Professional help for burnout

Burnout

Do you feel constantly under pressure and exhausted?

Prolonged stress can push the body and mind to their limits. Many people experience this condition as burnout—a feeling of inner exhaustion. Those affected often report deep physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. Their ability to concentrate declines, mistakes become more frequent, and they increasingly lack the energy for private interests or social contacts. In addition, physical and psychological side effects can occur, such as headaches or migraines, muscle and back pain, gastrointestinal complaints, anxiety, phobias, panic attacks, or increasing mental rigidity.

JUVENIS meeting room Psychotherapy for depression

Burnout

What is burnout and how can it be recognized?

Burnout describes a state of pronounced physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion accompanied by a significant decline in performance. It is not a separate illness, but rather a serious risk situation that can lead to psychological or psychosomatic illnesses.

Burnout is often associated with work-related stress. In fact, however, the causes are manifold and can include work-related as well as private, personal, and structural factors.

Typical signs and stages of development

The following symptoms summarize the results of numerous scientific studies. Despite the variety of manifestations, recurring patterns emerge.

Early warning signs

  • Excessive commitment and self-imposed pressure: Increased dedication, excessive activity, voluntary overtime, feeling irreplaceable, constant time pressure, neglecting one's own needs, trivializing failures, and increasing withdrawal from social contacts.

  • Initial symptoms of exhaustion: persistent fatigue, lack of energy, frequent headaches, and initial psychosomatic complaints.

Declining commitment

The initial motivation gives way to an increasingly negative attitude toward work. Those affected feel exploited, unappreciated, or unfairly treated. Mental withdrawal, daydreaming, or fantasies of "breaking out" become more frequent.

Possible features include

  • Loss of idealism and meaning

  • Emotional detachment, reduced capacity for empathy

  • concentration problems

  • Difficulty listening to others or contributing

  • Cynical or derogatory attitudes

  • Increased acceptance of control, pressure, or coercion

  • Increasing reliance on potentially addictive coping strategies (e.g., substances, excessive exercise, sexuality) to dampen distressing feelings

Please contact JUVENIS by phone at +43 1 236 3020by e-mail to empfang@juvenismed.at or via the contact formto make an appointment for a consultation or treatment.

Emotional reactions

  • Depressive developments: feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, vague fears, inner turmoil, mood swings, bitterness, emotional emptiness, helplessness, hopelessness, and even suicidal thoughts.

  • Aggressive reactions: Increasing irritability, impatience, blaming others or "the system," mistrust, frequent conflicts, intolerance, and a defensive attitude.

Decline in core competencies

  • Cognitive impairments: concentration and memory problems, indecisiveness, disorganization, difficulties with complex tasks

  • Loss of motivation: declining initiative, reduced performance, "working to rule"

  • Decline in creativity and flexibility

  • Entrenched thinking: Rigid black-and-white thinking and resistance to change

flattening

  • Emotional: Indifference, reduced emotional responses

  • Social: Withdrawal from relationships, reduced interest in others, loneliness, or excessive fixation on individual persons

  • Mental: Giving up interests and hobbies, boredom, listlessness

Psychosomatic complaints

  • Increased susceptibility to infection

  • Inability to relax during leisure time

  • Sleep disturbances and nightmares

  • Sexual dysfunction

  • Muscle tension, back pain, and headaches

  • Digestive problems, nausea

  • Cardiovascular complaints such as palpitations, tightness, shortness of breath, or high blood pressure

  • Weight changes and altered eating habits

  • Increased consumption of alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, or other substances

Periods of deep despair

  • Pronounced feeling of futility

  • Complete exhaustion

  • despair

  • Existential crises

  • Suicidal thoughts or attempts

Burnout: Awareness & Relief

The importance of knowledge

If you recognize yourself in many of these points, this may be an important signal to pause and allow yourself to seek support.

Recognizing that you are in the process of burnout is a crucial step. This realization can be a relief, as it makes it clear that this is a widespread phenomenon—and not a personal failure. Often, this is the first step toward accepting outside help.

What factors contribute to burnout?

The development of burnout syndrome is usually the result of several interacting influences. These can be divided into external circumstances and personal factors.

External factors can include: a consistently high workload, lack of recognition for one's own performance, perceived injustice or discrimination, limited opportunities to influence one's daily work, bullying, interpersonal conflicts, lack of support, and constant time and deadline pressure.

Internal factors relate to personal attitudes and behavior patterns, such as a tendency to overwork, pronounced perfectionism, a strong need for validation, excessive self-criticism, self-doubt, unrealistic expectations of oneself, or difficulties setting boundaries and saying "no," compensating for low self-esteem with extreme professional performance.

Important: Burnout is not usually caused by a single trigger, but rather by the interaction of several external and internal factors.

Please contact JUVENIS by phone at +43 1 236 3020by e-mail to empfang@juvenismed.at or via the contact formto make an appointment for a consultation or treatment.

Relief arises where opportunities for action arise.

A significant part of the suffering stems from the feeling of being at the mercy of the symptoms or the situation. This is precisely where clinical psychological treatment comes in. You will learn specific methods that you can use to actively influence the situation. The focus is on expanding your scope of action and improving how you deal with the existing stress in the long term.

A particular focus of my therapeutic work is raising awareness of the connection between burnout and the inner child:

  • Root cause: Many burnout symptoms originate in childhood, e.g., due to a lack of recognition, linking emotional affection to performance, or a lack of attachment.

  • Call for help: The inner child expresses itself through burnout symptoms such as exhaustion, lack of self-awareness, anxiety, and the need to constantly function.

  • Unmet needs: When fundamental needs (security and attachment, recognition and self-esteem, permission to express anger, frustration, and disappointment without being judged) were not met in childhood and are compensated for as adults through dysfunctional coping strategies (e.g., will to please, perfectionism, emotional withdrawal, substance abuse).

People who are overly conformist because they learned as children to suppress their feelings and needs are predisposed to burnout.

Costs

Treatment Price
1 coaching session (50 minutes) € 180

Team

Sonja Knefel, MA

Clinical and health psychologist
Curriculum vitae

Contact us

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