How to avoid burnout

Radek Ptacek, a psychologist and lecturer at the University of New York in Prague has accepted an invitation to a popular talk show called “Show Jana Krause” where he talked about today’s very widespread problem of burnout.

According to his words, burnout syndrome has an advantage for people, because they understand it. A man knows when his symptoms begin to appear.  “It is the same feeling when you are in love, you just know it” says Doctor Ptacek. So there is no need to do any complicated psychological definition. This popular term is not a diagnosis, but ICD (International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) provides a complementary concept called – life burnout, which may cause any illness that occurs in our lives.

Psychologists use standardized tests to determine burnout of individuals. The most common symptoms include:

• Slow thinking process

• Lack of interest

• Inability to concentrate

• Frequent fatigue

The best way to avoid a syndrome is prevention. The most common reason for burnout is usually the job or career of the individual. This person feels a lack of purpose and is not fulfilling his ideals. Personal life is also heavily involved in the burnout syndrome. A person often does not pay attention to one self and loved ones. Therefore, you need to have your own interests, hobbies, and good interpersonal relationships and life partner.

Finally, Doctor Ptacek mentions the impact of the development of technology on human lives, especially new media and social networks. In his opinion, these new trends may be in many ways beneficial, but on the other hand the boom created a new concept called “Digital dementia”. It has been proven that the more one looks into the phone or tablet, the more neurons in the brain loses. The purpose of the new technologies was to provide help to mankind, however now it seems to be leading to the opposite effect. 

To see the whole interview in czech, please click HERE.