Burn Out

 Burn out.

Something that has become really very common in today's times among everyone-be it kids, teens or adults. In today's post, I'll mainly be focussing on it from a teen's perspective.

In all honestly, I'll admit the source of inspiration for this post was through a podcast episode which I'll linking below :D

But before I get to that let us first understand,

What exactly is Burn Out?

When you google this term, the first answer you'll get this definition:

Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.

Though this is pretty self explanatory, it does not convey the entire meaning of the term 'Burn Out'. 

Burnout can take distinctive forms, affecting someone physically, emotionally, and behaviourally. Burnout can consist of physical and mental symptoms such as frequent illness, disengagement and detachment along with blunted effect of feelings of frustration, helplessness, and hopelessness and lack of motivation.

One pushes themselves to a huge extent and limit beyond their means without breaks and exhausts themselves out.

In worst case scenarios, burnout can cause one to question if life is worth living or not-it dissociates you.

Now that we've answered that question, let's move onto the next one:

What is the main cause of it among teenagers?

I've covered this topic in brief in my previous post of 'Should School's take Mental Health Seriously?' but here's a little extensively detailed one :)

I'll be covering the top three most common one's which nearly ALL of us have been through.

I do not know a single person who has not been through this. This is one of THE MOST 

prevalent causes for burn out and also one of the most dire-some ones. 

With the increase in age, pressure badhta hai-we all are familiar with this. Boredom, lack of enthusiasm, feeling stressed and unable to concentrate on your studies - when a student experiences them with a high frequency, in most cases it is due to the pressure. Aside from this, they might have to work harder and for longer  periods than their peers to achieve similar results(good to an extent) but constantly without breaks will 100% to burn out-because you're pushing yourself over your limits. 

One cannot control or “turn off” their learning and thinking differences. So, they may feel victimized on top of feeling stress. Their self-esteem may be affected by being aware of their differences. This can make teens feel less motivated to try as hard and can make tasks feel harder and take longer.

They know what it feels like to fail hence they may feel extra anxious about their performance, which also adds to their stress leading to burn out. Not to forget that other sources of pressure on various matters from home adds up to this too. 

In continuation with the previous 2 points, not taking breaks and indulging in self-care is an uprising cause of burn out. Not taking out time for yourself and performing activities that calm you down and help you feel yourself builds up lot tension and leads to outbursts. Check out my blog post on which I address the most common self care myths here!

That was it for today's post! Hope y'all enjoyed it :)

Drop off your thoughts in the comments and let me know if y'all want me to do a post on how to deal with Burn Out!

Link to the podcast episode: Burn Out

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Signing off,

Kuhu :)