Feeling Burnt Out whilst at university?
It’s perfectly normal to have feelings of anxiety when starting a new university year or job. These pressures can cause tiredness as well as negatively affecting your emotions.
Not understanding or ignoring the signs of burnout can lead to some consequences that will impact your normal day-to-day life. Read this blog to find out what exactly burnout is, the symptoms, how to get help, with advise on avoiding burnout.
What Is "burnout"?
Burnout occurs when someone experiences a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion, caused by prolonged and intense stress linked to a work or school environment. This can lead to a series of harmful impacts on an individual as they feel a lack of accomplishment, diminishing happiness and a low view of life. The individual can perceive themselves as useless and possesses a lack of energy or interest in things they love.
what are the symptoms of burnout?
Identifying the symptoms are crucial, whether it’s for yourself, or if you are wondering for a friends or colleague. We can split the symptoms up into four subgroups; Emotional, Behavioural, Physical, Cognitive:
Emotional:
- Chronic fatigue – Feeling drained and exhausted both physically and mentally,
- Irritable – Start to get frustrated over smaller things, finding yourself unable to control some emotions,
- Loss of Motivation – No longer feel like working at all, and don’t even want to do the things you love.
Behavioural:
- Withdrawal – Isolated away from friends and family, no longer enjoying the what you love,
- Decreased performance – Noticeable drop in your productivity level,
- Neglecting Responsibilities – Deadlines are being missed, and commitments aren’t met.
Physical:
- Sleep Disturbances – Struggling to sleep, and keeps tossing and turning,
- Fatigue – Persistent feelings of being tired which isn’t helped by rest,
- Frequently ill – Becomes more susceptible to colds, flu, and other physical illnesses.
Cognitive:
- Forgetfulness – Struggling to remember the easiest things,
- Pessimistic – Your viewpoint on life has dropped. No longer feels excited about event/hobbies.
If you have any of these symptoms or notice anyone who may have them, reach out for help from any work or student services.
How do i avoid burning out at university/work?
To avoid burnout, you should follow proactive strategies that involves practicing mindfulness and self-love:
- Manage your workload – Prioritise the tasks you need to complete by certain deadlines, and divide them into smaller tasks. Make a list of which tasks you have, then identify the most important.
- Foster a positive working environment – Communicate your worries and concerns to those around you in work and university. Staring a conversation allows time to understand and build support networks.
- Focus on self care – Take time for yourself, you don’t have to work 24/7. Start the gym, have a spa day, or finish that book you never go to complete. When you focus your time on yourself you learn more about you.
- Pursue your interests – Get back to what you love to do! Focusing on your interests will increase your creativity and productivity. Grow your social connections and improve your perspective on life.
- Practice time management -Start managing your time more effectively by scheduling your breaks/work load. If you spend too much time on one project, take a time bloc and come back to it later.
- Take time off – Have something to look forward to in the future such as a holiday or maybe a date night. Taking a much needed break will allow you to revitalise and improve your motivation.
- Get some help – If you are starting to feel like you’re burning out, reach out to those around you about your worries, and stop it from growing into a full burnout.
There are many other ways to avoid burning out. For more advice click here!
Consequences of ignoring burnout signs
If you ignore all the symptoms of burnout and believe it is irrelevant to you, there can be severe consequences of not acknowledging your problems. Fears can intensity, and illnesses like depression and anxiety can intensify. These are some of the repercussions of ignoring burnout signs:
- Physical Illnesses: As your burnout becomes worse and your motivation to do anything has diminished, you can expect to become even more ill with issues such as chronic fatigue. As your immune system isn’t receiving the care it needs, long term problems can develop causing you to become sicker.
- Emotional and Mental Decline: Burnout demotivates you which can lead to an increase in depression and anxiety causing irritability mood swings and a sense of hopelessness.
- Decreased job performance: You can expect a decrease in efficiency leading to a decrease in the quality of work. Forgetfulness occurs, making the simplest tasks harder, which increases the risks of errors. Some workplaces cannot survive on errors such as being a nurse, so make sure to talk to someone in work if you feel like you’re burning out.
- Negatively affects relationships: Social withdrawal occurs, making you distant form those you care for. First impressions are affected, creating a sour or distant relationship from someone who could have been a friend.
- Long term problems: Severe impacts on your mental health can create issues that require long term treatment, which can then lead to a reduced quality of life. Finally, if you experience a burnout, you are more likely to repeat it in the future. Identifying your triggers is a big part in reducing the likelihood of a future burnout episode.
There are many other repercussions of ignoring the signs of burnout. To learn more click here!
How do i get help?
The main way to avoid a burnout in university or workplace is to ask for help. Many places have services available for students and members of staff to help them deal with problems just like a burnout. There are other ways to avoid burnout:
- Recognise the signs: Identify your triggers and what leads a person to a burnout. If you have gone through burnout before, you should be able to recognise the feelings and symptoms you experienced during the first burnout.
- Establish a support network: There might be people around you that you can talk to and get support from them. However, if you do not have a current support network, talk to colleagues in work, or teachers in university. There will be help out there by people and charities you can utilise to avoid burning out at university or work.
- Practice self-relief techniques: Improving your mental and physical health is the priority. Start mindfulness exercises like meditation to calm your mind and see life in a new perspective. Joining the gym of exercise classes improves your physical health, and increases your social connections. Meal prepping, and purchasing nutritious foods fosters mindful and physical growth.
- Set boundaries: If working becomes too much or studying is getting harder to complete, you can request to reduce your working hours, or ask for some extra time for deadlines. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work, spread it with others, and don’t take on extra responsibility you don’t think you can finish at this time.
Now you Know the signs to look out for, as well as the consequences of not reaching out for help when you feel burnt out at university or work. Click here to see the many support groups that are out there to help you.
