Am I Burned Out? And How Do I Recover?

What is burnout? A Maryland therapist explains.

Burnout is a condition where you have so much stress for a relatively long period of time that you either A) shut down or B) feel exhausted and want to shut down. Especially for adults with ADHD and anxiety and other adults with high sensitivity to the environment, noticing burnout can be an extremely helpful tool in the process of self-care.

How does burnout affect adults in Maryland?

It affects our mood. It prevents us from wanting to do things we normally want to do. It robs us of our motivation and our energy. We live in a pretty busy place and time. When energy and motivation are low, it’s hard to keep going.

How can I tell if I am burned out?

Here are 3 questions to ask yourself in order to detect burnout.

On a scale of 0-10 (0 being the least severe and 10 being the most severe):

1) How exhausted do you feel?
2) How much are you thinking about work or stress?
3) Do you lack motivation or time to take a break/have fun?

If you scored from 0-10, you probably don’t have anything to worry about. If you scored from 11-20, you may be on your way to being burnt out. (If you want to learn how to prevent burnout, we will have another blog post detailing how to do just that.) If you scored from 21-30, chances are you are very burnt out.

Does burnout affect adults with ADHD or anxiety differently?

If you have ADHD, it may be hard to remember to slow down and check in. Remember to set in your schedule a reminder to check in at the end of each day with these 3 questions. Notice whether throughout the week your score is going up or down. Give yourself a reminder to implement recovery tips if needed.

Anxiety may cause you to burn out faster. This is because it leads you to think of the worst case scenario, or revisit your past regrets. You may start to feel hopeless and lose motivation more quickly.

I’m burnt out. Do I need counseling or therapy?

Not necessarily. Here are some ways to try recovering on your own.

1.Reset yourself

Set aside what you’re doing and give yourself at least ten minutes to relax. Stare out the window, sip on your cup of coffee, read that book you’ve been putting off for so long. Resetting yourself is a great way to recover energy that has been drained by burnout.

If you can, take time off from some of your responsibilities and give yourself a little ‘me time’. This may require doing step 2 first.

2. Rely on support systems

This is a great (and underutilized) way to get on the road to burnout recovery. Often we forget our support systems and the ways they can help us.

Feeling like you don’t have enough time to do work? Try to offload some of your home tasks to your support system for the day.

Stuck on a project? Ask a coworker if they know (or if they know someone who knows) how to do part of the work more efficiently. Remember that you’re not stuck and isolated. You’ve got people to rely on who can help you out of a rut.

3. Structure your time

Use work time for work time and fun time for fun time. When work time is up, make sure to step away from the work, even if you feel like doing more. Especially for those adults with anxiety, it’s important to stick to those boundaries, even when it’s hard. It might be hard not to want to do it all at once but enforcing those boundaries will allow you to have more energy in the long run. It will allow you to more efficiently work and deal with the stress.

Can young adults be burned out?

Yes! Even children can burn out, when life contains too much work or pressure and not enough play. The road to burnout recovery ALWAYS includes adding play back into your life. Even if you feel a little silly doing it.

Ready to get on the road to burnout recovery and discover your more joyful self? Click here to read about our services.

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