Beautiful Trauma : Losing Sight Of Yourself (Chapter. 2)

Written by Andi Bazaar, Co-wrote by Timothée-freimann Schofield | Dec 9, 2022

“Burnout can be dangerous as it could lead to major mental and physical health issues ranging from cardiovascular diseases to depression and even suicide.”

Let’s talk about burnout. It is at an all time high with most countries giving up on the pandemic, working too much, political situations around the world, economic uncertainty and mental health issues from these last two years that have gone unprocessed.

Burnout is when too much stress adds up and is left unprocessed leading to physical and mental health symptoms such as lack of energy, focus and symptoms similar to anxiety and depression. While burnout is not an “official” diagnosis, it is certainly a common phenomenon.

Burnout was very common and talked about in healthcare and some other jobs where there is a lot of work and emotional involvement. However, if the pandemic has shown us anything, it is that the nature of the job itself doesn’t matter, burnout is a reality for all of us.

As the pandemic continues and people either leave the workforce or don’t want to risk their health, those who remain have to shoulder the burden, with more work, with barely any increases in salaries or benefits. Furthermore with mask mandates lifted, the risk is greater.

We also had to act as if everything was normal during the pandemic, continuing to work hard while constantly worrying about our loved ones and our own health, isolated from friends, and feeling lonely. The conditions were all aligned to speed up the process of burnout.

HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE BURNED OUT?

First of all, we start to feel anxious or even depressed at the thought of going to work. Each task may feel like it is a mountain even if it is texting or emailing something work related, there is a strong resistance from our minds.

We seem not to be able to do anything work related, tasks that used to take us just a little time and energy now take forever to accomplish. We question our work ethic, we may get criticism from supervisors because we deliver less than before and our self-esteem dips further.

It starts a spiral that can continue all the way to severe depression and anxiety. Furthermore, there is a lot of gaslighting from society or our workplace. Suddenly, we are called lazy, all our prior contributions forgotten and being judged.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

It is important to be proactive as soon as we notice the symptoms of burnout. Do you have unused vacation days? Now is the time to use them. Sick days? Let’s use them, we may think we need to save them for a vacation or travel but our mental health is important

The longer the break we can take, the more efficient it is going to be. If you have enough savings or family that can support you, it is okay to leave your job or take unpaid leave. We save our money for rainy days and our health, this is a good moment to use that.

It is also imperative to seek treatment, go to therapy it will help so much. Remember in the definition of burnout, we talked about “unprocessed stress.” — Now is the time to process it and cope with it, letting it all out. We need to empty our resilience bucket.

We have gone through too much and not having the opportunity to recover properly. If it has gotten all the way to a depression and anxiety, medications can help a lot especially if we can’t afford therapy at the moment. However, many people don’t have these privileges.

Some people may not have sick or vacation days and can’t afford to quit their job, options may be a little more limited here but there are still things we can do. There are many trainee therapists that can provide therapy under supervision to gain experience for free.

As far workplaces, let’s use the 20/10 or 40/20 method. For every 20 minutes of work, we take a 10 minute break and same for 40/20. That gives our brains the opportunity to rest and not push ourselves past our current energy levels, we can also journal and talk about our problems

We need to empty all those stressors we also need to ensure the basics are on point:

• good sleep
• food
• hydration (lack of these add further stressors on our bodies who are already at their limits.)

It is important to remember that there is nothing wrong with feeling burned out, it can happen to anyone. Just because other people around us may not be burned out right now doesn’t mean that we did something wrong or that it doesn’t happen to others.

It is very important to be kind and empathetic to ourselves as we are going through this, if we get too frustrated or start hating ourselves it will only trigger a worsening depression. Increase your self-care as much as possible.

A burnout doesn’t mean we are less smart, less capable or bad at what we do. It is a way that our brain lets us know it is lacking resources and too exhausted, it can get better with time, treatment and rest.

PS:
"whether it comes to signs of burnout or any mental health issues, please trust your instincts and symptoms more than what other people notice because of the stigma around all of this people would rather pretend it is not true than believe us and help until it is severe."

Burnout is real, burnout may be accompanied by a variety of mental and physical health symptoms as well. How you can help? Let them know you’re there for them.

Reach out and ask them if they need help, don't take it personally if your friend gets defensive. Simply by offering support, your friend knows they can come to you when they are ready to talk.

LISTEN

Lend an ear, it's important to listen without judgement, acknowledge their feelings, and offer support.

VALIDATE THEIR FEELINGS

Listening and responding in simple terms, from there try to empathize as much as you can.

ASK HOW YOU CAN HELP

They might need help running errands, a meal prepared, or someone to walk with or talk to. Offering to take a bit of the burden off of their shoulders can make a big difference, your brain and body can only handle feeling overworked and overwhelmed for so long.

Especially with the 24/7 schedule of web 3, if you consistently experience high levels of stress, exhaustion eventually takes over leaving you emotionally and physically burned out.

Burnout happens gradually, you might not notice symptoms immediately but once it takes hold it can affect your ability to function across all aspects of life. It would seem like nothing you do matters.

RECOGNIZE THE SIGN, KEY SIGNS OF BURNOUT INCLUDE:

• forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating
• diminished pride in your work
• losing sight of yourself and your goals
• difficulty being present
• frustration and irritability

Burnout can be dangerous as it could lead to major mental and physical health issues ranging from cardiovascular diseases to depression and even suicide.

