Burnout state of mind.
Katy Perry once asked if we ever felt “like a plastic bag drifting through the wind” and I can’t think of a better description for burnout. Burnout is a simple word for a complex feeling. It goes beyond depression, hopelessness, and helplessness and finds the perfect recipe of emotional, physical, and mental symptoms to make us feel useless, worthless, and fed up all while going through the motions of our every day lives (hence just drifting through the wind like the plastic bag). Like all things, burnout looks and feels different for everyone but has some common themes. This emotion is exhausting, both physically and mentally. Have you gotten home from work and had no energy to cook food or tidy up the place so you watch 3 hours of Netflix instead? Have you been so emotionally drained that you avoid social events or reaching out to friends because it takes up too much energy to be present with them? What about that feeling of dread of having to restart the week every Sunday (or whenever your week starts)? Burnout is beyond an emotion. It may make you believe that you aren’t competent at your job or it may have you become so irritable with the people and the world around you that you constantly wanting to take that anger out on people. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
I personally have experienced burnout at least 2 times in the past few years. So, even mental health professionals are not immune to the complexities of this emotion. In fact, burnout is very common in the helping field (more on that later). I would work long and irregular hours, be fully present for coworkers and clients, and take on extra responsibilities to help out and hopefully be rewarded with praise and advancement. The praise and advancement never came and instead I was getting taken advantage of at my workplace and not feeling supported or appreciated. I started to complain about work every day, dread going to the place I once enjoyed, and started to feel the intrusive negative thoughts creep in. Because of my training, I was able to recognize these symptoms before hitting rock bottom. I had to figure out what I needed, set appropriate boundaries, and advocate for my needs. It was hard as hell and still a process to this day.
Fast forward to 2020 and I was seeing burnout happen on the large scale during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is well into 2022, and I am still noticing lingering affects of it and people who pushed through it the past few years are now starting to crash and burn. During the pandemic, we saw the pressures of many jobs working late hours, handling hard responsibilities, and not getting adequate pay or acknowledgement (hmm that sounds familiar). With this, we saw burnout happen in large numbers in places such as hospitals, restaurants, schools, and more. I know burnout happened in the mental health field but many therapists and helpers shoved their feelings in a box, locked it up, and tried to be there for the people who needed support. I am starting to see burnout happen in the mental health field explode because these therapists pushed through the past few years trying to help people with the pandemic, political events, grief, anxiety, and more- and now their bodies are telling them they also need rest and peace.
Burnout was not created in 2020 though. Many fields experience burnout for a variety of reasons. Therapists get burntout when working long hours, have high caseloads, and low pay. Teachers in many areas (such as Oklahoma) who again were underpaid, had large class sizes, and juggled a million responsibilities reported burnout. Healthcare workers who work long shifts, have a ton of debt, and have high crisis patients are getting burned out. Are we seeing a pattern yet? In our society we tend to not value certain employees and treat them like work horses until they have no fight left in them.
What is worse is we tend to let people believe that they did something wrong to not be able to survive the impossible hurdles in place. People internalize burnout and think they are bad at their job, that they aren’t cut out for it, and that they are worthless and useless. Instead, we should be focusing on the environments that create burnout. Systems in our society need to change and we are already seeing that in motion. Many people are leaving agencies and moving towards private practice. People are quitting their crappy jobs in hopes of finding a better fit. People are realizing work is just a part of their life, not their whole life.
What can I do about burnout?
In my work with clients, we talk a lot about self-care. To some it seems like a surface level band-aid on a gushing head wound that needs surgery. To me, it is people taking a stand for themselves and putting their needs first before their jobs, before their partners, and before the millions of tasks on their to-do list. It is reminding people that they matter and they are important. It reminds people to slow down and set boundaries within the systems they are in. Self-care is literally taking care of yourself by making sure you are getting sleep, food, water, movement, and more so I do not see how that is a band-aid. Self-care also recharges a person and gives people strength and confidence to do what they need to do. If we are constantly feeling burnt-out then we will not be able to do our work well, be present in our relationships, or feel hope for the future. We need to recharge and figure out what we need in life even if just doing small yet meaningful tasks. As I tell 99% of my clients, you cannot pour from an empty cup.
You are correct in thinking that self-care can’t fix it all. Self-care won’t fix the structural issues in workplaces or our society, but it can help you figure out what you need. Maybe that means switching jobs, which is what I was fortunate enough to be able to do in the past when I experienced my personal burnout. For others, it means setting boundaries with employers, advocating for more pay, or finding support in their community. Self-care can give you the strength and energy to determine what you need to feel fulfilled and to create a plan to get there even if that plan is to tough it out at a crappy job until you can find a better one.
So if you take anything away from this just know that burnout is not because of something you did wrong and that it is a product of our society and workplaces. While this blog focused on workplaces, I have seen burnout in students of all ages from middle school to adults getting their PhDs and even in people who stay at home because let’s be honest, that is really a full time job as well. So remember to take care of yourselves and to keep on fighting the systems that are truly causing us to feel this way.
If you are interested in getting mental health treatment for burnout, learn more here.
Alicia Johnson, LMFT
Online therapist in Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.
