Mothers Also Suffer From Burnout

We understand the anxiety of believing that you are the only one who will ever go on vacation for a weekend, alone, without responsibilities or schedules. We understand your guilt, your utter exhaustion and your tears . We know that burnout also affects mothers.

Until recently, burnout was considered a disease limited to working life. Its main symptoms include physical and mental stress and fatigue, caused by long working days.

Now it can also be applied to the family environment. This is especially true for mothers, both first-time mothers and those who have more than one child. That sounds logical, right?

The well-known burnout has a higher incidence among workers who are exposed to hostile environments for many hours every day. We should also not forget the most challenging work that a person can take on: raising, caring for and taking responsibility for a child.

Burnout: Questions and more questions

What job is harder than dedicating yourself solely to caring for your children? Is there anything more stressful than the reality of doing and doing, and it feels like you can never stop?

Who would not stress over knowing that you have 24 hours to complete a long list of tasks? Isn’t it awful to know how exhausted you are and still not getting a break? Doesn’t it hurt to feel guilty about sometimes giving up everything?

These questions are asked daily by millions of mothers around the world because succeeding in raising children, caring for the house, being a wife, and having a career is very overwhelming and affects us all. So do not feel guilty every time you cry when you want to go to bed and your baby refuses to sleep.

As mothers, we tend to demand more of ourselves than we are able to give. Our day begins early with our children. At noon we feel we lack strength, but we keep going. In the evening we are already exhausted; And when we finally succeed in getting the baby to sleep, we feel like running away and feel guilty about it.

If we do not recognize that we need help, or that burnout can be dormant and we need to get to work to overcome this problem, we will only make the condition worse. Postpartum depression, which occurs during the first months of our baby’s life, can remain inside us for a long time.

Ask for help when you need it, and most importantly, take time to take care of yourself.

This is how you know if you are burnt out

According to the specialists, the symptoms of burnout are as follows:

• Extreme exhaustion. It starts when you get up in the morning. You will stay in bed without doing anything, due to the few hours you can sleep and the accumulated fatigue.

• Lost appetite. Considering the amount of things you need to do, you are ignoring the times you need to eat. Or just choose to have a snack. You know it’s a mistake not to eat well, but fatigue wins the battle.
• Discouragement and disinterest. The repetition of certain tasks, such as feeding the baby, cleaning up and changing diapers puts you on autopilot. You treat these tasks as obligations that affect the interest you show in things you used to enjoy. It can be things like listening to music, making a good dessert, going for a walk or reading a book. You feel that spending time on these things would be irresponsible.
• To be in a bad mood. By not doing what you want and just doing what you have to, your good mood will disappear. It will directly affect your marriage. You want to distance yourself from your partner, but it worsens your emotional state.

• You feel guilty every time you want to cry because you can not take more when something does not turn out as expected. When you see your house is cluttered again. When you do not want to get out of bed. When you hear your baby cry at midnight. When you behave disinterestedly with your partner. It seems that guilt is your closest friend in this difficult time.

Talk to the people around you and share your feelings

If you are a mother who experiences burnout , do not be afraid to admit that you can not handle so much responsibility alone. Ask for help when you need it. And most importantly, take the time to take care of yourself. If you are taken care of, so will your family.

Talk to your partner and your immediate family members to tell them how you feel and what kind of support you expect from them. You will see that by letting them work with you, you will get better. You will go back to see the wonderful and chaotic world of motherhood, in a positive light.