Keep your mental health in check. Info on burnout, compassion fatigue, secondhand trauma. Tips on taking care of yourself at this time.

"Burnout is physical, mental, emotional fatigue during times of high prolonged stress. You will feel overwhelmed, drained and unable to keep regular productivity levels. It happens to people in positions of direct client care and it can also happen when you are advocating."

Symptoms will look a lot like symptoms of major depression.

• constant exhaustion throughout the day.
• no care for self, the home, work, etc.
• everyday is a bad day.
• you feel underappreciated and nothing you do is worth anything.
• any task you are given feels overwhelming.

Burnout does not happen overnight, it also does not happen in a week. It slowly piles up and creeps on you, the more you advocate the more you will start to be drained if you do not pause. YOU HAVE TO PAUSE, RELAX, BREATHE!

Compassion fatigue is when you can't empathize or feel emotion toward people who are or situations of suffering after prolonged exposure, you basically become indifferent and maybe start to hate those people because you are too mentally and emotionally exhausted to care.

SYMPTOMS:

• feeling like the suffering of others is a burden.
• blaming others for their own suffering.
• isolation, anhedonia (losing pleasure in things you once enjoyed) [these are also symptoms of major depression]
• inability to sleep or eat.
• physical and mental fatigue.

Like burnout, compassion fatigue also happens with a prolonged experience. Both of these conditions happen to people who are working directly with clients/patients (ie nurses, doctors, social workers, therapists). If you are doing a lot of advocacy, it could happen to you too.

Secondhand trauma (vicarious traum2a) does exist and it is also very dangerous to your mental and emotional health, you are at risk for it when you constantly expose yourself to terrible, disturbing, traumatic content (the news, social media, literally anywhere and everywhere).

Symptoms of secondhand trauma look a lot like regular trauma, except you were not directly impacted:

• grief and sadness brought on by the experiences.
• isolation, lack of appetite, insomnia.
• increased anxiety.

As all of these are linked to mental health, you can also experience somatic symptoms like heart palpitations, soreness in the body, increased likelihood of illness, headaches, exhaustion.

REMINDER:

Burnout and compassion fatigue happen over time, it could take months or years (I’ve done social work for 2 years + 2 years internships and I have yet to feel true compassion fatigue). It probably isn’t happening to you after a week but it could happen over time.

Prevention, looks different for everyone. Examples on things you can do for yourself:

• meditation
• therapy
• grounding techniques
• self care (more on this)
• turning off social media/news for a bit
• limiting advocacy time (this includes posting about it)

Self-care is extremely important but a lot of people are not properly informed on what it really is.

What I like to tell my clients is that self care is taking care of your past self, your present self and your future self. It is not spending your rent or bill money on clothes.

You can treat yourself but if you are digging too deeply into your finances, bingeing on substances or causing harm in any way to yourself you are not caring for yourself.

COPING MECHANISMS ARE NOT (ALWAYS) SELF CARE.

I am not saying "don't drink, don't spend money, don't go on vacation." — I'm a harm reductionist, so I understand coping mechanisms. We need coping mechanisms to survive. However, if an activity is hurting you in any way it is not true self care.

Buy something you can afford today and in a month and in a year, drink what you want when you want. Partake in substances as need be if it helps you calm down.

Using up all your rent money to go drinking though? Is something that needs to be addressed.

In terms of therapy, it's not for everyone. I do therapy with my clients and I have gone to therapy myself, there are many different kinds of therapists out there with different practices, modalities, and techniques. You have to go to one that is right for you.

I will say though that you need to be careful about unloading onto your friends and family, you also need to be careful about taking on the unloadings of other people. You have a right to yourself and responsibility over your own mental health.

However, you cannot and should not constantly listen to others' grievances while dealing with your own. It will burn you out so fast and you will experience compassion fatigue over time, I do not advocate 24/7 online because I advocate as a full-time job. I am protecting myself.

A lot of people went meme over the "I am not mentally available blah blah..." thing which was kind of rude because you need to advocate for yourself in that way. Tell people "Hey, I'm sorry but I'm really tired right now." and also, be understanding when someone says this to you.

STARTING TO RAMBLE BUT AT THIS TIME:

• Eat regularly. Shedule your meals and set alarms so you eat properly throughout the day.
• Sleep. You need to try and sleep as much as possible when it’s possible.
• Turn off the news.
• Stay connected to people you trust.

I said it already but I am a social worker who also does therapy, so the things I'm saying are based on my experience and things I learn through work trainings and from coworkers. I don't like to talk about my personal job but it's kinda important right now.

DROPPING SOME NUMBERS:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
1-800-662-4357

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project Hotline (as Pride Month is June)
1-866-488-7386

Alright I am letting this thread fly free so I can give my energy to another week at work. The world has always been chaos, it's just exposed more vividly. Take care of yourselves, stay healthy, stay strong.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO:

• Dr Oliver Schofield, MD (Consulting)
• Dr Seth Gryffen, MD (Consulting)
• Timothée Freimann schofield (Co-wrote/Photographed)
• Clayton Euridicé Schofield (Editor/Journalist)
• Henrie Louis Friedrich (Analyst)
• Shot at GQ’s Studios by José Schenkkan and Benjamin Schenkkan
• Scott Wynné Schofield (Publisher)
• Jwan Höffler Conwall (Art Interior Design)
• Hugo-licharre Freimann (Assistant Director)
• In collaboration with The Me: You Can’t See
• In appearance by “José Schenkkan Joseph”