January 19, 2007

Burn Out
Have you experienced Burn out or know someone who has? The symptoms are: apathy, feeling that no matter what your efforts are, they will not correct the presenting problem. Your level of caring could not be continued in the absence of results. The invariable sense of powerlessness led to your physical and mental exhaustion with a detachment reaction along with feelings of worthlessness culminating in withdrawal, resentment and/or anger.

Raising the bar of expectations on yourself beyond your ability to perform whether it arrives from internalized or externalized pressure or a bit of both, will make the most resolute person give up.

Beyond your ability to perform not the perceived expectations of a boss or a spouse, but your actual capabilities. These capabilities may be limited by IQ, (not everyone is a genius), by personality, by energy levels, by internalized attitudes, and by genetic predilections. One example of an internalized personality is the Dry Alcoholic whose addictive personality has concretely determined that s/he is worthless, that no one could love him/her as s/he is and therefore has lost faith in everyone including any spiritual aid. This can lead to a fatalistic outlook on life that “What will be, will be” and no one individual can change the course of any event in life.

Total acceptance of that concept is viewed by others as disinterest, uncooperative, unreliable, even as laziness. In many persons the result is depression which often has similar consequences.

The first step toward any improvement is to identify the problem with all its attending issues. Consistent, predictable, non-punitive, but conformance to individually applicable persistent guidelines firmly followed will help you or your Burn Out associate toward good mental health.