Social and emotional fatigue: very little is said

This text first appeared here brigitte.de.

Most people have understood and accepted that we should sleep when we are tired – and also when we are not tired. Sleep is used to regenerate, process what we go through when we are awake, recover and much more. It also offers us a change from the waking experience. Yes, our time is limited, but getting enough sleep is not a waste of time, on the contrary.

But what do we do when we sleep well and sleep enough and our fatigue still does not go away? Or if our tiredness does not allow us to sleep properly? Both can happen, because sleep is not the answer to all forms of fatigue. Therefore, it is important to know exactly what we are tired of and in what way, so that we can choose the right rest and rejuvenation. The following types of fatigue are particularly common and prevalent in our society – and they do not always get enough attention.

1. Empathy fatigue

Putting yourself in the shoes of others, feeling for them or for them – great skills that are useful mainly to us. But sometimes we underestimate how much sympathy for power can cost us. We can’t empathize with the entire world, so we have no choice but to dose our sympathy and reserve it for the people we really care about and who respond to us – including ourselves.

2. Matching stress

As a part of society, we enjoy many advantages and certainties, and in return, we adhere to certain rules and expectations. However, sometimes, imbalance can creep into this relationship and joining in can become too much for us and drain us. When we suppress too many or too important our individual interests and needs for too long or put them in line to do what is required of us. In order to recover from this type of fatigue, it can be helpful to clarify our priorities in life and, if necessary, take some actions to give them more space. We have to demand or fight for some basic freedoms for us, even if we have to give up security or privileges to do so. Because just lining up all the time and participating in everything without exception can make you tired in the long run.

3. Auxiliary fatigue

Helping others essentially gives us strength and a sense of purpose – if it does not go beyond our individual tolerance. People who care for relatives or are there for friends in need know how much energy it can take to care for others more intensely. How much it requires of us and how stressful it can be. We need breaks from help, help while helping, and some form of appreciation or thanksgiving to help us recover from helper stress – here too, just sleep is not enough.

4. Emotional exhaustion

Emotional exhaustion usually occurs when we feel an emotion either particularly intensely or for a particularly long time. We usually perceive them as a kind of emptiness, lack of joy, drive, indifference and indifference. For example, experiencing a major loss that saddens us deeply, or being in a state of fear or frustration (or happiness, because we can get tired of that too) for an extended period of time can generally make us boring and unemotional about everything – because we are emotionally exhausted. We need diversity, too in our emotional world. In any case, to get out of a state of emotional exhaustion, it is good to know the cause of our emotional state. Sometimes we can do something about it, and sometimes we can’t help but learn to accept it and deal with it. As a second step, it is often helpful to find projects that we enjoy or that mean something to gradually relieve emotional exhaustion.

5. Mental exhaustion

Mental fatigue often leads to insomnia because it can lead to rumination and difficulty dropping out. Mental exhaustion is usually due to the fact that we have a predominance of mental activities in our lives (mental work, dealing with information and news, virtual contacts and the like) and a lack of experience of existence (you can learn more in our article “Signs of a lack of presence”). To recover from mental exhaustion, we can, for example, exercise (preferably with other people), go to a rock concert, cuddle our dog, or meet friends often. And: Reducing our time on cell phones, laptops, televisions, and the like.

6. Social fatigue

We are social beings and we need closeness, connections and relationships with one another. But most people also need time for themselves, some need less, and some need more. Social exhaustion can arise when we spend too much time with other people to fulfill our personal needs, when we have too many relationships, or when we orient ourselves too much to others. A person can feel himself in different ways: feeling lonely, feeling dissatisfied, feeling motivated, overwhelmed, or needing to be alone. We can treat social exhaustion by organizing and prioritizing our relationships and planning our social lives so that they don’t overwhelm us.

7. Physical fatigue

Sure, when you’re physically tired, sleep usually helps – but sometimes more is needed. There is a certain tendency in our society to see our bodies as a shell of what is important (such as our feelings, thoughts, goals, and accomplishments) that we need to maintain our health, but with the right tools we can shape and shape it, as we like it. But this is not true. Our body is the source of everything that is important to us. Our body is not just a part of us, we our bodies or our bodies are involved in everything we do and feel. We need breaks, fats, we need saturation, we need touch and we can’t work on improving us every day and allowing our smartwatch to guide and motivate us to achieve our activity goals. We often recover from physical fatigue not just by sleeping, but by paying attention to all our bodily cues and learning to respond.

8. Fatigue in pursuit of a goal

Whatever our goals – overcoming depression, pursuing a career, becoming more organized, having a happy relationship – constantly striving to achieve them can be tiring. Always keeping the same goals in mind is a monotonous prospect, and monotony wears you out over time. Taking breaks along the way to look around and do other things, maybe turn into a side street even if we turn back, or just standing still or lying down and accepting that can help counteract the kind of fatigue that we don’t progress as well or as quickly as we would like .

Sources used: multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com

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