mardi 30 septembre 2003

Burnt out

Gerrard posted about this a while ago but his archives are gone... so I will just post what he post originally.

BURN OUT is a condition which keeps you from doing what God wants you to do. I believe that students are under terrible amounts of stress. School, peer pressure, acceptance, family, sports, girl/boyfriends, I can go on and on, and there are many things in life that "burn us out". Some of you are burnt out on Church, always having to be at this or that for Church. Burnout can affect you mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. How can we give to others when our wells are dry?

Burnout is a very serious thing for young people today. Because when you become stressed out or burnt out you become useless or at least that's the way you feel. You begin to think that you are the only one who cares or is hurting and everyone else is happy and satisfied with their life. You feel like there is not enough time in the day to accomplish anything. You have no time to relax. If you are burnt out, you may have some of these symptoms.

1. Exhausted all the time no matter how long you sleep or nap.
2. Feel isolated from other people, and even yourself, to the extent of becoming a loner.
3. Feel ineffective, no matter what you do.
4. Angry at little things.
5. Loss of sympathy for others people's problems – even when it's your job to be sympathetic.
6. Feel trapped.
7. Doubt or become discouraged.
8. No sense of humour.
9. Physical problems (back, neck, headaches, fatigue).
10. Have an increased interest to activities that could lead to addiction.
So I figure I must be really burnt out if I'm borrowing my friend's notes from class and he writes a special comment to me under the line "slow down a bit so that you don't miss opportunities and don't burn out". That and the fact that I have symptoms #1-4 and 6-9. And that I am so overcommitted that I'm letting people down. Good news though, I dropped the soccer team at school because it was interfering with my youth. And God finally answered my prayer regarding El Salvador... I'm not called to go there. I think He wants me to focus on Montana and my youth and school and my field lab and the yearbook and my tech work.

posted by Neely @ 11:21 p.m.  |