Stress. Anxiety. Strain. Sooner or later, everyone goes through these times in life. In balancing personal lives and work with college overload, students face much more stress than an average human being.
The part-time jobs, handling extra classes at once, extracurricular activities, pressure & expectations can make going through a day challenging. It is okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes, but do not take that for granted.
If you have started feeling entirely detached from your social and academic life, chances maybe you’re facing college burnout.
According to various researches pointed towards college students, here are some things we learned:
- 8/10 university students in the United Kingdom reported stress and/or anxiety in college.
- A total of 36.5% of college students in the U.S. reported stress as the primary reason for their declined academic performance, while 29.5% listed anxiety.
Going through a storm of stress and anxiety may be a part of your lives, but college burnout is not normal. It is essential to recognize signs of a burnout and how you can avoid or overcome it.
Here is a complete guide on college burnout that’ll explain why you’re feeling the way you feel in college, what are the five stages, how you can prevent it, and where to get professional help if you need it. Let’s begin.
What is College Burnout?
College burnout can be defined as an extended period of extreme physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that results in a lack of motivation and a decline in academic performance.
Numerous reasons can trigger it, but burnout is often caused by an overwhelming college workload and extended time of intense stress & anxiety. There can be other factors that are lesser known like:
- Family troubles
- Having the wrong friends
- Financial issues
- Little or no support
- Time management struggles
- Procrastinated goals
- Poor sleep and nutrition
- Alcohol and/or drug abuse
These factors can trigger burnout rather quickly, even when all the other things are going in a straight line.
The phrase “college burnout” isn’t taken as seriously as it should be. People like to describe it as feeling stressed or anxious and tired, but in reality, a burnout is much more severe than that. The worst part is one can’t recognize it easily.
College Burnout Symptoms
Students who experience a burnout in colleges often continue to take on more work and try to compete in classes even when they already are in a state of exhaustion, and close to a full collapse. When you’re completely collapsed and disconnected, you may lose interest in maintaining your physical health, social life, and overall well being.
It is when you stay in a state of burnout that you become chronically depleted, and your bodies become open to severe health problems. These include depression, headaches, infections, immune system issues, insomnia, and even cancer.
This is why it is important to understand the signs of a burnout and take a break. It is really essential to start taking major steps to prevent or reverse a burnout whenever you recognize its symptoms. Here are some common signs to look out for:
- You feel depressed and alienated most of the time
- Lost all your interest in social, academic, and extracurricular activities
- You don’t feel like getting up and go through your day
- Lack of motivation to attend classes or do your assignments
- A huge loss of confidence in academic abilities
- You feel much more lonelier than usual, and small things irritate you easily
- Pain, stress, and tension in your body because of overworking and overthinking
- Reduced focus and concentration
- Lashing out on friends who wish to be there for you
- Constant exhaustion
- Higher frequency of health related problems
All such issues can be symptoms of college burnout. Although most of these can feel like regular problems, they are not normal, and you must take a break to figure out your daily life, before sinking in a full collapse.
What are the Five Stages of Burnout?
There is a fine line between consistent hard work (that helps you reach your goals) and sacrificing your mental and physical health for success. But, students find it difficult to keep track of this line.
The biggest reason behind it is that the beginning of burnout actually feels like moving in the right direction. The early or initial excitement about handling many responsibilities can be the first stage of going downhill.
This downhill can lead to a massive crash, but before that, you’ll move through these five significant stages of burnout.
1. Subtle Dissatisfaction
The lack of awareness that something’s wrong makes up for what the first stage of burnout means.
This stage can make you have slight thoughts of discomfort throughout your day, along with a hidden feeling that something’s off. You may feel predicted stresses because of the work you’re undertaking and find your optimism waning.
2. Stagnation
The second stage of burnout comes along with disruptive emotions that feel more and more uncomfortable. Feeling down repeatedly starts making you uneasy, and your subconscious sets out on finding ways to manage the constant stress you have.
Moreover, your life becomes limited to college work or taking care of your goals, while other important life segments such as family and friends suffer.
You may start feeling like you’re not getting anywhere, even after waking up every day and trying harder for success. This leads to more stress and disappointment.
Students may try to find other ways to deal with this feeling, like increased smoking, alcohol abuse, and overthinking. All such factors directly affect your physical health.
3. Conscious Numbing
This stage can be perilous as the burnout symptoms climb up in your everyday behavior. The feelings of anxiety, stress, exhaustion, and overwhelm feel too massive.
You start experiencing failure at every stage of your life and a hint of powerlessness. Small successes stop mattering to you because you feel like nothing is working and that your efforts do not visibly pay off.
You do not have anybody to acknowledge your hard work because you constantly push away people that love you, which leads to feeling inadequate and “not enough.”
This can cause a sense of isolation and an emotional disconnect from the rest of the world, including friends and family.
4. Apathy
You can figure out that you’re in the fourth stage when the lows become more based, deep, and stiff than the highs.
This stage comes along with extreme emotions and intense sensations in your whole body for no logical reason. You keep feeling the same way over and over again, even when nothing has happened.
You stay deeply anxious for almost every second and feel dissatisfied with anything you do. Despair and disillusionment take place, and you do not see any way out of your situation.
You start feeling like you’re close to the end, and there’s nothing you can do.
(But remember, there is always something you can do)
5. Full-Blown Trauma
The final stage, “full-blown trauma,” takes place when your burnout becomes habitual. In simpler words, the symptoms of burnout would be so deeply immersed in your veins that you are likely to feel any emotional, mental or physical problem.
The most common symptom of this chronic final stage is a complete physical shut-down or occasional uncontrollable anxiety, which can also be called panic attacks.
