While going through the recovery journey, you may notice you have moments of extreme motivation and moments that seem impossible to progress. While nearly everyone experiences these up and down phases, it is not uncommon to feel burned out and ready to give up on recovery altogether. How can you avoid that? The following practices can help you avoid burnout and continue your recovery progress.
Characteristics Leading to Burnout
The following characteristics increase the likelihood of an individual reaching the point of burnout. These traits are important to be aware of if you are at risk of getting into this mental state. However, you can still reach a point of burnout without these characteristics. Often they will slowly start to develop or strengthen as you get closer to burnout.
Desire for Perfection
While working through the process of recovery, we often set goals for ourselves and make plans to achieve them. However, recovery is rarely linear. When we have setbacks or moments when we feel we are falling away from our goals, it can be very disappointing and discouraging. If you have a strong desire for perfection, these setbacks can be challenging to overcome. After experiencing multiple setbacks and finding yourself straying from perfection, your chances of reaching burnout are drastically increased.
It is vital to remember your goals and allow yourself to view failures as an opportunity to learn and grow. No process of recovery is ever perfect or without its challenges. Allow yourself to fail when there is no other option and use that to your advantage. Setbacks do not always have to be a bad thing.
Guilt or Delayed Gratification
You may feel incredible amounts of guilt about your setbacks or past choices. The truth is, all of us have guilt to live with; however, dwelling on your regrets only sets you back further. Allowing yourself to view your past and incorporate the lessons you learned from those situations into who you want to become is essential. Mentally straining yourself over past mistakes can lead to recovery burnout very quickly.
The delayed gratification of your progress can lower your self-esteem and increase stress levels. This can lead to burnout when you are not feeling grateful for the progress you have made and for the people who have been a positive influence on your recovery. Keep daily reminders to express gratitude or keep a gratitude journal to remind yourself of everything life has given you.
Compulsiveness
This characteristic ties in with perfectionism. Having compulsive characteristics means you desire a level of perfection in your surroundings and expect things to go the way you anticipate. This viewpoint can lead to obsessive behaviors, which have many adverse effects on recovery and can lead to burnout.
To avoid a burnout state, recognize that allowing your mind to accept the process of recovery is critical. Sadly, throughout this process, and much like life, things are not always going to go the way you expect. Keeping an open mind and allowing yourself to adjust to changes retains your focus on the overall goal. A constant occurrence of events not playing out the way you desire can be mentally draining. This mental obstacle can lead to a state of burnout very quickly.
Self-Denial
This characteristic involves denying yourself the ability to engage in activities or work toward things you desire. This most often occurs because an individual has a high level of doubt in their ability to accomplish anything. While going through recovery, you are focused on reaching your goals. If you consistently remind yourself that you are incapable of success, you can become mentally exhausted from fighting against your mind.
Letting go of your self-doubts and telling yourself you are fully capable of accomplishing your goals can counteract this. You have to reinforce the use of positive self-thoughts, which may take some time. Your mind can be one of the biggest obstacles to overcome when avoiding a state of burnout.
How to Avoid Burnout
Listed above are recommendations on avoiding each of these traits to prevent burnout. While focusing on these characteristics is highly important, there are also practices you can engage in to keep your focus intact as well. Some examples include:
- Recognize when you may be reaching burnout
- Validate the progress you have made
- Keep a journal, reflect on your progress, and write at least one positive thing about yourself every day
- Think about your life after completing your goals
- Talk to a support group
- Take a break and if you feel overwhelmed with your recovery process, take a self-care day and do something enjoyable for yourself
- Be proud of yourself because you have already made it this far, and the best is yet to come
Recovery burnout is a common occurrence while going through treatment. There are many characteristics to watch for that can develop and lead to recovery burnout, as well as many practices to keep your focus on track. A desire for perfection, feelings of guilt, delayed gratification, compulsiveness, and self-denial are traits that can increase the likelihood of reaching recovery burnout. Being aware of these characteristics and taking precautions to avoid them taking over your recovery is essential if you want to stay focused on your goals and avoid reaching a state of burnout. It is important to remember that recovery is not a linear process. There will always be high and low points throughout the process. Keeping the focus on the overall goal of your recovery can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and burned out from the progress you have made. Contact Dream Recovery to learn more about how to avoid recovery burnout at (949) 732-1960.