Burnout
and Emotional Exhaustion
Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump,, on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think about it.
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
Here is the story of Dan who experienced burnout and emotional exhaustion. Does any of his actions, symptoms describe your situation? if so, you may be experiencing burnout.
Dan was a counselor at a halfway house. he worked ten to twelve hours a day. Between counseling sessions Dan would eat junk food, make a fast phone call, do some quick paperwork, and push himself to the limit. At the end of the day he would go to bed exhausted at midnight. The next day was the same routine. Dan did not realize it but he was bent on self-destruction.
Instead of honest sweat on a treadmill at the local gym, Dan ran on an unhealthy emotional treadmill that demanded he meet the expectations of others.
Listen to Dan tell his story in his own words:
"I was strong physically and mentally. I knew I was pushing the envelope with the intensity of my work, but I was confident, that I could make a success of it. I lived in full denial.
"Then as it happens with so many people, I crossed that invisible line between living a whole, healthy life and what I would probably now call 'temporary insanity'. Not in the clinical sense perhaps, but certainly a life out of control.
"I started drinking on the weekends. I had once been regular at church but now had quit. I quit exercising. I became hypervigilant a time bomb ticking off the minutes until it explodes. My social life went to zero."
Can you relate to the stress which Dan has shared? Maybe you are not employed in a stressful job. You may be an at home mother our single mom with a full time job that has small children or older children involved in many activities. Or maybe a wife with a terrible marriage that is fighting for her life to make it work. Or maybe you are struggling with being overweight and you are stressed out to the extreme at your attempt to lose weight. You may be fighting an eating disorder. You are not alone. Millions of people suffer from ulcers, high blood pressure, tension, and addictions brought on by an inability to work through stress and recognize burnout before it starts to take its terrible toll on their lives.
We all have stress. But stress isn't what hurts, maims, and kills; it's how you and I handle it; before it becomes exhaustion. Burnout is bad enough, but emotional exhaustion can be devastating.
Burnout to Exhaustion
When our lives start to sputter and we forget to follow our dreams, we tend to become stagnant. We stop thinking, caring, observing, and reaching out to others. This is usually subtle, but it's the first critical stage of coming distractions., Because of this stagnation and cessation of emotional growth, we stop giving our bodies and minds the proper stimuli they need.
Fear, feelings of guilt, animosity, an unforgiving spirit, loneliness, frustration, or a Lone Ranger mentality can siphon off our energy, potential, and zest for life. Left unresolved, these attitudes develop a life of their own, creating stress that over time can lead to emotional exhaustion.
What do we do when life seems hopeless or out of control? We move into area we think will help: more work, more alcohol, more obsessive/compulsive activity, more entertainment, more frantic escape from reality. But it's always more and more of the wrong thing. Instead of helping us regain control of our lives, it produces an internal environment that evolves into burnout. We feel an uncontrollable sense of dis-ease, but because we're on a vicious cycle of unproductive activity, we keep doing the same unproductive activity over and over. When our burnout and stress build to a level at which we cannot endure the pain any long, we cross the line to physical and mental exhaustion.
Before long we forget who we are and what we're about. We start to decompose. We no longer feel special. We forget that joy comes form within, not external sources. We fail to remember that spiritual emptiness producers impotence.
Baby Steps toward Healing
To some degree, we've all been there. We've broken down in time of weakness. We've suffered, brought pain on ourselves, denied our problems, and refused to seek help all elements of depression and anxiety. But when we finally reached out for help, we then started to make progress through a series of baby steps that put us on a path of hope, health, and happiness. If you have never walked that path, this is the time to start. Gather courage to do the hard but worthwhile work that will help lead you to hope and healing.
This healing begins when we finally believe in our heart that we are God's children and that he loves us more than we ever will know. We need to start by getting rid of all the killers of our mind, body, and spirit: the junk food, the negative thinking, the lack of faith in a loving God, the alcohol, the acceptance of abuse. We need to relearn how to reach out to people, how to be involved in our church, how to slow down, and how to remember that you and I are not asked to play the role of God in any way, shape , or form. Baby steps are required, They are the all-important steps toward inner healing.
You Can Become Strong Again
Do you truly want to be free from burnout or emotional exhaustion? If the answer is yes, the path leading to this freedom may be the greatest challenge of your life. It will take more than positive thinking, more than reading a book or two, and more than a couple of hours of counseling. We are talking about exposing your whole being the physical, spiritual, and mental to as lifesaving experience that will help you renew your strength.
The good news is that you can find healing. If you want to regain control of your life, there are certain things you must do. To become physically fit, you must exercise; to learn a skill or be successful in a specific tasks you must practice. The same is true for becoming strong again. There are steps to take. These may not always be obvious. That's because they are often only simple baby steps.
