October 11, 2009
Burnout: Are You a Victim?
Dr. Neill NeillHave you ever felt burned out? Are life and work becoming just too much and you need a break? Burnout is all too common in the fast paced society we live in.
I met an old friend a few days ago. She is a healthcare professional who enjoys her clinical/supervisory job and is a compassionate provider and manager. She works hard and is well liked and respected. But she is on stress leave.
Some ethical conflicts among staff were plaguing her and seemed irresolvable. In the stress of feeling responsible, combined with overwork and everyone looking to her for answers, she had developed some medical-physical problems and had to leave work. She admitted burnout to be the real reason for being off. She was considering leaving the health care field entirely.
Feeling burned out is prevalent in the helping professions. It goes hand in hand with identity issues, whether you are a psychologist, medical doctor, alcohol and drug counsellor, volunteer support worker or farmer. Farmer? Yes. In studies of personality dimensions of different occupations, the modern farmer scores high on tests for social service. Farming has come to see itself as a helping profession.
If you identify so much with your helper role that you "wouldn’t be anyone" if you failed, or if you harbour the feeling your efforts don’t make any difference, you are ripe for burnout.
If you are trying so hard to please that you are not looking after yourself, you may burn out. Mother Theresa is reported to have said in the context of her feeding the poor, "I always fill my own bowl first." Mother Theresa lasted.
Sometimes, people burn out when they strongly identify with the job, but are at the precipice of failure for reasons that have nothing to do with their performance. As an example, the economic downturn has driven out many real estate brokerage businesses.
Most people caught in this have moved on to something else, perhaps temporarily, or taken the position this is a temporary condition and they can ride it out. Only a few have concluded they are failures as agents.
Suicide is the grizzly side of burnout.
From July 2009, Psychiatric News, "Over 300 physicians a year commit suicide…This is an alarming trend. Male physicians, when compared with age- matched other professionals, are about one-and-a-half times more likely to commit suicide. For females, the figure is three or almost four times as likely."
I cannot count the number of times someone has commented to me that they think their doctor is burned out.
Fourteen Colorado farmers took their lives last year. The July 27, 2009, Wall Street Journal had an article, "Farmer Suicides on the Rise." Many farmers are caught in the squeeze between low prices for their products and tight credit. It has nothing to do with how hard they worked or how efficiently they produced. Yet they take it as personal failure (a sign of burnout) and end their lives.
What can you do to avoid burnout? Frequently stand back from what you do so you can see clearly that you have other identities besides that one. Review the big picture of your life and purpose. Make changes if what you do no longer aligns with you values.
If you are a helper, remind yourself that your job is to help this one person, not save the world. The last thing the world needs is another martyr.
Psychologist Dr. Neill Neill maintains an active practice on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, with a focus on healthy relationships and life after addictions. He is the author of Living with a Functioning Alcoholic - A Woman’s Survival Guide.
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2 Comments »
Karen McKown :
Dr. Neill,
I was searching for information regarding grief in other cultures and came across your website. It is very informative. I am starting a grief and loss center and have Doctors available for consultation and direction, yet I am what others call peer support although we take them through a recovery process. I so feel through to my soul that I am to help others, you are certainly doing that with your site and practice. It was a pleasure to find it.
If you should know of different cultural practices that differ from the customary (trying not to generalize) I would be interested as not to be offensive and to be inclusive and respectful.
Respectfully,
Karen McKown
Grief and Loss Specialist
Dr. Neill Neill :
Hi Karen,
Grieving loss seems to be a part of the human experience. Every culture has its own rituals, customs and often, prescriptions for grieving.
Most include support for the bereaved, some kind of public acknowledgement and process for dealing with the body. Some customs are in one culture appear to be contradicted by those of another. For example, in one culture the prised possessions are buried with teh deceased. in another they are made into a shrine, and in yet another they must be ritualistically burned.
To me what is important is not the form of the process, but its value in helping the living deal with their loss.