Burnout and Stress
Stress and Burnout : Learn how to prevent burnout and reduce stress in your life, in company trainings or individual therapy
Do you suffer from time pressure and stress and endless demand lists ?
Are you running and chasing time all day and at the end you do not know what you have done?
By prioritizing tasks do you forget to pay attention to what your body asks you for – for example going to the bathroom or drinking water ?
Pleasant stress
Stress is a natural and healthy reaction and can be found in the daily life of every human being.
Stress stimulates various systems, such as the cardiovascular system, respiratory rate, muscle tension, and attention. Also, stress can be pleasant and helpful in specific situations. Let’s think about the happiest moments of our life. They are usually moments loaded with quite an amount of stress such as weddings, achievements, births of children, etc. Physical responses to stress increase our performance, awareness, attention, and motivation. We can even look for moments of stress as in risk sports to feel the pleasant effects of positive stress.
Harmful stress
The terms stressand exhaustionhave to be separated because they are associated with different physical reactions. However, too frequent or sustained stress over prolonged periods is harmful. The body’s response to “endless” stress becomes chronic and produces an imbalance on a physical, emotional and mental level. We resist the demands rather than treat them. It becomes increasingly difficult to prioritize and keep our healthy routines : a good diet, enough rest periods, pleasant activities, sports and physical movement and social contacts.
Burnout
n recent years, the rates of burnout syndromes have increased to alarming figures, but what is Burnout and how does it occur?
Burnout can be understood as a special form of depression caused by stress. The sensation is of being burned or a state of exhaustion or emptiness and total incapacity. Burnout can have different causes, being long-term work stress (burdens or conflicts) or stressful events in the family environment (separations or illnesses) or both at the same time, one of the main causes.
At the origin are internal (personality) factors such as external (stressful events and / or high demands on the environment) involved.
The danger of Burnout is that it develops gradually and almost clandestinely, reaching the point when almost nothing in our life works.
To prevent the effects of prolonged stress or Burnout, we recommend the practice of Mindfulness. Please check our activities program for ongoing classes
In case of warning signs for burnout, we recommend attending therapy to prevent long term negative effects.
Burnout warning signs among others are :
- Sleep disturbances
- Chronic fatigue
- Increased irritability
- Feeling of indispensable
- Pauses and breaks are considered time wasters
- Friends calls are perceived as annoyances
- Emerging fears
- Anxiety and difficulty concentrating
- Change in our eating habits (usually due to a higher intake of caloric foods)
- Increased alcohol consumption
- Burnout treatment
Treatments
Anímate Psychology offers you individual treatments for Burnout and stress prevention. We help you to get out of vicious circles.
The first step in treatment is to accept exhaustion and chronic fatigue as a sign of a problem.
The goal of treatment is to reestablish contact with one’s own physical and emotional sensations and needs.
We will work together on a functional program for developing strategies and attitudes for self-management and stress management.
Breathing and relaxation techniques such as Mindfulness practice support and reinforce therapy.