Psychology Today: Are You Dealing with Social Burnout?
"What is social burnout? Much like regular burnout, it consists of feeling stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, irritable, and disconnected. It’s describes the feeling that no matter how much we do socially, we can’t keep up and end up feeling drained.
With COVID restrictions lessened, we now have the opportunity to do many of the things we haven't been able to do in a long time: weddings, graduations, birthday parties, trips, concerts, festivals, parades, and so on. That’s a lot of postponed events.
Many of us are now overscheduling ourselves without realizing the ramp-up period we might need to cope with increased social commitments.
The more burnout we experience, the less cognitive flexibility we have, and the more likely we are to go with inertia—which in this case means saying yes to more social events, which makes us feel more exhausted and guilty, which then breeds more burnout. In addition, for some people, the more we engage socially, the less rewarding it can become.
Same with social rewards. The first few events tend to feel great: you chat with new people, you get to know them, you laugh, maybe even you even flirt with someone. But when you have gone to multiple similar events in the same week, it starts to feel draining.
Here are my 3 suggestions, based on strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT):
1. Prioritize.
Write down a list of all your activities and then categorize them into “must go to,” “nice to go to,” and “total stretch.” The goal is to make sure you get to most of the “must go to’s” and the occasional “nice to go to’s.”
2. Put it on the calendar.
3. Set up flexible expectations.
@comfortableNight4463
What an amazing article post! Thank you so much for sharing! And to answer your question, Yes, I have! I'm an introvert and I often feel overwhelmed and I do feel a kind of social burn-out when I'm required to be social for longer periods of time. This often happens at larger family gatherings when celebrating holidays. How I cope with it is to go upstairs and spend time with my kitten for 10 minutes at a time to get a break away from socializing every second when being downstairs in a family and relatives gathering scenario. Other than that I try to choose a table where I know someone likes to talk a lot and I can sit quietly and listen without being at the center of attention. Regarding the need to cancel, it has happened mostly if I'm supposed to attend a social event where I don't know anyone and I get tired just thinking about it.
@professionalVision2624 I relate to this so much. I love escaping social situations for a while to 're-charge'. After that, I get the energy to go back and socialize. If I don't get that break, I tend to sometimes zone out during conversations. Thanks for sharing!
@comfortableNight4463
Yes exactly! I'm happy you could relate to this feeling of "needing to re-charge" after a social situation! Thank you once again for sharing this amazing article! I'm sure this will help people to relate and reflect on what they do if they feel overwhelmed and find new strategies to cope.
@comfortableNight4463
I find myself in the opposite situation. I often have to create social events and gatherings to find myself from burning out from the solitary work that I do at home and at my career, but I totally understand that this burn out sensation comes from the same place.
@sunnyWriting4806 I can relate to this. It's the holidays right now and I have to actively make plans otherwise I would have 0 social interaction. But when the semester starts, I would be completely burnt out socially with all the events our college organizes.
@comfortableNight4463
Opposite problems whether it be in school or out of school. At the end of school I find myself desiring that alone time by myself. Near the end of break I want to go out and have social interaction. Haha!
@sunnyWriting4806 same here. I would be too tired to function at the end of classes. Definitely need a long break then.
