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There are enough stress factors in the life of today’s students: preparation for exams, homework, internal changes, and also external factors like news and environment. Long-term and severe stress can lead to emotional burnout, which cannot be ignored. It affects not only the psyche but also physical health. Let’s find out how to cope with burnout at university.
What Is Emotional Burnout Syndrome?
Emotional burnout is a state of mental, physical, or emotional exhaustion and anxiety that occurs against a background of severe stress. Burnout is usually associated with a constant routine and constant overexertion, which eventually leads to complete neglect of habitual activities, aversion, and unwillingness to act. For sure, in the decline of energy, you have wondered who can write my essay for money? Burnout is a peculiar response to the external factors of life, a protective reaction of the body, which is expressed in the form of complete or partial elimination of emotions.
Symptoms Of Emotional Burnout
- Constant fatigue. Even if you get enough sleep and rest, there is still not enough energy, the feeling that you wake up already tired.
- Bad sleep. Sleep problems appear in different ways: difficulties falling asleep, insomnia, constant awakening in the middle of the night. Sleep disorders are among the most serious signs of burnout.
- Frequent colds. The immune system suffers from mental and physical overstrain. The body becomes more difficult to fight harmful viruses and bacteria.
- Difficulties with concentration in classes. When you are mentally exhausted, memory and attention suffer first of all: you continue to sit over your textbooks, but you cannot concentrate and understand the meaning of the paragraph you read; you start to solve a problem, but you get confused in the sequence of actions; you try to memorize information, but it does not stay in your head.
- Decreased productivity. Burnout often manifests itself as laziness and unwillingness to do anything, with all attempts to force yourself to be useless. Because of this, productivity suffers – training does not progress, tasks are not performed.
- Anxiety. Attempts to avoid new experiences or one’s usual activity, excessive shyness, a constant feeling of overwork, and uncontrollable and unreasonable attacks of fear or even panic also indicate emotional exhaustion.
Reasons for Burnout
High Academic Load
This problem occurs more often in high school or university, when additional studies, preparation for exams, etc. are added to the usual studies. Excessive daily workload without relaxation leads to exhaustion.
- Unrealistic Deadlines And Strict Deadlines
The need to study and absorb large amounts of information on tight deadlines creates a state of constant tension that is just as exhausting as the classes themselves and increases the risk of burnout. The same negative effect is produced by the constant fear of not having enough time, not being prepared, not turning in on time.
- Inability To Organize Your Time
The feeling that you do not have time and do not cope with things may arise not because of the real lack of time, but because of the inability to effectively organize the learning process. Difficulties arise with a large number of tasks or because of the presence of distractions. For example, the Internet, computer games, social networks, calls, and visits of friends.
- A Constant Need To Learn New Things
The need to acquire new knowledge daily in large amounts accelerates mental exhaustion. The brain needs a lot of energy to create new neural connections, so learning new things requires many times more energy than using the skills you have already mastered.
- Lack of Motivation
One of the most common causes of emotional burnout is a decrease or loss of motivation, a lack of specific goals, or frustration with the chosen ones. Motivation suffers if we have to constantly do things we don’t want to do because teachers and parents said so, or because “it’s the way it’s supposed to be done.” If we do something with interest and passion, we expend less energy than when there is no interest. Hence, burnout.
- An Excess Of Forced Social Contacts
Children constantly have to communicate not only with people close in spirit but also with all those who surround them at school, in additional classes, sections, and courses – this requires an additional expenditure of resources. By the way, overload can be not only offline but also online communication in social networks, reading news, or other “quick texts”.
- Lack of Support
The risk of burnout increases if quarrels and lack of understanding with friends or parents, conflicts with classmates or teachers are added to the academic load.
How to Overcome?
If you notice some signs and suspect that they can be connected with burnout, be proactive. If burnout has already happened, it will take time and a complex of measures to recover, including a visit to a doctor or a psychologist. The following tips are good for both preventing and overcoming emotional burnout.
- Changes
Changing the usual rituals and leaving the routine helps to shake up, distract and give new strength. You can rearrange your room, change the order of your morning routine or the schedule of your classes, for example, start going to a different group of courses or sections.
- Reducing the Load
Try to relieve yourself as much as possible. Make a list of things you need to do and do and review it again, think about which things you can exclude or delegate to someone else, what kind of help you can ask for and who you can ask for it. Prioritize your tasks using the Eisenhower matrix, dividing them into urgent and non-urgent ones.
Do the important things first, including the things you usually put off for later, then they won’t pile up and cause exhaustion. Try to cancel, reschedule or delegate the unimportant tasks. There are also other methods of prioritization that help to evenly distribute the academic workload, such as the Franklin pyramid.
- Controlling Emotions
Some techniques and methods help to cope with tension and anxiety: breathing exercises, meditation. For regulating one’s state, the simplest psychological techniques will also do, for example, free-rating – spontaneous writing down one’s momentary feelings on paper. Well suited for relaxation are crafts or creative work: knitting, embroidery, drawing, and origami.
- New Impressions
It is very important even on the busiest days to find time not only for studies but also for your favorite activities. Filling yourself with positive emotions, you gain new strength to perform the necessary actions.
- How To Find Your Hobby And Why You Need It
A good way to relax and distract from academic worries joint trips with classmates to the cinema or theater, on an excursion or to a museum, participation in amateur performances, or preparation for university festivals. But do not turn these activities into an obligation, attend them only if you enjoy them.
- Taking Care of Yourself
To prevent and overcome burnout it is very important to take care of your physical health and well-being. Proper nutrition, regular walks in the fresh air, sports, and a daily regime will help here. Try not to turn snacks and fast food into your main meal, go to bed in time every day, take vitamins prescribed by your doctor.
- Making Relationships
Support of relatives is very important in the prevention of burnout, so do not neglect the opportunity to establish contact with your parents, do not separate from them, and do not force conflict situations, especially during those periods when the academic workload is especially high. Spend quality time with your family, socialize, and share your worries or experiences. Don’t focus on contradictions; instead, look for common ground.
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