1. ARE YOU IN BURNOUT?

(Select Only 1 of the 5 Stages Listed Below)

Stage one is “exaggerated enthusiasm.” This is the rose-colored-glasses moment in a relationship or a place of employment when we cannot see or imagine anything but unbridled bliss. Life is good, work is good and we are constantly getting better.
Stage two is “stagnation.” This is the moment when reality thumps us right between the eyes. The person we love does have bad breath in the morning and our company has just raised the co-pay again.
Stage three is “frustration.” (my term is anger). In this stage we start flirting with betrayal. We thought we were promised something and a person or organization brazenly walked all over the commitment. Please note: the betrayal is not about a “mistake,” the betrayal is all about a flagrant violation of trust.
Stage four is the worst stage of burnout. It is called “apathy.” This is when someone just starts “showing up” for an intimate relationship or job. The body is there, but the passion took off a long time ago. The person is “stuck” without a remedy.
Stage five is called “intervention” and has two possibilities. First, the burned out person can make a radical change to improve his/her damaged life. This choice may include therapy from a trained professional, a career shift or a month to stare at ocean waves pounding out a cadence of promise. Second, burned out people can take the easiest and most destructive path: trait anger. This is when someone becomes a seething person who has an angry response to another sunrise, the laughter of children and especially the holidays. These people believe life has been incredibly victimizing and the only recourse is to maintain a mantle of anger so he/she is not hurt again.
The above definition can be found in Burnout: Stages of Disillusionment in the Helping Professions by Edelvich and Brodsky. This book may be helpful to you.