Psychologist Kharitonova talked about emotional burnout

Emotional burnout is usually associated with overworking and multitasking. However, there is another, less obvious, but no less destructive reason — the chronic need to constantly prove your case. This condition can exhaust the psyche no worse than night shifts, business psychologist Victoria Kharitonova told Izvestia on September 8.

"We used to associate burnout with deadlines and multitasking. But there is also a less noticeable reason — when work turns into an endless arena: every suggestion needs to be confirmed, every action needs to be justified. At first glance, these are just "disputes", but they are the ones that can bring the psyche to exhaustion no worse than night shifts," the psychologist explained.

She clarified that every time a person is forced to explain the obvious over and over again, his nervous system reacts as if it were a threat: his pulse rate increases, stress hormones increase, and muscles become toned. If this happens day after day, the body's resources are depleted.

According to Kharitonova, over time, this leads to irritability, difficulty concentrating, and a sense of futility. Even weekends stop helping, and any meeting starts to be perceived as a potential "battle."

The expert noted that the reason often lies not in the person, but in the environment.

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"In companies with a culture of distrust, employees spend more energy on internal disputes than on real projects. A similar dynamic happens at home. When an opinion is regularly devalued, a person has to defend not only the facts, but also their right to respect," added Victoria Kharitonova.

Among the main symptoms of such burnout, the psychologist identified chronic fatigue that does not go away after rest, loss of interest in work, outbursts of irritability, headaches, insomnia, pressure spikes, and the feeling that any interaction turns into an argument.

"If the thought appears, 'it's easier to keep silent than to explain the obvious again,' this is an alarming signal: the resources of the psyche are running out," she warned.

As preventive measures, the psychologist recommends not to enter into every dispute in order to preserve strength, clearly build personal boundaries, rely on facts and the support of allies and colleagues, and in the most difficult cases, consider the possibility of changing the environment.

"Entering the ring every day to prove the obvious is a sure path to exhaustion. To save strength means to choose where it is really worth directing energy," Kharitonova summed up.

On July 15, Evgenia Gankina, director of the Roskachestvo Organizational Development Department, said that a full-fledged return to work processes after burnout should be approached gradually. According to the expert, after feeling an improvement, a person often strives to get into business at full capacity as soon as possible, but it is haste that contributes to a new round of exhaustion.

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