What Does Burnout Feel Like?
Professional burnout leaves you feeling mentally and physically exhausted. You feel listless, unmotivated, and like your brain is fried. You know you need to relax and recharge, but the idea of doing anything for yourself makes you feel guilty. The things that used to energize you about your profession don’t feel fulfilling anymore. When you’re not working, all you want to do is sleep, but even getting some sleep doesn’t seem to change how you feel. You feel like you’re doing your job and living your life on autopilot.
How Does Burnout Lead to Task Avoidance?
Burnout leads you to avoid personal and professional tasks because you’ve been over-functioning for too long, with insufficient help and support, and no down time. Burnout causes significant sleep problems. Troubled sleep causes brain fog that makes it difficult to think clearly, plan, and take steps that require effort. It also causes you to lose the ability to feel enthusiastic about the work you do, erasing any feelings of fulfillment you used to get from aspects of your job. Without engagement and enthusiasm, you’ll struggle with motivating yourself to do things that would enhance your life or further your career.
How Do I Know if the Burnout is Serious Enough to Need Therapy?
The signs that you’re in a state of extreme burnout are:
- Constant fatigue and physical weakness
- Persistent brain fog and difficulty focusing
- Constantly feeling emotionally overwhelmed
- Questioning whether you’re in the right career
- Feeling like you’re just going through the motions every day
I Can Help You to Recover From Burnout
I’m a therapist who is knowledgeable about burnout and how to treat it. I have a lot of experience with helping people recover from burnout, and I can help you get back to feeling and functioning better. In our sessions we’ll examine the kind of work you do every day and your current work environment. We’ll look at your life outside of work. We’ll identify problem areas, start by changing the things that are changeable, and work from there.
Things That Can Hold You Back From Trying Therapy
It might be very difficult to reach out for therapy to address burnout because you feel so mentally and physically exhausted. Also, if your burnout developed within a work setting that normalizes understaffing and overloading its staff, you might feel like it’s selfish or unrealistic to set a goal of healthy change. In your work with me I’ll encourage you to focus on the fact that it’s not only reasonable to want to prioritize your mental health and other aspects of self-care to help you feel less depleted, but also necessary.
Benefits You Can Expect from Therapy for Burnout
Therapy for burnout can help you feel more hopeful and help you to set healthy personal and professional boundaries. You’ll discover that you can approach self-care for burnout recovery one behavior change at a time. With each step you take to address your mental and physical exhaustion, you’ll lower your stress and build up your ability to address the tasks you’ve avoided. You’ll notice:
- Increased energy and focus
- Renewed energy for your interpersonal connections
- Renewed ability to make progress on small and large tasks
- Feeling much better about yourself
- Feeling more motivated at work
Reach out to me if you want to overcome burnout, feel calmer, and get things done.
