Empathy burnout typically affects a person after they have expended too much of themselves while interacting with others. It refers to the over-giving of oneself without taking the time to replenish. Symptoms often include low energy levels, mental exhaustion, and compassion fatigue. Further empathy burnout can be prevented by maintaining one’s self-care and instilling healthy boundaries with others.
What Is Empathy Burnout?
Empathy burnout develops as a result of ongoing stress, and affects individuals who frequently provide emotional support and guidance to others. Empathy burnout can look and feel similar to compassion fatigue, but there are some differences in symptom length and severity between the two.
While healthcare workers are of the highest risk, caregivers and similar individuals are also known to experience empathy burnout.1, 2 However, whether providing support in a personal or professional environment, frequently caring for the emotional well-being of others and not one’s own can lead to empathy burnout.
Symptoms of Empathy Burnout
Empathy burnout can affect a person physically, mentally, and emotionally. It can leave a person feeling exhausted, almost like they’re in a brain fog. If left unaddressed, regular and persistent empathy burnout may result in medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, anxiety, or depression.3
Symptoms of empathy burnout can ultimately become debilitating for those experiencing the condition. Signs of burnout may be evident in one’s overall demeanor, energy levels, enthusiasm, and ability to stay engaged.4
Symptoms of empathy burnout may include:
- Lack of energy
- Sleep disturbances
- Decline in compassion
- Emotional dysregulation or emotional exhaustion
- Changes in beliefs, values, or view of workplace/world
Causes of Empathy Burnout
There are a variety of factors that can contribute to the onset of empathy burnout. These are mainly linked to the absorption and over-personalization of another person’s emotions. For example, empathy burnout can be caused by living during a time of distressing events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, war, or a mass shooting. With the rise of social media, having constant access to current news at any time can further increase one’s risk of experiencing this condition.
Causes of empathy burnout may include:
- Distressing current events: It can be challenging to find solace from the barrage of disheartening world news and events. A person may easily become overwhelmed after emphasizing for others affected.
- Toxicity in social media: Seeing bad news or events constantly online can leave a person feeling drained after extending their compassion to others in distress.
- Societal demands: Societal expectations for one to maintain a healthy lifestyle, exercise, socialize with friends, and be financially stable–all while remaining supportive of loved ones and a “productive, good” person–is exhausting.
- Increase in responsibilities: Think of this as adding another heaping second serving onto a plate that is already full–taking on additional obligations to please others leaves no space for tending to one’s own needs.
- Feeling guilty about self-care: When a person feels guilty for taking care of themselves instead of others, they allow their own well-being to be overlooked.
10 Ways to Cope With Empathy Burnout
Fortunately, empathy burnout can be prevented by implementing healthy coping strategies and self-care routines into your routine. However, empathy burnout will not solely be cured by “taking a mental health day” every now and again. Understanding how to deal with feeling overwhelmed, prevent emotional burnout, and practice stress management are all important steps to take when addressing symptoms.
Below are 10 tips for coping with empathy burnout:
1. Practice Emotional Self-Care
Practicing emotional self-care is one of the most important things you can do when dealing with empathy burnout. If you are a naturally compassionate and giving person, you are more likely to experience life through an emotional lens rather than a logical one. This is why practicing emotional self-care will help you recover from and better manage empathy burnout moving forward.
There are a variety of ways in which you can practice emotional self-care, and it is essential to find what methods work best for you. This looks a lot like checking in with yourself to see how you are feeling–physically, mentally, and emotionally. Explore what messages your body and mind may be telling you. Perhaps trying a new hobby or taking a break from responsibilities is the only thing you need.
2. Set Healthy Boundaries With Others
Setting healthy boundaries with others is important. Doing so encourages you to honor the limit of how much empathetic load you can handle. Boundaries should be made in both your personal and professional life, and be clear and easy to understand. This way, others will recognize what your limits are and what behaviors are considered “crossing the line.”
As parents and caregivers, setting boundaries may include only allowing visitors at certain times or instilling rules about the parental expectations of the household. Standing up for yourself and your emotional well-being is like keeping a promise to yourself.
3. Try Exercising
Not only does it offer physical benefits, but there are also many mental health benefits of exercise, too. Physical activity can reduce stress levels, which can provide a boost in motivation, energy, and focus. In its own way, exercise is another way to practice emotional and physical self-care, providing a useful tool for coping with empathy burnout.
Chances are, if you are experiencing empathy burnout, you may be thinking to yourself, I don’t have the time for exercise. Simple, short exercises throughout your day can have similar benefits as one, much longer session.5 This may look like stretching, walking, and yoga. Even for people with busy schedules, stretching after first waking up and before bed can help shift them into a state of calm and optimism.
