My fellow peers, the time has come once again. The time of cries, lack of sleep, exhaustion, frustration and pretty much anger. For those of you who are younger – or just don’t attend this school – you might be feeling very lost with what I am talking about; but I promise, you’ll absolutely relate with this in less than 10 seconds. Why are we feeling these negative emotions? Please say it with me – 1, 2, 3 summatives. From pretty much grade 8 to 12, everyone is stressed about their summatives. Don’t even get me started with the G12. Can’t imagine what they are going through right now. But the bottom line is, we’re all stressed. Feeling the pressure of the end of the year test – and for G10s what subjects you will be taking for DP. Well, I’m here to give you some tips that you might know, or don’t, or not really like, or have not worked for you… but I’m still gonna give them out anyway! Cause I care about you and your wellbeing…*partially* but I’m here to make sure you don’t BURN OUT and turn into ashes before you get to enjoy your summer!!!

Burnout is a state of emotional, mental and physically exhausting, that is caused by excessive and prolonged stress. This happens when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally stripped and incapable of reaching the overflowing river of demands. As the stress goes on, you start to lose motivation and interest that made you get into a particular activity in the first place. Consequently, burnout decreases productivity and grabs your energy off you like a vacuum cleaner. It leaves you feeling very helpless, cynical and resentful. As it goes on, ultimately you may start to feel like you have nothing more to give… and that my friends IS NOT GOOD!

Um so is burnout the same thing as being stressed? Well, nope. You see, burnout may be the result of unrelenting stress, but it isn’t equivalent to too much stress. Stress mainly includes too much: too much pressure that demand too much of you mentally and physically. But people who are stressed can still imagine that if they can just get things under control, they’ll feel better. You know how you get stressed about the summatives and you just think to yourself “oh, once the summatives are done, I’d totally be stressed free”. Well, this is not the case with burnouts. Burnout is about not enough. It means feeling empty and mentally exhausted, robbed of motivation. People who go throughout burnout very often don’t see any hope of finding a door out of this horrible situation. A simpler way to put it is like how you feel when you’re stressed; it feels like you are being submerged with tons of responsibility. But burnout is a sense of being all dried up, just like the desert. Usually, we are aware of being stressed, but we don’t always notice burnouts when they occur. Well, here are some symptoms to look out for: lack of sleep, anxiety, headaches, low mood, cynicism, frustration and difficulty concentrating.

One of the most effective ways to deal with this issue is to reach out to people. The people that are closest to you, the ones who love and care for your well being: parents, friends, teachers etc. “But, I don’t want to make them feel like I’m placing another burden on their shoulders” you might say. My fellow peers, by opening up, your loved ones will be very happy and honoured that you trust them so much to confide in them and it will do nothing but empower your relationship with them.

And lastly, STAY AWAY FROM NEGATIVE PEOPLE. Of course, we don’t want all those toxic relationships that we have with people to continue to drain the lives out of us. Whether it is your close friend or just someone you know if they are nothing but negative minded people that do nothing but bring down your mood, just drop them like an apple falling off a tree. But if you have to work with these people for some reason, limit the time you spend with them.

There are still various different ways to deal with burnouts and I can talk about them all day, trust me. But, I know you have that math test that you have to study for, so I narrowed it down to the two most crucial ones. Well, that’s it for me! I truly hope that this article will help at least one person in some way or another. I know it’s NOT easy, but just remember that we are still kids. We are growing and with age comes responsibility, stress, frustration, setbacks and failures. Trust me, I am in your shoes. So let’s take these steps together, shall we?

Sources

https://ada.com/signs-of-burnout/

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/burnout-prevention-and-recovery.htm/