Therapy for College Burnout
College can be an exciting time. New friends, new challenges, new experiences. One of those new experiences, unfortunately, can be burnout. That’s not so exciting.
College burnout is the experience of mental exhaustion, physical fatigue, and emotional weariness while (you guessed it) at college.
Symptoms of burnout include:
- Helplessness
- Hopelessness
- Irritability
- Cynicism
- Emotional numbness
- Performance difficulties
- Sleep impairment (Khammissa et al., 2022)
College is a unique experience — being a college student is not like being an employee somewhere, despite how often people like to make that comparison. And it certainly isn’t like high school, where a 17-year-old still has to ask to use the bathroom. College is kind of its own thing. And because college itself is unique, college burnout is also unique. That is, it results from circumstances often unique to college life itself.
Often, causes of college burnout overlap. These things don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re interconnected. Still, it helps to look at some of the more common individual barriers.
Academic workload
Academic workload is probably the most common cause of burnout that I hear. Academics, after all, are really what college is all about. College students are often fully aware that as opposed to high school — even AP classes — college academics are going to be a step (or three) up in difficulty. You know that. But college students are often surprised to learn what the increased academic demand actually feels like. When midterms or finals hit and you have five exams in a matter of a few days. When one professor gives you weekly homework assignments while another gives you no assignments but the major exams, so, you put your effort into the homework and then realize you are underprepared for the all-or-nothing final.
The daily grind
Sleep habits. Diet. Exercise. Laundry. You may be finding that as the semester progresses, these things start to slide. You had been getting eight hours of sleep. You’ve you’re telling yourself that six is fine. You had been making it a point to eat whole foods, fruits, veggies. Now you mostly just content yourself with microwavable meals or fast food. You had been going to the gym twice a week. Now you’re just too busy. Your room used to be orderly. Now there are clothes all over the place.
Social life
There are as many different college social experiences as there are college students. Maybe you’re burnt out because between study groups, social clubs, and dorm life you’ve got too many social obligations. You’re spread too thin socially, and that’s part of the problem. Maybe a big part of your burnout is that you don’t have enough social support. You’re trying to juggle a heavy academic caseload and other responsibilities more-or-less on your own. Either extreme can be problematic.
When the “real world” strikes
College can provide a sort of insulation from “real world” concerns, where students can focus on academics free of the hustle-and-bustle of larger society. Often, that’s more of an illusion than a reality. The “real world” has its way of finding us. Maybe there’s a health issue in your family that has you worrying into the night. Maybe you’re stressed about finances, regardless of how many times you’ve been told the price of your education will be “worth it.” Maybe you’re working while going to school and just can’t find the time to do the things you know you need to do to be successful. The drip-drip-drip of these real-world issues on top of a demanding academic courseload can simply be too much. You sit down to study, but you can’t focus. Or, you can’t bring yourself to put down the phone to open your textbook at all.
How therapy can help
If you recognize yourself in the above, know that you are not alone. Burnout can happen to anyone. In fact, it happens to a lot of people. The good news is that you can recover from it. I am trained in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which is a well-attested treatment model for burnout. Typically, therapy for burnout progresses through a few stages: first, we work to understand what is causing your burnout, both the external stresses (e.g. academics, financial obligations, etc) and internal factors (how you are responding to these stresses. Then we take a look at self-care strategies that can help you cope with the stresses: sleep habits, diet, exercise habits, social needs. Then if necessary we move on to addressing environmental factors: what structural changes might be worth making? This might include exploring whether changing the intensity of your courseload or workload is worth considering, or scaling down (or up) your social commitments.
Why me?
Why work with me, as opposed to another therapist out there? I have a passion for helping others reignite their passions. For me, there is no more rewarding moment in my professional work than when I see that spark in a client’s eye that comes from rediscovering their joy. I have the training and the experience to help you get there. When I was in graduate school, I interned at my university’s counseling center. I was able to learn about the challenges of college life that extended far beyond my own lived experiences. Everyone is walking their own path, even if, from the outside, it may not look that way. I’d love to help you walk yours.