Living on a stage like this can lead you to dangerous places, and it gets hard to see a way out. You may get a feeling of helplessness that prompts you to look for and accept help.
Crucial Tips to Prevent college burnout
Suppose you are starting to recognize symptoms of any of the early stages of burnout. In that case, it’s important to start taking actionable steps and improve your mental as well as physical health.
Here are some essential tips to prevent or avoid college burnout:
- Proper Time Management
From working adults to college students and school kids, time management is vital for each one of us. An efficient way to properly manage time for your daily activities is by getting a calendar.
This way, you can decide and note the things any specific day holds for you, and then divide your time accordingly. Add activities that give you joy in between free spaces of your schedule.
Along with this, learn to set priorities. Do this while you’re having your breakfast for a healthy mindset. Determine what tasks need to be taken off your plate first and what tasks can be done by the end of the week.
Fun activities aren’t only limited to the weekends. Fill your calendar up with things that you love to do, along with the academic bits. You’ll feel an instant boost to wake up every morning and do something productive.
- Realistic Expectations
It is okay to dream big, to imagine a bright future, and to have incredible expectations. What’s not okay is exhausting yourself mentally and physically in the name of grinding.
It happens very frequently that students develop stress related to climbing their self-made high standards. While it is great to set the bar high, it’s also essential to be realistic.
Setting realistic expectations will never make you feel like you’re doing so much and still not moving forward. Along with that, you’ll be much more forgiving of yourself when you need to be.
- Take regular breaks
Since the most prominent factor behind a burnout is stress, it is crucial to learn how to manage stress carefully. Things like proper daily nutrition, healthy social interactions, quality sleep, and exercise are a part of productive management.
Alongside these things, you should also take breaks on a regular basis. They help establish your focus on the high standard goals, increase creativity and work motivation.
- Think about after-college life
Always know that you’re going to have a great life after college, you’ll have to make adult decisions, you’ll have independence, and a whole new set of things to keep in mind.
It’s no lie that colleges are simply stressful and demanding. But once it’s over, the graduation from college proves to be financially beneficial. Besides that, you also learn excellent skills and derive tremendous knowledge that have an ever-lasting effect on your personal and work life.
Follow these tips to avoid burning out, and stay healthy, both mentally and physically.
Facing Burnout in College
If you’re already aware that you need to take it slow, here are some things you can do to face burnout in college:
- Stay engaged
Try to avoid being alone at all times and take the initiative for social interaction. Figure out what elective interests you the most, and take part in it.
Getting involved in a club or group of people with the same passion as you can really help you get out of your burnout. It can feel refreshing and exciting to do new things with new people who share the same interests and passion.
- Develop timely study habits
Try not to make all your college years about the study. It’s essential, we get it, but nothing is more important than your mental and physical health.
Creating time loops for studying can help you stay on track and establish a healthy daily-life schedule. The best way to do this is by getting all factors lined up at the right spot.
Find a peaceful place to study, where there are no distractions. Keep the study place clean, tidy, and organized. A clean and quiet study area will have your brain running at a better pace, and every minute of your studying time will be efficient.
- Avoid saying “YES” to everything
You’re not wrong to need time and space for yourself. Balancing college work, relationships, friendships, and home all together can be difficult in your college years.
Learn to say no at times when you feel genuinely stretched and involved in too many directions. Pause some commitments, stop burning yourself out.
Recovering From College Burnout
When you have recognized all the college burnout symptoms, or you’re already past the third or fourth stage, trying to push through the stress and exhaustion and continuing like nothing is wrong, will only assert more mental and physical damage.
It isn’t the time to stress over stress. It’s time to slow down, pause and change your direction by learning how to recover from college burnout.
The only happy news about burnout is that you can recover from it by making minor changes in your life. Before that, you need to identify what exactly is/are the source/sources of your burnout.
Listen to your mind and body, and try to understand why you’re highly stressed, what led you here. Once you determine what is causing you such an intense time, you can start to manage it.
Turn to other people, and seek help.
When you’re completely burned out, every simple problem seems insurmountable, and it feels more than challenging to gather the energy to care, let alone take action to move away.
Social contact is a given gift as an antidote to stress and anxiety. Talking to someone who listens carefully can be one of the fastest ways to calm your nervous system and let go of built-up stress.
All you need is someone who will listen to you with no judgment and all their attention. Reach out to those you’re the closest to, such as your significant other, family, and friends.
If you feel that opening up to people will make you a burden, imagine yourself in their shoes. For instance, if your sister or boyfriend needed to talk to you about their intense feelings, would you want to be there for them? Or would you feel like “that is such a headache”?
Most of your friends and loved ones would instead be flattered that you trust them with your feelings, and sharing things will instead improve your bond.
Change it up
If you’re going through burnout, the second best thing to do is to mix it up. Determine the goals you have, the activities you need to do, the places you need to be at, the time you have, and mix it all up.
Set priorities. Do important things. Make time for yourself. Make time for your friends. Do things that you love. Spend time at places that feel important to you. Just take a break!
Bottom Line
College burnout is a severe condition you can treat yourself if you take the proper steps and measures.
If you’re starting to see some warning signs, take the necessary steps to prevent it. If you’re in the early stages of burnout, try to face and turn it around. If you’re experiencing the full-blown trauma, step back from everything in your life, and take a break.
Moreover, it is imperative to seek professional help and support if you think you cannot reverse the burnout on your own.
Burnout in college is an authentic condition and can happen to anybody, given how tough a university can be. So remember, you’re not alone. Do not be afraid to reach out to your family and friends for help.