valueless and pointless respectively.
- Inner emptiness. It always results in a feeling of emptiness, and you coast through life motions. Without a check, the stage can lead to an unchartered dark path of depression.
- It’s the subsequent stage from feeling empty, and here, your burnout affects your mental health.
- Burnout syndrome. The stage features a phase where you suffer from emotional, physical, and mental health perspectives. It requires medical attention to arrest it.
Conclusion
Burnout entails much more than getting stressed. You must know and seek for any available help once you notice a manifestation of any symptoms of burnout. By considering the twelve stages, you will have a better idea to take control of your work-life.