Stress is a state of imbalance between what you have to do and what you have to do it with.  Burnout occurs only in the person who attempts to achieve balance by stretching physical resources to meet the demands of the stress, especially when the imbalance is great.  The imbalance can be great if there is too much to do, or when there is insecurity of the strength of the resources for doing.  

Burnout can often usher depression or mimic it.  Burnout is the exhaustion of all systems, including the central nervous system.  Therefore, there will be malfunction of neuronal pathways that is common in depression.  The good thing is that it is reversible in recovery.  The bad thing is that, unless the source of imbalance is addressed, recovery may be so delayed that true depression sets in.  Another bad thing is the possibility of being diagnosed as depressed too early and treatment initiated without  clearing the cause.

Depression, or what we see of it when it is established, is a state of mind, a feeling of emotional sadness, emptiness, or distress.  It is the opposite of feeling happy or fulfilled, and a person can be at any position of that spectrum or at either end. Thus, there are many levels at which a person can experience depression and many reasons that this will occur.  We are concerned here, not with the treatment of the severe depressive state, but with examining how depression starts, determining how to stop its progress to the deeper level, and reversing it after it has already been established.

Thus stress, burnout, and depression can be seen as three levels of a progressive (or regressive) state.

As a purely emotional experience, these states cannot be measured physically.  Their existence can only be surmised from the description of the person, and this depends on both the severity of the emotional distress on the one hand and the capability of the person to value or appreciate SELF on the other.  True depression can then be described as the combination of the extreme of these two states, a severe feeling of inner emptiness in a person whose value of SELF is weak, depleted, or disturbed.  When present, it can evoke tremendous physical symptoms of apathy, headaches, or even organic disease to an extent that we can be confused by these and end up treating the effects while leaving the problem unattended.  

It is important, therefore, to know how to restore or strengthen these two factors, emotional fulfilment and the value of SELF if we are to prevent, halt, or reverse the progress of emotional distress to the point of true depression.  And since each feeds into the other, we can succeed at this task by addressing the one on which we can have an effect.   This is the value of SELF or SELF-IMAGE.  Therefore, regardless of how severe is the depression, one thing is certain.  It is the way we see ourselves or feel about ourselves, our SELF-IMAGE, that matters.  

SELF-IMAGE and Stress.

If our SELF-IMAGE is defined by physical attributes like the strength or appearance of our bodies, what we own, what we know, or who knows us, it is natural to lose it when something happens to these assets.  It is also natural for SELF-IMAGE to be as insecure as these attributes are.  On the other hand, if SELF-IMAGE has never been defined or boosted, we can remain empty or simply unable to value SELF.  In either state, stress can easily be evoked whenever there is need to show competence of SELF and difficult to reverse when established.

This can happen when adolescence reveals new challenges, expectations, and issues that can make us feel inadequate. What we have is no longer pertinent; what we feel we need we do not have.  It can happen in a new job, new relationship, or as the result of change in physical health, leaving us feeling ostracized, inadequate, foolish,  and very quickly, emotionally drained.   

Prometheum Institute and Burnout or Depression

Depression that stays too long without the opportunity to define, rebuild and enhance emotional stability can become toxic. Depression that is treated, either with designer drugs that divert attention from the SELF, or prescription drugs that flatten the pain without discovering and building the value of SELF can remain chronic, become more severe, and lead to other physical and psychological problems.  

Burnout is an experience of the highly ambitious person with a weak, fragile, or poorly defined self image.  It can be cured.  But it so mimics depression that it can cause the capable person to be defined as weak or to function with a progressive array of designer drugs that give temporary strength that fails under undue pressure.

Prometheum Institute guides you to focus on how SELF-IMAGE was defined and whether that definition allows you to stay strong as life changes.  It is a way of showing you how to create a definition of SELF that allows logical acceptance and the ability to project SELF with courage, confidence and purpose.  Depression is reduced, not by treating it as an illness, but by building the power of SELF.  Burnout is relegated to its rightful position as a temporary, reversible condition.