Battling Burnout : Hot Line Help for Those Whose Lives Are Starting to Smolder

Pictures of people on the streets of the Far East peer from the walls in the office of Dr. Murray Rosenthal, a psychiatrist who understands burnout. The emotion describing the looks on the faces of those people is serenity.

Serenity may be the antithesis of burnout.

It may be a crude oversimplification to say that Eastern societies are inherently serene while Western cultures are increasingly prone to burnout, but Rosenthal fears the trend is pointing in that direction.

He sees dozens of clients, from young to middle-aged, who complain more and more of burnout. So, with the help of clinical psychologist Thomas Ward-McKinlay, Rosenthal has started a burnout “hot line”--571-1927--for Type A personalities who feel the heat from stress and overwork.

Joe (a Rosenthal client, who asked that his last name not be published) could be the poster boy for National Burnout Month. For years, he’s worked 12- to 14-hour days to keep pace with the growth of a small business. He started the business to escape the rigors of a major corporation.

‘Slumping Attitude’

Six months ago, Joe didn’t have the following worries--four new employees, higher overhead, twice the number of clients and beefier office space. His wife is grumpy over what she assesses as Joe’s “slumping attitude,” not to mention diminished interest in sex.

Business associates question his attentiveness. Old friends are figures from the past. He no longer goes to the gym, and the body shows it. Golf is an exercise in memory. Even Joe can see he’s troubled.

Apathetic. Depressed. Distracted.

Rosenthal, 44, often sees clients who seem to be “making it” professionally, who suddenly hear spouses complain of isolation and abandonment. He sees tortured people trying frantically to keep pace with an affluent but empty life style. They work full-throttle to acquire as many possessions--”stuff,” Rosenthal calls it--as their high-priced homes can hold.

Somewhere along the way, they stopped smelling the roses, Rosenthal said, and lost the meaning of life.

“When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember that the purpose was to drain the swamp,” he added. “The key is to recognize the limits of what we can do, and to remember life’s priorities, such as people we love.

“When time is a limited commodity, it’s easier to focus on what’s important. That’s why terminally ill patients I’ve worked with have a clearer sense of focus. A new car, an addition on a home--it means nothing to them. What’s important is relationships . . . love. They had a focus defined for them.”

Increasing Factor in Modern Life

Rosenthal said burnout is increasingly a factor in modern life. Common sense and Western culture work at cross purposes, he said. The body and mind tell us to slow down, take it easy, but the media--in particular, advertising--gear us toward compulsive consumption.

The federal deficit may provide a focus for us, he said. As the debt continues to balloon, taxpayers may have to stop spending so much just to bail out the government.

In the meantime, burnout, which he calls primarily an urban phenomenon, continues its stranglehold. He sees it in nurses, doctors, teachers, social workers, even housewives. You don’t have to be a professional to suffer its consequences, he said.

Rosenthal fears burnout for the sense of isolation and helplessness it engenders in victims.

“It isn’t hard work that kills you,” he said. “It’s when you’re pouring out energy and feeling that it just doesn’t matter. It’s the helplessness, the futility that burns you out.”

The standard response of most victims, Rosenthal said, is to put the throttle to the floor and work even harder, rather than sit back and say, “Hey, this isn’t working.”

“The patterns don’t change,” he said, “unless you change what’s going on inside.”

Rosenthal has discovered what he calls myths:

- You don’t have to live in Southern California to be successful, emotionally or financially. He’s had a number of clients who have moved east--one man to Chapel Hill, N.C.--and report being much happier. They find the life style more relaxed and find the dollar traveling farther, faster.

- Dropping out is not always a bad idea, he said. He knows bankers, real estate brokers, lawyers and doctors who surrendered

white-collar incomes to live on the water in used sailboats. Letting go was their way of taking hold, he said.

Twelve-step programs, inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous, talk of the need for spiritual focus, which doesn’t mean religion, Rosenthal said. He’s a believer in 12-Step efforts for helping to “center” otherwise helpless people. Overwork is, he said, no different from drug abuse or drinking, overeating or overspending.

Burnout troubles Rosenthal, partly because--in his view--divorce is often a byproduct.

“A man becomes successful, and then his wife leaves him. He doesn’t know why,” Rosenthal said. “It’s because, when they were growing and building, he made her a part of the struggle. They were a team working together. Now, that’s stopped. Somewhere along the way, they forgot what was important.”