Be careful, patient and don't forget to take care of yourself. We tell you how you can help loved ones who no longer have the strength to cope with everything.
Burnout is a person’s reaction to prolonged and unnecessary stress. You can distinguish it from ordinary fatigue by these signs:
- a person constantly feels unwell and regularly catches colds;
- does not want to go to work and do usual things;
- stops communicating with friends;
- oversleeps or suffers from insomnia;
- less productive than usual.
Some symptoms will be immediately noticeable, others not. Pay attention when something changes in your loved one's usual behavior. For example, your partner or good friend suddenly stops communicating with you, and on social networks shares that he cannot complete a work task due to a complete lack of motivation.
At such moments, it is important not to rush to extremes. Sometimes we turn on empathy to the maximum and try to quickly help a person solve everything. This is a natural desire: of course, we empathize with our friends and want them to get better soon. But emergency rescue mode rarely works because it takes quite a long time to recover from burnout. To really help a loved one, it is better to do it at a pace that is comfortable for him.
First, read everything you can find about burnout.
People who experience burnout go through a difficult period. If you're unfamiliar with this, you may be scared by some of your loved one's reactions. Learn the main symptoms and how they affect your routine. Read and listen to what people who have experienced burnout and psychologists say. This step is especially important to go through if you have never experienced mental and physical exhaustion yourself.
- "Burnout" by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
- "Exhausted" by Ariana Huffington
- "Without stress. A scientific approach to combating depression, anxiety and burnout" Mithu Storoni
Video by Evgenia Streletskaya about emotional burnout and its treatment Video by Anastasia Kay about the main symptoms of burnout
