What is emotional exhaustion? When stress begins to accumulate from negative or challenging events in life that just keep coming, you can find yourself in a state of feeling emotionally worn out and drained. This is called emotional exhaustion. For most people, emotional exhaustion tends to slowly build up over time.
You might face emotional exhaustion when situations at home or work leave you feeling lost, separated or helpless. It often develops as a result of life changes or transitions. Long-lasting emotional fatigue can shorten your attention span and concentration. And you may feel sad, hopeless, anxious or irritable.
Some signs of being emotionally broken include low self-esteem, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and in some cases, suicidal tendencies. To clear the air, just anyone can be emotionally broken; men, women, and even children.
What Is Mental Exhaustion? It's kind of like physical tiredness, except it's your mind instead of your muscles. It tends to show up when you focus on a mentally tough task for a while. You might also feel this kind of brain drain if you're always on alert or stressed out.
How Long Does Burnout Last? It takes an average time of three months to a year to recover from burnout. How long your burnout lasts will depend on your level of emotional exhaustion and physical fatigue, as well as if you experience any relapses or periods of stagnant recovery.
2. Depersonalization: is a distant or indifferent attitude towards work. Depersonalization manifests as negative, callous, and cynical behaviors; or interacting with colleagues or patients in an impersonal manner.
Emotional signs and symptoms of burnout
Sense of failure and self-doubt. Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated. Detachment, feeling alone in the world.
Emotional detachment may be a temporary reaction to a stressful situation, or a chronic condition such as depersonalization-derealization disorder. It may also be caused by certain antidepressants. Emotional blunting, also known as reduced affect display, is one of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
What Causes Emotional Unavailability? While there is no one explanation for emotional unavailability, it can be caused by a number (or combination) of factors. These include attachment styles developed in childhood, history in relationships, trauma, mental health conditions, and one's circumstances and priorities.
Emotional detachment is when a person is unable to engage fully with their own or other people's feelings. It can occur as part of an attachment disorder or in response to a temporary situation. Emotional detachment can affect a person's physical, psychological, emotional, and social development.
Warning signs of compassion fatigue
feelings of helplessness and powerlessness in the face of patient suffering. reduced feelings of empathy and sensitivity. feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by work demands. feeling detached, numb and emotionally disconnected.
Since burnout affects people differently, recovery time hinges on how a person experiences work-related exhaustion. Because of this variation, recovery time can take anywhere from a few weeks to several years.
feel isolated — disinterested in the company of family and friends, or withdrawing from usual daily activities. feel overwhelmed — unable to concentrate or make decisions. be moody — feeling low or depression; feeling burnt out; emotional outbursts of uncontrollable anger, fear, helplessness or crying.
The brain becomes less able to regulate our emotions in the expected ways, resulting in visible emotional responses, such as tears or angry outbursts. We might not even realise how overwhelmed we are until tears are running down our face after a seemingly minor incident or experience.
Challenges such as long-term isolation, prolonged work stress, long-term unemployment, abusive relationships, and loneliness can contribute to feelings of depression. This can lead to a state of depression exhaustion, in which even small tasks can feel overwhelming.
Mental exhaustion can affect physical well-being, causing a person to feel physically exhausted. Similarly, physical fatigue or chronic stress can also result in mental exhaustion. Some tips to relieve mental exhaustion include practicing mindfulness and making certain environmental changes, either at work or at home.
Physical and behavioral symptoms usually accompany emotional changes as well, hence, random body and muscle aches are the most common indication of mental fatigue. If you feel an onset of a headache coming, in addition to other signs of burnout, there is a good chance you may be suffering from mental exhaustion.
When you're emotionally fragile it means you have a hard time managing difficult emotions: Little bits of worry throw you into cycles of anxiety and panic. Small bouts of sadness lead to spirals of self-criticism and depression. Tiny bits of irritation quickly blaze into hours or days of anger.