On a recent workday, I took advantage of a break between therapy sessions to dig into some Chinese takeout; beef and broccoli are my comfort food on lazy days. What I didn’t expect was to be called out by the fortune cookie I had just fished out of the plastic bag. “Make time for a relaxing vacation,” it reminded me like a concerned grandmother. Even the cookie knows how susceptible our community is to burnout.
As a therapist specializing in working with young Asian American professionals in their 20s and 30s, I’ve seen a lot of burnout. I was there myself when I worked in advertising in my mid-20s and several years later when I became an associate psychotherapist in community mental health. Burnout feels like a complete mental and emotional drain that seems never to replenish. Anxious thoughts start to creep in. We start to wonder if we’re doing a good enough job, if what we do matters, and even if we’re in the right place. Burnout leads to perpetual feelings of dread and a belief that we are failing.
Beyond Feeling Tired and Being Overworked
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), job burnout actually has three dimensions:
- Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion: This feeling is most commonly associated with burnout. It can include physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.
- Increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of cynicism related to one’s job: When experiencing burnout, people tend to feel a lack or loss of connection to their work. They may even feel negatively toward their responsibilities, the company, or the people they interact with. There are often feelings of resignation, cynicism about the job outlook, or hopelessness.
- Reduced professional efficacy: People start to question whether they are actually able to make an impact or succeed in their role.
While WHO’s definition is strictly speaking to job or occupational burnout, it is possible to experience these same symptoms in other facets of life, including…
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