The Mental Emotional Health Blog

It is simple, but true: If you take yourself too seriously, you are giving up your sense of humor. You don’t need to become a happy, babbling idiot, but you don’t need to deny yourself light-hearted feelings either.

Signs you might be experiencing burnout as a therapist/counselor:

• You forgot how to get to your office.
• Watching the fish in your aquarium for 8 hours seems more enjoyable than going to work.
• You’ve already missed work time due to watching your fish.
• You asked one of your colleagues if you need a billing slip to talk to yourself.
• Your diagnostic summaries include, “This patient is almost as messed up as I am”, and that doesn’t really bother you.
• You suddenly start believing there is no such thing as counter-transference.
• Your patient was yelling and calling you names for the first 3o minutes of the session, and you found it vaguely interesting that the patient didn’t seem to have any capacity for emotional expression.
• 4 hour lunch breaks
• A colleague tells you the following joke, “How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb?  . . . Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change!” , and after you hear the joke you seriously cannot imagine why your colleague thinks a light bulb can have motivation since it’s an inanimate object.

A few days ago, I added an entry on Tips for Decreasing Anxiety. But sometimes it’s easier for people to focus on avoiding something rather than trying to accomplish something. With that in mind, here is a list of ways you can really increase your stress and anxiety levels (in other words, these are what to avoid).

Tips for Increasing Anxiety and Adding Stress to Your Life

• Dwell on something all day and night without making any plans to change the situation.
• Criticize yourself for not being successful in 100% of what you did today.
• Neglect your nutrition and rest regularly.
• Don’t ever go for relaxing walks or work out.
• Skip showering or bathing.
• Don’t set any goals in your life.
• Set goals that are so ridiculous you won’t be able to achieve them until you are 110 years old.
• Vent your problems to people that have spread gossip about you based on what you confided in them at other times.
• Eat your lunch as fast as you can, and don’t allow yourself to enjoy any of it.
• Drink caffeine in large quantities throughout the day and evening hours.
• Complain to yourself every single minute you aren’t able to fall asleep.
• Add several topics to every simple conversation you have. 
• Don’t ever pray.
• Smoke cigarettes or chew tobacco regularly.
• Be critical of yourself anytime you happen to look in a mirror.
• Spend more time trying to motivate yourself than actually doing what you need or want to do.

Now, in case you want some tips for bringing down anxiety and stress levels, here’s the link to the other entry:   http://mentalemotionalhealth.com/2008/02/22/tips-for-decreasing-anxiety/ .