You’re exhausted, you’re snapping at your friends, you’ve lost motivation to get homework done, you are forgetting tests and papers that you wanted to prioritize, you’re becoming more impulsive, you’re only interested in eating junk food, and you’re feeling pretty terrible about yourself, like you’re worthless and things are hopeless.
Does this sound relatable? For college students facing academic burnout, this can be a daily reality. The pressure of college life can become overwhelming, leading to exhaustion, demotivation, anxiety, depression, and more. When you’re not fully prepared to manage new responsibilities, and you aren’t yet able to set firm boundaries with yourself and others around both responsibilities and free time, you can easily burn out.
What contributes to college burnout?
Academic pressure and perfectionism can be overwhelmingly intense
Teens and young adults are facing enormous pressure to perform well in college, at any cost. Getting into the right school, getting the best grades possible, getting the right job in a rapidly changing and unpredictable world, and performing at their highest capacity is considered a matter of course, not an accomplishment. The workloads of college can feel totally overwhelming, especially when doing the best feels like the only option.
Academic pressures can easily lead to perfectionism, where perfection is the only option. Perfectionism can lead to harsh self-criticism, depression and anxiety, and decision paralysis and avoidance. Mental health can suffer, making it hard to function in school and in life. Academic pressure and perfectionism both make it much harder to start projects or to try challenging things, which is the opposite of the goal of college.
Living on your own for the first time can be overwhelming
When college students move out for the first time, they gain access to a level of freedom of choice that can be overwhelming. They also lose access to immediate parental support, and often only have a few, if any, friends to start out.
Having to figure out class schedules, housing, friendships, health care, work, laundry, and more, on your own, all of a sudden, is a lot. When you’re not used to paying attention to your body and mind and figuring out what you need to thrive, all these decisions can end up increasing your burnout. Choosing between studying and parties, drinking and a good night’s sleep, all-nighters and exercise, therapy and thirsty Thursday, etc, can be difficult to navigate, especially when you’re already on the verge of burnout from academic pressure.
DBT for college students can help you find balance and avoid academic burnout
When you’re facing burnout, you know you need to make a change, but you might not be sure what to do. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can help you find a balanced approach to college.
Wise Mind helps you make thoughtful decisions
When you’re on the verge of college burnout, being mindful can help you adjust how you make decisions. Being attuned to your state of being and what’s going on in the present moment can help you know when to say no to things that would increase your risk of burnout (like late-night parties or another extracurricular) and yes to things that will help you maintain balance (like prioritizing your health and getting enough sleep).
DBT introduces you to the concept of the “Wise Mind”, where you bring together your emotion mind and your logic mind to help you make balanced, wise decisions.
Your emotions give you information about what you want and need, and what your values really are, but when your emotional mind takes over, it can quickly push you into impulsive reactions and snap decisions that don’t take into account all the facts of the matter. When you’re burned out, your emotional mind can push you to ignore your responsibilities and even your needs, like sleep. Instead, it can focus solely on fun, or even impulsive, dangerous choices.
Your logical brain is great at finding and using information, and making and executing plans, but it often ignores your emotional mind, so when it takes over, your wants and needs can be neglected. When you’re burned out, your logical brain might say yes to school projects and add more responsibilities to your plate to try to create a sense of control and feed your perfectionism, ignoring your totally reasonable need for rest, fun, and connection.
When you bring together your emotional mind and your logical mind, your Wise Mind can help you find a balanced, middle path between impulsivity and perfectionism. You will be able to spot signs of burnout better and can say yes to both responsibilities and rest in a way that respects your goals and your needs.
Checking the facts de-escalates academic stress
Academic pressure can escalate your emotions and start to bring up negative thoughts and harsh self-judgments that can erode your self-esteem and bring you closer to burnout. DBT’s Check the Facts skill helps you observe and understand your emotions and the thoughts they’re bringing up, checking the facts of the situation, and helping you adjust your mindset in the moment.
To check the facts:
- What feeling are you experiencing that you want to change?
- What prompted this feeling? Use observations and challenge any judgments or assumptions you’re making.
- What are your interpretations, thoughts, and assumptions about the event? What are other points of view?
- Are you assuming a threat? If so, how likely is it to be true?
- Imagine the catastrophe you’re assuming, and imagine yourself successfully coping with it.
- Does your feeling or its intensity fit the facts? Use your Wise Mind to figure this out.
Opposite action helps you both overcome avoidance and rest when stressed
When you know you’re dealing with academic burnout, it can push you to avoid engaging with friends or pursuing new or exciting opportunities. It can also sometimes push you to be reckless and avoid taking care of yourself.
When you know that burnout is pressuring you to avoid things you want to do, or to engage in stressful, irresponsible actions, use Opposite Action. This DBT skill helps you manage your life when your emotions (like shame, stress, and exhaustion from burnout) are pushing you to react.
Instead of skipping class and ignoring your homework, Opposite Action encourages you to attend class and put all your attention into taking notes. Instead of heading out to a party when you know you’re exhausted, Opposite Action has you take a night off from socializing and get some solid rest, so you can have fun later and take care of yourself today. Opposite Action can get you to do the things you know you need to do, even when you don’t really want to.
ABC Please helps you prioritize your wellbeing, keeping academic burnout from running your life
When you’re just starting out in college, and you’re not entirely sure how to take care of yourself without your parents helping you keep track of doctors’ appointments, healthy meals, and decent sleep, it can help to have a simple guide to look to for health and wellbeing priorities.
The ABC Please DBT skill prioritizes emotional regulation through supporting your mental and physical health. It helps you remember to take care of yourself in mind and body, increasing your resilience against burnout.
ABC Please stands for:
- Accumulate positive experiences and emotions
- Build mastery by increasing your skills through learning and practice.
- Cope ahead by rehearsing how you’ll handle challenging situations
- Look out for physical illness and take medications as prescribed.
- Balanced eating can prevent emotional disruptions.
- Avoid mood-altering substances like alcohol or drugs.
- Prioritize high-quality sleep.
- Get exercise to support your mood.
Suffolk DBT can help college students cope with academic burnout
College is exciting and overwhelming, and with support from a DBT program like Suffolk DBT, You can navigate the pressures and opportunities college offers in a way that keeps you from totally burning out. With help from an individual therapist as well as group therapy with peers who get where you’re coming from, you’ll develop DBT skills that help you make thoughtful choices in college. You’ll be better equipped to embrace opportunities, you’ll know when to ask for help, and you’ll be able to manage college life without adding more stress to your life.
If you’re looking for support in handling burnout, connect with us today to get started on feeling like your college life is a life worth living!