Burn Out and Emotional Exhaustion
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Edited Excerpts from
"Coming Apart from the Seams"
Becoming Strong Again-How to Regain Emotional Health
 For
information on Emotional Exhaustion, purchase "Becoming
Strong Again" from our On-Line Store.
When you purchase the book you will receive an autographed
copy by Dr. Jantz.
Message
by Dr. Jantz |
There may be those of you who have
become burned out or emotional exhausted from continuously
attempting to lose weight through dieting. Or maybe you are burnout
because of other issues in your life. Before you attempt weight
loss, we encourage you to read the following information. If you
discover that you are experiencing burn out or emotional exhaustion,
we recommend that you first deal with this issue prior to attempting
to lose weight. You do not want to add even more stress to your
life. "Becoming
Strong Again" is a great resource to help you regain
emotional health. Don't delay purchasing this book (burnout causes
us to procrastinate). If you are experiencing very serious emotional
exhaustion that is leading to severe depression, please get help by
contacting a counselor.
Here is Edward Bear, coming
downstairs now, bump, bump,, on the back of his head behind
Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming
downstairs, but sometimes he feels there really is another way, if
only he could stop bumping for a moment and think about it.
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
Here is the story of Dan who
experienced burnout and emotional exhaustion. Does any of his
actions, symptoms describe your situation? if so, you may be
experiencing burnout.
Dan was a counselor at a halfway
house. he worked ten to twelve hours a day. Between counseling
sessions Dan would eat junk food, make a fast phone call, do some
quick paperwork, and push himself to the limit. At the end of the
day he would go to bed exhausted at midnight. The next day was the
same routine. Dan did not realize it but he was bent on
self-destruction.
Instead of honest sweat on a
treadmill at the local gym, Dan ran on an unhealthy emotional
treadmill that demanded he meet the expectations of others.
Listen to Dan tell his story in his
own words:
"I was strong physically and
mentally. I knew I was pushing the envelope with the intensity of my
work, but I was confident, that I could make a success of it. I
lived in full denial.
"Then as it happens with so many
people, I crossed that invisible line between living a whole,
healthy life and what I would probably now call 'temporary
insanity'. Not in the clinical sense perhaps, but certainly a life
out of control.
"I started drinking on the weekends.
I had once been regular at church but now had quit. I quit
exercising. I became hypervigilant―a
time bomb ticking off the minutes until it explodes. My social life
went to zero."
Can you relate to the stress which
Dan has shared? Maybe you are not employed in a stressful job. You
may be an at home mother our single mom with a full time job that
has small children or older children involved in many activities. Or
maybe a wife with a terrible marriage that is fighting for her life
to make it work. Or maybe you are struggling with being overweight
and you are stressed out to the extreme at your attempt to lose
weight. You may be fighting an eating disorder. You are not alone.
Millions of people suffer from ulcers, high blood pressure, tension,
and addictions brought on by an inability to work through stress and
recognize burnout before it starts to take its terrible toll on
their lives.
We all have stress. But stress isn't
what hurts, maims, and kills; it's how you and I handle it―before
it becomes exhaustion. Burnout is bad enough, but emotional
exhaustion can be devastating.
Burnout to Exhaustion
When our lives start to sputter and we forget to follow our dreams,
we tend to become stagnant. We stop thinking, caring, observing, and
reaching out to others. This is usually subtle, but it's the first
critical stage of coming distractions., Because of this stagnation
and cessation of emotional growth, we stop giving our bodies and
minds the proper stimuli they need.
Fear, feelings of guilt, animosity,
an unforgiving spirit, loneliness, frustration, or a Lone Ranger
mentality can siphon off our energy, potential, and zest for life.
Left unresolved, these attitudes develop a life of their own,
creating stress that over time can lead to emotional exhaustion.
What do we do when life seems
hopeless or out of control? We move into area we think will help:
more work, more alcohol, more obsessive/compulsive activity, more
entertainment, more frantic escape from reality. But it's always
more and more of the wrong thing. Instead of helping us regain
control of our lives, it produces an internal environment that
evolves into burnout. We feel an uncontrollable sense of dis-ease,
but because we're on a vicious cycle of unproductive activity, we
keep doing the same unproductive activity over and over. When our
burnout and stress build to a level at which we cannot endure the
pain any long, we cross the line to physical and mental exhaustion.
Before long we forget who we are and
what we're about. We start to decompose. We no longer feel special.
We forget that joy comes form within, not external sources. We fail
to remember that spiritual emptiness producers impotence.
Baby Steps toward Healing
To some degree, we've all been there. We've broken down in time of
weakness. We've suffered, brought pain on ourselves, denied our
problems, and refused to seek help―all
elements of depression and anxiety. But when we finally reached out
for help, we then started to make progress through a series of baby
steps that put us on a path of hope, health, and happiness. If you
have never walked that path, this is the time to start. Gather
courage to do the hard but worthwhile work that will help lead you
to hope and healing.
This healing begins when we finally
believe in our heart that we are God's children and that he loves us
more than we ever will know. We need to start by getting rid of all
the killers of our mind, body, and spirit: the junk food, the
negative thinking, the lack of faith in a loving God, the alcohol,
the acceptance of abuse. We need to relearn how to reach out to
people, how to be involved in our church, how to slow down, and how
to remember that you and I are not asked to play the role of God in
any way, shape , or form. Baby steps are required, They are the
all-important steps toward inner healing.
You Can Become Strong Again
Do you truly want to be free from burnout or emotional
exhaustion? If the answer is yes, the path leading to this freedom
may be the greatest challenge of your life. It will take more than
positive thinking, more than reading a book or two, and more than a
couple of hours of counseling. We are talking about exposing your
whole being the―physical,
spiritual, and mental―to as
lifesaving experience that will help you renew your strength.
The good news is that you can find
healing. If you want to regain control of your life, there are
certain things you must do. To become physically fit, you must
exercise; to learn a skill or be successful in a specific tasks you
must practice. The same is true for becoming strong again. There are
steps to take. These may not always be obvious. That's because they
are often only simple baby steps.
To learn more about Becoming Strong
Again and Regaining Emotional Strength, we encourage you to purchase
the book "Becoming
Strong Again".
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