Burnout and Stress

In 2024, the American Psychiatric Association conducted their annual poll to determine how Americans are feeling about their mental health, and it was discovered that “43% of adults say they feel more anxious than they did the previous year, up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022.” Fifty-three percent of those polled blamed stress as having the largest negative impact on their mental health.

Battling Burn-out

A recent focus of Dr. Michelle Clinger’s professional career has been assisting others battle burn-out. Dr. Clinger is a Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and the Clinical Director of Firelands Counseling & Recovery Services based in Sandusky, Ohio. Dr. Clinger plunged herself into the research and consulted with some experts in the area of burnout, in her plight to discover the best way to assist others in this regard. What she has come to realize was something that she was already well aware of after working in the behavioral field for over 30 years. “Each and every one of us is ultimately responsible for our own happiness, and unless we personally commit to using good self-care strategies, we are likely to experience some negative impact from the stressors that are upon us today.”

Some commonly recommended stress-reducing strategies are:

• Employing relaxation techniques
• Engaging in fun activities
• Using social supports
• Maintaining positive thinking
• Exercising
• Eating healthy foods
• Utilizing effective problem-solving steps.

What behavioral health professionals are still trying to perfect is how to best convince people to begin incorporating such practices in their everyday lives. “We are creatures of habit and usually we have to face some significant discomfort before we are willing to adopt changes in our lives” indicated Dr. Clinger.

Employ one stress management technique.

Dr. Clinger issued a challenge to those who are currently feeling depleted to attempt to employ just one proven stress management technique for at least 15 minutes every day for a period of a month. “This amount of time will allow you to perfect and get into a rhythm with your chosen technique.” And for individuals feeling satisfactorily currently,” I would encourage you to further build your armory of stress reducing tools by challenging yourself to experiment with a new technique that you have not tried previously.”