The Burnout Struggle is Real, but How Do You Deal?

By Frankie Castanea

It’s post-midterms and sitting with our Dunkin’ coffee cups in math class, it’s becoming more and more apparent that students are in need of a break. The stress of the consistent workload and ever-so-short weekends is beginning to weigh on me, as well as the rest of my friend group.

“I’m just feeling super burnt out,” I explained to my friends. They all agreed, and the phrase was continuously brought up throughout the next few weeks.

For many students, the weekend is a time to rest, recharge, and recuperate, but the reality is school typically doesn’t stop once Friday hits.

The average college student, according to USA Today, spends around 15 to 17 hours a week on homework and school-related assignments outside of class. Factor in around eight hours of sleep a night (the recommended number for young adults… although usually unattainable), two to three hours for each class a week, and a typical student is left with around 80 hours (11 a day) to do whatever’s left — AKA socializing, work at your job, participating in clubs, and recharging.

Unless you’re a certified pro at time management, this schedule, to say the least, is overwhelming. With fall break so late in the semester, Temple students are feeling the stress.

With all the talk of the condition on campus, what exactly is burn out? I turned to a mental health professional, Heather Davidson, to give me more insight.

“Burnout is when you are physically, emotionally and mentally drained,” Davidson explained. “It develops due to constant demands over a prolonged time period. The stress causes you to lose interest in things that are important to you. While burnout may have started in one area of your life, like school or work, the impact of burnout will touch every part of your life.”

The students I spoke to report their tolerance for their workload reaches its peak around week seven or eight of the semester. For Temple, this is right around the beginning to middle of October, which is midterm season for many students.

Burnout kicks in when grades begin to matter the most, often leaving students feeling, as Davidson expressed, “helpless, easily overwhelmed, alone in their suffering or stress, negatively towards the world and others and feeling unsatisfied with their work.”

It seems that Temple students agree, with sophomore Shersten Stender describing her experiences with burnout.

“Being burnt out makes me feel so stressed that I can’t think straight,” Stender said. “When I’m burnt out, all I can think about is all the work I have to do for my classes. I can’t physically or mentally relax for even a second, because I feel guilty that I’m not working on homework. But at the same time, I’m so utterly overwhelmed that I don’t have the motivation to actually get the work done.”

Stender isn’t alone. Joy Alicea, a sophomore pychology major and transfer student, had similar symptoms.

“I start to get extremely overwhelmed with school and little daily tasks like getting out of bed,” Alicea said. “It makes me feel like I’m simply not doing enough — if I want to be serious about my career, how can I even complete it if I can barely make it to my classes on time?”

Symptoms can widely range, but often include “feeling almost always tired and drained even if you get enough sleep, getting sick more often due to lowered immunity, body/muscle aches, headaches, difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite or stress eating, and feeling unmotivated,” according to Davidson.

Both Alicea and Stender reported feeling unmotivated to do basic tasks, and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty surrounding their education, which is also a side effect.

In terms of developing burnout, Davidson says that those who are overworked and feel unappreciated are vulnerable meaning that everyone from college-age students to stay-at-home moms suffers from burnout.

So, how do you cope with this?

“Reach out to others, like friends, a partner, family or even a therapist, for support and help,” Davidson recommended. “Reducing your responsibilities and increasing time for self-care is also important. This is also necessary to live a balanced and healthy life overall. This means eating healthy, exercising regularly and probably most importantly getting enough sleep. Setting boundaries with people who take advantage of your time and energy is very important.”

If you, like so many college students, are feeling the stress of college weigh on you, then it’s important to take Davidson’s professional advice to heart. With finals right around the corner, schedule time for yourself within the week to go to that yoga class you’ve been dreaming of, spend time with friends, or plan a night in with a face mask and a movie.

Get started on your papers and studying early so when exam week rolls around, you have a couple hours a day to unwind and text your friends to check in on how they’re doing.

If you plan ahead and set aside time to recharge, your future self will thank you.

Cover photo by STIL on Unsplash