Ok. Take a moment to breathe. Look around. Where are you right now? What are you doing right now? Besides reading this blog (great choice by the way.) I bet 50% of the people reading this is procrastinating on something right now.
Wait, wait, still finish reading this though…but I bet procrastination is what led a lot of you here. And to go even further, I bet burn out is what caused the procrastination.I bet at least more than half of the people affected by burn out, is specifically going through college burnt out.
Well, look no further. Step into my office. Step into my imaginary office and sit on my imaginary couch. College burnout is real and a disease affecting millions of college students nationally and worldwide. No matter the year, or demographic—College burn out has no requirements or standards, anybody can get it, whether academically, socially, or even in general. College burnout is real, and, in this blog, we will break down college burn out and how to treat it.
What IS College Burn Out?
Before we get into the three ways you can treat college burn out, let’s talk about what College burnout truly is. College or academic burnout is defined as an extreme state of mental, emotional, or physical exhaustion caused by the high demands of college life and unresolved stress that breeds from that. This state leads to exhaustion, the feeling of being drained, and poor academic performance.
It can create a heightened state of stress and loss of motivation. Burnout can also create chronic fatigue and disconnection. These symptoms can be felt physically and mentally, often simultaneously, causing a halt in academic performance.
Burnout can also lead to other things like sadness or the feeling of spiraling. Everybody’s burn out is different, but I’ve felt it first-hand multiple times. It crept up slowly but once it had arrived the burn out felt like it was heavily laying on me for months. I felt so overwhelmed and forced into this feeling of grave exhaustion to the point of forgetting about assignments and turning them in late. Often, ironically, around this time of the semester, is when most people fall into this stress induced slump. And being that this time is around the time of midterms, it could be very easy to fall into burn out. But here are three tips that can help you treat it!
Research Resources
Resources are our friend. Resources, resources, resources. Being at a college, gives you access to so many different resources, especially campus resources that centers around mental health and counseling. Here at Alabama, we have so many different counseling organizations, and many different groups and counselors’ hosts events and seminars to help inform the community about things like this. Alabama offers many different therapy options, like group therapy options, solo therapy appointments, or even zoom calls. Alabama offers a wide range of resources.
Being well informed about these resources, no matter the school, can be very beneficial to your growth in college. Here at Alabama our school offers a multitude of campus counseling resources including the following: the counseling center, student care and well being office, student health center, and the Camelia center for interpersonal violence support. In each of these resources there are many workers who specialize in mental health and combating this through effective treatment.
“In each of these resources there are many workers who specialize in mental health and combating this through effective treatment.”
These centers even take time out of their busy schedules to come to different classrooms to talk about the many different resources that they have for the student body. Which is very nice and very informative. They come to the classrooms with PowerPoints and pamphlets for students who are interested in learning more about what they offer.
Know the information
But knowing this information before your burnout happens can be extremely beneficial because you can know how to treat your burnout while in the midst of it besides learning after you get over it. It can help you expediate the process and feel better so you can do your homework and get back to becoming an academic weapon. The truth is, knowledge is power and having this information and actually using the resources that they offer is incredibly beneficial especially when treating burnout especially, if it’s severe burnout. At the University of Alabama, the Dean’s office is also another great resource to learn about because they offer many different things to help recover academically when you are in the midst of burnout.
SAY NO SOMETIMES
Sometimes life gets overwhelming especially when not only are you going through life but also going through your classes and your deadlines and academics in general. It can be very overwhelming, and it can feel like more than we can bear. Saying no can be our greatest tool and greatest weapon.
Sometimes it’s just too much, we sometimes just need rest and to recover and to focus on one specific thing while there’s so many different billions of events going on around campus.
Sometimes constantly showing up to these events and showing up and hanging out with your friends can cause burnout as well cover so there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying no. Sometimes saying no is needed. Whether it’s about a different event or organization that you’re planning to go to, sometimes life just gets to be too much and saying no it’s very beneficial to listening and understanding yourself.
We have to be strategic when deciding where we invest our time and especially in regard to the state of being we may feel mentally.
Oftentimes when dealing with burnout some students ignore their problems and the way they feel. They just hang out with their friends and go to places that they probably should not be just to feel something. But that’s not healthy and running away from your problems like burnout will only cause problems in the end. We have to be strategic when deciding where we invest our time and especially in regard to the state of being we may feel mentally.
Saying no is for our mental health
I say all this to say, say no. Say no when you feel overwhelmed and don’t want to go out anywhere. Say no when people ask you if you’re OK and you feel like lying. Say no when you must go to an event, but you’re severely behind and just need a chance to breathe and understand what’s going on. Ignoring your body and doing something anyways is the fastest way to self-destruct. So, one way to combat this is by listening to yourself, trusting yourself and when you don’t feel up to something, simply say no. In this life we must protect ourselves mentally physically and emotionally. If we know we need a moment, only we can know how we feel so it is imperative that we speak up for us ourselves and say no when needed.
Support Systems
Friends and family is the backbone to the success of the many different treatments of burnout. Talking to them about what you’re experiencing mentally is extremely beneficial in one of the essential steps 2 getting out of burnout. No matter what stage of burnout you may be in isolation is the absolute worst thing you can do when experiencing burnout. Isolation will only make it get worse.
I know one of the earlier topics was to not be afraid of saying no but I would like to emphasize that there is a major difference in saying no just to catch your breath and understand what’s going on versus saying no because of how dark everything feels and eventually tuning everybody out and shedding everybody out around you.
Most people do the method of shutting people out around them because they don’t want to be a drag and they would rather go through it alone then bother the people around them. That was something that I would do. I would not want to bother my close friend’s family and friends and I would think that I could go through it all alone when in retrospect we were never meant to go through things alone.
We Rely on Eachother
Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to be there for other people, we forget about the importance of making time for the inside and leaning on people when we have had enough.
As you can see it’s very easy to ignore these tips and do our own thing period but that’s not beneficial to us as a whole or ourselves individually. We all rely on ourselves or each other really, to succeed. By listening to ourselves we can be there for each other and get each other out of a terrible burnout phase. But that only can work if we listen to each other and not isolate ourselves into darkness.
Anybody can get burnouts and it’s important to recognize the signs and symptoms to learn how to navigate it. It’s very normal and it’s very treatable you’re not alone, and if you get it’s very easy to treat it. Remember that. It is very treatable. It just takes time and the awareness needed to understand what it truly is.
