April is National Stress Awareness Month

 

April is recognized as National Stress Awareness Month to bring attention to the negative impact of stress. Managing stress is an essential component of Mental Health.

As of this writing, burnout is not listed as a diagnosis in DSM-5. That said, Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged and excessive stress, so we must understand that burnout is much more complicated than ordinary fatigue. 

Being burned out is feeling empty, mentally exhausted, lacking motivation, with no resources left to draw on. People experiencing burnout often cannot see a way to change their situation. If not addressed and treated, burnout can lead to a full on mental health crisis. 

Psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North have outlined the phases of this stress syndrome:

• Excessive Drive/Ambition

Too much ambition can lead to burnout. Ambition pushes a person to work harder.
Neglecting Needs
Begin to sacrifice self-care like sleep, exercise, and eating well.

• Displacement Of Conflict

Blaming the boss, the demands of the job, or colleagues for personal troubles.
No Time For Non-Work-Related Needs
Begin to withdraw from family and friends.

• Denial

Impatience with other, seeing them as incompetent, lazy, or overbearing.

• Withdrawal

Further pulling away from family and friends. Social invitations to parties, movies, and dinner dates start to feel burdensome.

• Behavioral Changes

Those on the road to burnout may become more aggressive and snap at loved ones for no reason.

• Depersonalization

Feeling detached from life and ability to it.
Inner Emptiness Or Anxiety
Potential to turn to thrill seeking behaviors to cope with empty feelings. Potential for substance use, gambling, or over eating.

• Depression

Life loses its meaning. Extreme hopelessness.
Mental Or Physical Collapse
Mental health or medical attention may be necessary.

 Ask yourself these four questions to determine if you are suffering from burnout.

1.      How often are you tired and lacking energy to go to work in the morning?

2.      How often do you feel physically drained, like your batteries are dead?

3.      How often is your thinking process sluggish or your concentration impaired?

4.      How often do you feel emotionally detached from co-workers (or customers) and unable to be sensitive to their needs?

There is a significant association between PTSD and burnout, particularly the depressive component. While burnout is not currently recognized by the DSM-5, it is a serious condition that makes a person less resilient to handling additional stressors or traumas.

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I want to share great resources and ideas with you. This video by Sharon Horesh Bergquist, How stress affects your body, is short, fun, comprehensive, and really well done - oh, and it's less than five minutes long! I encourage you to check this out; I know I will be sharing this with all my clients going forward: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-t1Z5-oPtU

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We value your feedback and ideas! Reach out on our Community Facebook Page!

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“If you believe change is possible, you want to change, and you are willing to do the work, you absolutely CAN get your life back.”

Get your copy of The Soldier's Guide to PTSD, The Soldier's Workbook, 

or Acknowledge & Heal, A Women's-Focused Guide to PTSD

Don't Neglect your Mental Health

 

Our culture emphasizes strength and self-reliance above all else. The old "Boot Strap" mentality. This can create a stigma around seeking help for mental health issues, as many feel pressure to present themselves as unbreakable. So even when they are struggling, many people suffer in silence, afraid to be seen as weak or unfit.

Many people are afraid to share their true experiences because they feel it is too “trivial” or they feel their pain is “unworthy” of burdening others. Some simply hide their pain for fear of the stigma associated with mental health issues in a culture where they are expected to “suck it up”. 

But pushing aside emotions and burying pain can only exacerbate the emotional and mental weight of problems stewing under the surface. In other words, they hide their shame, which leads to burnout, isolation, and a sense of hopelessness.

We've talked about shame before. Unfortunately, when many of us experience pain or suffering, we allow shame to force us into the silence. But, the more we try to avoid speaking about shame, the more control it has over us and the more it negatively impacts our lives.

This only leads to a deeper sense of loneliness and isolation, which can have negative impacts on our lives. Burnout, hopelessness, and mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and PTSD are just some of the consequences of neglecting mental health.

And these struggles can also affect personal relationships, as the emotional toll makes it difficult to connect with loved ones. This can lead to strained relationships and erode important support systems that should act as a buffer to cope with stress.

Addressing mental health disorders is crucial not for the well-being of any individual suffering.

When mental health issues are ignored or left unaddressed due to shame and stigma, they can have alarming consequences like suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

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We value your feedback and ideas! 

Reach out on our Community Facebook Page!

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“If you believe change is possible, you want to change, and you are willing to do the work, you absolutely CAN get your life back.”

Get your copy of The Soldier's Guide to PTSD, The Soldier's Workbook, 

or Acknowledge & Heal, A Women's-Focused Guide to PTSD

Our self-talk is based on feelings rather than facts

 

Self-talk is the constant flow of thoughts and conversations that occupy our minds throughout the day - and perhaps keep us from getting a good night's rest. It can serve as our biggest motivator, but also our harshest critic. 

So, how can we alter this inner conversation if it no longer serves us?

We can start by recognizing negative thinking patterns and their impact on how we feel and our behavior. Cognitive Processing Therapy, an evidence-based treatment for PTSD, does a great job of describing what they call, "Patterns of Problematic Thinking." 

They are:

• Jumping to conclusions or predicting the future
• Exaggerating or minimizing a situation (blowing things way out of proportion or shrinking their importance inappropriately)
• Ignoring important parts of a situation
• Oversimplifying things as good/bad or right/wrong
• Over-generalizing from a single incident (a negative event is seen as a never-ending pattern)
• Mind reading (we assume people are thinking negatively of us when there is no definite evidence for this)
• Emotional reasoning (using our emotions as proof, e.g., "I feel fear so I must be in danger")

Taking time to identify our automatic thoughts and examine them is key. We can do this through journaling or reflection. 

Identify the thought, and ask "What triggered this? How did it affect how I felt or acted?"

As we get better at recognizing these automatic and negative thinking patterns, we can work to challenge them. 

To do this, we can put these thoughts, "on trial." 

Ask ourselves: 

• What the evidence is for these thoughts?
• Would the evidence hold up in court? 
• We can continue to interrogate the negative self-talk. 

Maybe we are engaging in an "all or nothing" thinking pattern, or our self-talk is based on feelings rather than facts. 

Unraveling negative self-talk is a process and it will help us to focus on progress rather than perfection. 

We developed these habits over a long period of time, and probably for good reason. 

Maybe we used this self-talk to motivate ourselves or protect ourselves (and that’s okay). 

But when it’s no longer serving us, it’s time to put that negative self-talk down. 

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We value your feedback and ideas! 

Reach out on our Community Facebook Page!

*****

“If you believe change is possible, you want to change, and you are willing to do the work, you absolutely CAN get your life back.”

Get your copy of The Soldier's Guide to PTSD, The Soldier's Workbook, 

or Acknowledge & Heal, A Women's-Focused Guide to PTSD