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Causes and Prevention of Burnout

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Causes and Prevent of Burnout
There are many causes for a person to experience burnout and that begs to question. What is employment burnout and what causes a person to feel burnt-out? A person who is feeling over or underwhelmed with his or her own life may experience burnout. What are some personal, social, and managerial reasons a person might feel this way? There are several ways a person recognized burnout and avoid it. How does burnout affect those individuals who work in human services or related industries?
Burnout is a feeling of emotional, intellectual, and bodily exhaustion triggered from extreme continued stress. When stress and exhaustion built a person begins to lose the motivation and interest in what he or she is doing. Burnout can leave a person feeling tired, disheartened, pessimistic, and aggrieved (HelpGuide.org, n.d.). Burnout can make a person feel tired, no energy, feel hope/helpless, unappreciated, headaches, and physically ill. There are a million reasons why a person can experience burnout. Boredom, underappreciated, and excessive responsibility some reasons for burnout to happen.
There are many causes for burnout and a person can learn to recognize the symptoms. When a person always has a bad day or is in a bad mood because of employment related issues. A feeling of being tired or exhausted all the time is a step towards burnout. When tasks make a person feel overwhelmed, bored, or have a just a plain reluctance to do them. When a person is experiencing burn, it can lead to a person feeling physically ill. Headaches are a common symptom of burnout. Also changes in a person’s dietary or sleep patterns are a sign of burnout. A person can also experience emotional symptoms of burnout that include, feeling like a failure, no motivation, unhappy, and feeling alone. A person who is experiencing burnout might feel like he or she just does not care about anything anymore. An individual could have signs of depression or just plain lack of caring about anything. HelpingGuide.org states a person should use the three r’s approach when dealing with burnout. The three R’s are recognize, reverse, and resilience. First a person needs to watch for the warning signs of burnout. Second is to reverse the harm by dealing with stress. Lastly, a person can build his or her reliance by managing physical and emotional well-being.
When a person is feeling burnt-out their behavior can change as well. A person might notice that he or she is not eating as often as he or she should or that he or she is overeating to cope with stress. A person can use drugs to cope with the feelings of burnout. A person who is mad or angry all the time can isolate him or herself from others or he or she will take the frustrations out on other people. A lack of motivation to get tasks done or to show up to work on time is a sign of burnout.
A person needs to be able to tell the difference between stress and burnout (HelpGuide.org, n.d.). Burnout might happen because a person is experiencing a lot of stress but when is too much stress enough to cause burnout? A person might feel extremely pressured by a pending situation. A person might have too many things going on all at once that is causing multiple stressors. An individual might emotional and physically stressors occurring at the same time.

Human service organizations face employment burnout because of the nature of employment. Individual, organizational norms, roles, supervision, social support, and cultural conditions are causes of burnout in human service organizations (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, 2007). A person who has their expectations set to high can be among those who experience burnout. Management or lack of management can use burnout. When a person is deal or coping with responsibilities that are above their level can experience burnout. A person who is feeling overwhelmed with his or her employment will also experience burnout. Human service organizations often have high caseloads and lots of employment stressors.
Burnout can be prevented by changing the way employment is structured (Lewis, Packard, & Lewis, 2007).
I have personally experienced burnout. I have felt the lack of motivation to get things done. I have experience this in my student live. I just quit caring about completing assignments, participating in class, or answering discussion questions. When I start to feel this way, I normally try to take some type of break away from class. I try to get some me time. This is a time when I do something I want to do. I do something that makes me feel good. Normally this helps lesson the symptoms of burnout. I do not feel I am being run ragged because I have taken the time to take care of myself. I personally believe that a person needs to take care of him or herself in order to take care of others. When a person starts caring for others more than themselves it is easier to experience burnout.
Burnout occurs when a person is feeling stressed and overwhelmed in his or her personal or professional life. There are countless symptoms to burnout. The symptoms can be in the forms of emotional, physical, or psychosocial. They can cause a person to feel tired, grumpy, and angry all the time. A lack of motivation is an enormous sign that a person is leading down the path to burnout. When a person recognized the signs and symptoms of burnout, it can be avoided or at least have the symptoms lowered. Human service workers can experience higher levels of burnout because of the natural of the employment.

References:
HelpGuide.org. (n.d.). Preventing Burnout. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burnout_signs_symptoms.htm
Lewis, J. A., Packard, T. R., & Lewis, M. D. (2007). Management of human service programs (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning. - Cengage

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