4. Practice Meditation
There are many forms of meditation, but the prime purpose of them all is for a person to remain still and present in the moment. This can help one learn how to better manage their emotions as they arise, rather than become overwhelmed by them.
For example, walking meditations can help you see the beauty of the world that is often overlooked in your day-to-day hustle and bustle. Utilizing loving-kindness meditation focuses on fostering the empathy and compassion you show towards yourself, which in turn can help reduce symptoms of empathy burnout.
5. Practice Daily Gratitude
A daily gratitude practice helps you to see the positives within your day-to-day stressors. This exercise provides you with a sense of hope and appreciation for the people and opportunities you have in your life.
Practicing daily gratitude can, and should be, simple. It may look like naming one thing you are thankful for when you first wake up, or making a short list right before going to sleep. There are other ways to practice, too, such as praying, writing letters, or journaling. The more you are able to practice gratitude, the more automatic and natural it will become.
6. Use Positive Affirmations
Similar to a gratitude practice, using positive affirmations can help shift your overall mindset. These act as a reminder that you are worthy or that everything will work out in your favor. Self-affirmations are intended to be short and sweet, focus on the present moment, and take you from a place of negativity to one more grounded and hopeful.
You can practice affirmations at any point throughout your day. Try listening to a pre-recorded list or making your own of some favorites. Place your list around your environment, such as on mirrors, in your desk, or in your car. Some of the most effective affirmations begin with “I am” as a way to affirm and embody the sentiment.
7. Try Emotional Freedom Tapping
Emotional freedom tapping (EFT) combines positive affirmations and a series of acupressure points, which helps balance your body’s energy frequency. The length of an EFT session varies, and can be done alone or with an EFT practitioner.
Usually EFT starts with one focusing on a particular emotion or stressor. A person will then work to shift the energy around this before moving onto another. EFT encourages one to accept what is currently contributing to their empathy burnout while also instilling a sense of hope, motivation, and empowerment.
8. Start Journaling & Making Lists
Journaling is a great tool to help you write down your worries, rather than bottle them up until they explode. Think of journaling, brain dumping, or making lists as a way to take what you’re thinking internally and putting it on paper. This offers your brain the necessary space to breathe and work through your emotions. You can then take a step back, refocus your energy on things that need fixing, and determine how to move forward in a healthy way.
9. Practice Deep Breathing/Breathwork
One of the most underutilized and simple tools for coping with empathy burnout is to train your breath. There are many ways you can practice breathwork, such as taking slow deep breaths, using guided exercises, or engaging in Wim Hof or Holotropic breathing. Breathwork activates the body’s relaxation response, and encourages you to stop and think before reacting to stress.
Breathwork reduces empathy burnout symptoms as it helps increase oxygen, improve blood flow, and regulate your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. This reduces production of stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine.
10. Establish Your Support System
Leaning on established support systems is important when overcoming empathy burnout. This may take some time, courage, and a lot of trust. A support system does not only mean your family and friends–it can also include any associates, mentors, or professionals who you feel will support you, no matter what. For example, if you are experiencing empathy burnout at work, ask a trusted coworker to help you develop a plan that allows you meet expectations, while also taking care of your mental and emotional health.
When to Seek Professional Help
Seeking support as soon as signs of empathy burnout emerge is recommended, rather than allowing them to be overwhelming. Allowing this condition to go unaddressed or overlooked can increase one’s risk for experiencing worsening symptoms of depression or symptoms of anxiety.
You have many options when finding the right therapist. Whether you choose to explore online therapy options, use an online therapist directory, or ask for recommendations from your doctor or loved ones, help is available to support you through this process.
Therapy options for empathy burnout include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT helps one understand the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Clients will then focus on changing one of the three in order to positively influence and adjust the remaining two.
- Walk-and-talk therapy: A walk-and-talk therapy session can be especially beneficial for addressing symptoms of empathy burnout. The bilateral stimulation that is experienced from walking is similar to that utilized in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), which can help one process emotions that are stored in their body.
- Solution-focused therapy: Solution-focused therapy helps clients identify what causes their empathy burnout and work towards implementing solutions to address triggers.
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy (MBSR): This approach marries Buddhist practices with mental health treatment. MBSR teaches a person coping skills that can help them recover from empathy burnout.
Final Thoughts
Empathy burnout is difficult to overcome, but there are ways to move forward. The most important thing to remember is that you are not alone in this experience–there are many resources available to help you cope. Whether you start the healing process on your own or with the help of a professional, you can find relief and prevent empathy burnout in the future.
For Further Reading
- 11 Best Therapy Podcasts
- 21 Best Mental Health Podcasts
- What Is Caregiver Burnout? – American Heart Association
- Emergency Responders: Tips of taking care of yourself – CDC
- Support for Public Health Workers and Health Professionals – CDC
- How Right Now – CDC
Empathy Burnout Infographics
