Hey friends, some of you know me as Ethan and many of you know me as StevenHawkingTalkingDirty. I’ve been pretty quiet until lately and I feel the need to both explain myself and seek advice that I encourage others to get so often.
I responded to a number of support wall posts back in the day and burned myself out really hard. As I’m slowly but steadily getting my passion back I am struggling to find the answer to a couple of things,
How do you prevent burnout?
How do you deal with burnout?
Any other related pieces of advice are appreciated and encouraged.
Thanks for reading this, much love to you all.
Burnout is such a challenge for me as well, I took a set back from responding and am getting back in. I think a big deal is to not get to upset with yourself when you need a break. It’s totally okay to step back and do self-care so that you can continue supporting others. For me, I have a strong system of support around me. Finding people that can lift you up in-person as well as online helps me a lot. I also focus on things that I am passionate about, such as my school and hobbies. I go outside in nature when feeling stressed, as well as do what are called grounding exercises. There are great, guided grounding exercises on apps as well as youtube. I hope this helps!
1- To prevent burn out take it slowly , step by step, post by post . when i mean post by post is that i mean do a couple post the whole week but also take a break . then come to it . do it when you feel like you want to help others. You dont have to respond topics but you can choose when YOU want to no one is forcing you to respond to topics.
2. For me burn out never really happens but for me , i take it step by step or do it when i want to . Some times a topic can cause certain emotions from a human to look back at what something similar has happened to them / us .
Respond when you can to other post . take your time . people will understand.
-Ashley
Burnout can happen so quickly… it can be hard not to be overwhelmed when you listen to others and try to help as much as you can. Those questions are so important btw. I’m grateful to you for asking this. Even though I’m not sure if my reply gonna be useful here, but I’ll just try to share the thoughts that comes to my mind:
Will probably sound silly, but knowing how burnout actually works can be needed, so you can identify the red flags that may arise. The symptoms, the patterns of thoughts, how it affects your behavior. In the same time, learning how it manifests to you can be important. We can talk about a lot of mental health issues in general but what remains important is how much you relate to it as an individual. You said you burned yourself really hard recently. How did you know it/how did it manifest to you? Starting from this might be useful.
To have moments in your day that you take only for you, even if they’re very short. I personally like to create my own “rituals” so it makes those moments kinda sacred. And when I repeat the same actions at the same moment everyday, I enter more easily on a “pause” mode. Like: if I put this specific music, if I wear this comfy clothes, then I will associate it with a relaxing state of mind, even just a few mins. It doesn’t even matter what you do in your life. It’s just important to be able to really pause during the day. Like when you work and then you’re back home. Before you start cooking or doing the dishes or whatever, you might be willing to have a break, a moment when you slow down and ground yourself in the present moment. There are plenty of tools and exercises based on mindfullness that you can use on a daily basis. It could be worth it do to some researches about it. Even though we live in societies where performance is promoted, I don’t think this kind of moment is optional, even if we may be tempted to skip them most of the time.
More generally, you can ask yourself how you manage stress on a daily basis. Are there things that helps you to relax, to feel comfortable, things you enjoy to do?
To ask yourself some questions that could help you to identify your own boundaries. Are there subjects that might be triggering to you? Are there moments of the day when you feel more vulnerable? If yes, then it’s okay to avoid those subjects and moments. For example, I have my own limits when it’s about sexual abuse/assaults and physical violenece. And I know that most of the time I can’t read or reply to those who share about this subject. But that’s okay. There will always be someone to show some love around here.
Not staying alone when you feel at the edge of burn-out or when you actually are overwhelmed. Talking about those stories that you read from others and how it makes you feel can help. Just to let it out of your chest if it drains you emotionally. You don’t need to identify anyone. Most of the time, we’re so focused that we don’t really take the time to ackwnoledge how we feel about it. Having a friend or someone you could talk with can really help. Or if you prefer, writing about it/journaling can be useful too. When we read someone’s story, it can produce so many emotions at the same time: sadness, empathy, anger, frustration…
To keep in mind some things that will always remains such as: replying is never an obligation; we can do our best but we can’t save the world; we can’t force someone to take actions and get better if they’re not willing to; we can’t carry on our own shoulders the burdens of others but at least we can be listening; we’re just all human beings after all.
To avoid social medias and daily news if you feel vulnerable already. It really is a personal statement, but at least it helps me, for what it’s worth. When I find myself tired and overwhelmed by dark things or negativity, I try to surround myself only with inspiring things. There’s too much going on in this world everyday. Whether it’s positive or negative, receiving so many informations everyday can be exhausting in itself. We just dont need this all the time.
To proceed carefuly when you reply. Having short breaks to check on yourself: am I okay? Am I able to keep replying? If not, that’s okay. Being open and honest about it shows the respect you have for the people you’re talking with. Also if you feel the need to reply something even though you don’t feel okay, using the “likes” here or “reactions” on Discord is still something! Those tools are always available and still very important to show that people are not alone, and it requires less energy.
When you feel like you already burned yourself, then stay away from what makes you feel worse as long as you need, and as simple as it may sound (not that easy to do most of the time), so you can focus on you, your current needs and your well-being. It’s only temporary. Then you’ll manage to get back to it progressively - if you want.
To try to keep a healthy pattern of sleeping, as much as possible. For me, being able to sleep well and enough is so important. It can really influence how the day is gonna be, the amount of negative/positive thoughts or emotions I could have, the overall physical and emotional energy I have.
Somehow a conclusion to what’s above is in what I think Danjo is used to say: focus on what you can do, with the resources that you have right now. For others, yes, but also for yourself.
Sorry if this reply isn’t really helpful in the end. I really hope you’ll feel better and that things will go as smooth as possible to you. Hold fast.
