Nursing Perspectives
The Road to Burnout: Help for the Helper
Christine Jette, RN, BAThe author, a holistic nurse, describes the symptoms of burnout, offers a self-assessment test to check for symptom and discusses ways to prevent burnout and to recover. She then generously gives us a touching personal story about healing.
Job burnout is state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by unrealistic expectations and impossible goals. Burnout progresses by stages that blend and merge into one another so smoothly that we seldom realize what happened to us. To see if this applies to you, take the following self-assessment test. Is it time to get help for the helper?
True or False:
___ Your job as a holistic health care practitioner feels “perfect” to you.
___ Being in business for yourself is the solution to all your problems.
___You would rather work that do anything else.
___You are soaring with high hopes and expectations at the prospect of being a holistic health care professional.
___You are a hard worker and give 110 percent to any job.
___You are an idealistic, self-motivated achiever.
___Anything is possible if you just work hard enough.
___You’re a perfectionist with high standards and expect others to be the same way.
If you answered true to any of the above statements, be wary. You’re a candidate for burnout, a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by unrealistic expectations and impossible goals. The road to burnout is paved with good intentions. There is nothing wrong with being idealistic, hard working, self-motivated or a perfectionist. There is also nothing wrong with having high aspirations, dreams and goals. These are admirable traits.
The villain is unreality: unrealistic job aspirations and expectations are doomed to frustration and failure. The burnout candidate’s personality keeps him striving with intensity until he crashes and burns. Burnout progresses by stages that blend and merge into one another so smoothly that the victim seldom realizes what happened, even after it’s over. At first, the job is wonderful and everything seems possible. Then you realize that your job as a self-employed holistic health practitioner isn’t all you thought it was cracked up to be.
Something is wrong, but you don’t know what. You work even harder to make your dreams come true. Working harder doesn’t change anything and you become tired and frustrated. You start losing your self-confidence. Early enthusiasm gives way to chronic fatigue and irritability. Eating and sleeping patterns change. There is a danger of behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, binge eating, shopping sprees or gambling.
As you become more frustrated and angry, your work deteriorates and people start to notice. You are cynical and detached, beset with depression, anxiety and physical illness. You start canceling or not showing up for appointments.
Despair is the dominant feature of full-scale burnout, which may take several months. You experience an overwhelming sense of failure and loss of self-esteem and you feel alone and empty. There is a paralyzing “what’s the use” pessimism about the future and you feel exhausted. Physical and mental breakdowns are common during this time and can even include heart attack, stroke and suicide.
Here are a few indicators of stress that tell you it is time to get help before you experience full-scale burnout:
- You feel trapped, like there’s nowhere to turn.
- You worry excessively and can’t concentrate.
- The way you feel affects your sleeping patterns, eating habits, job performance, relationships and everyday life.
Creating Balance
Just as the Phoenix rises from the ashes, you, too, can rise from the ashes of burnout, but it takes time. If any of the burnout description applies to you, it’s time to interrupt this devastating process. First, you need to rest, relax and break the cycle. Don’t take your clients’ problems home with you. Get away from your work for a while.
During your time away, look at your job expectations, aspirations and goals. Try to be realistic. Talk to a trusted friend, adviser or see a counselor, but be careful. You’re readjusted aspirations and goals must belong to you, not someone else. Trying to do what someone else wants you to do is a recipe for continued frustration and burnout.
Create balance in your life by investing more of yourself in family, personal relationships, social activities and hobbies. When you spread yourself out in a more balanced way, your success or failure as a holistic health professional won’t have such an overpowering influence on your self-confidence and sense of worth.
My Experience of Burnout
Why did I chose the topic of burnout as a debut article in this journal? The answer is simple—because of my own experience. My primary job is writing. I’d like to believe that I help people through my words, but I crashed and burned in late 2001. Here is my story about the road back from burnout.
I signed the contract with Llewellyn Publications in May 2001 to write Professional Tarot: The Business of Reading, Consulting and Teaching. (Due out July 2003) I made steady progress on the manuscript until September 11th. Like the rest of the world, I watched in horror at the unfolding events of that terrible day.
About three weeks later, my long-time therapist was killed in a hiking accident. Kathleen fell from a cliff to her death on my birthday. She was my sounding board and objective voice of reason. She guided me through the hills and valleys in the writing of all my books and I dedicated Tarot for the Healing Heart to her. Kathleen’s death left a huge hole in my heart.
I lost my ability to concentrate and didn’t want to write my own name, let alone a book. As I stared at the computer screen, all I could see was The Tower in the Major Arcana of Tarot: In this card I saw people jumping from the fiery World Trade Center and Kathleen falling to her death. Writing about a pack of cards felt trivial, even absurd. I was burned out from writing and I slid into depression that bordered on full-scale despair.
The prospective deadline for the manuscript was December 2001. There wasn’t any chance I could finish it. I hadn’t written in over two months. In November I asked my editor for an extension. I knew I had some grieving to do before I could continue my writing.
Taking care of myself is a skill that has eluded me most of my life. Yet, what kind of tribute would it be to my deceased therapist if I fell apart? I knew I could restore a sense of balance if I took the time to nourish myself. I hadn´t been eating well and I spent too much time watching the blaring bad news on cable TV. I stopped reading books and answering reader mail. Autumn is my favorite season and I was letting the beautiful weather pass me by. Even though I am in a community concert band, I stopped playing my horn at home, something that usually brought me comfort.
In the back of my mind, I could hear Kathleen tell me that I needed to take care of my mind, body, and creative soul. Why is it so hard for caregivers to take care of themselves? I didn´t feel like it, but I limited my TV news time and replaced the sofa marathons with walks outdoors. I made a conscious effort to eat a balanced diet. I revised my web site and started reading again. I began practicing my horn and a “funny” thing happened: music brought me solace. I was regaining a sense of balance.
In early 2002, I resumed writing Professional Tarot and I started to once again enjoy the writing process. I was looking at the world through a different set of sadder, but wiser, eyes. I revised almost all of what I had written prior to September11th and the book is (hopefully) deeper for it.
Change doesn´t occur overnight and my road back from job burnout took place over about eight months. I had a lot of highs and lows in the eight-month process, too. Some days were better than others. Everyone heals at a different pace and there is no “one right way” to heal. Please, if you are experiencing job burnout, take loving action in your own behalf and get help for the helper. We cannot heal others until we ourselves are healing.
Psychology at work: the road to burnout. (2002) American Psychological Association Online http://helping.apa.org/work/stress6.html
Psychology in daily life: Stress (2002) American Psychological Association Online http://helping.apa.org/daily/naps.html
Christine Jette, RN, BA (pronounced ´Jetty´), is a registered nurse with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, a Therapeutic Touch practitioner and member of the American Holistic Nurses Association. Christine is the author of five books: Tarot Shadow Work, Tarot for the Healing Heart, Tarot for All Seasons, and Professional Tarot: The Business of Reading, Consulting and Teaching through Llewellyn Publishers. and Writing for the New Age Market Crossquarter Publishing Group (due out in September 2003). She also writes for The Messenger, an online health and wellness magazine at: www.themessenger.info She also teaches writing at the University of Cincinnati and lives with her husband and three cats. You may contact her through her web site: www.findingthemuse.com