Burnout is on the rise in New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images
Burnout is on the rise in New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images
Have things seemed a bit more tense lately?
You may be experiencing the impact of the ‘permacrisis’. Awareness of multiple catastrophes can bring on a sense of ongoing unease or uncertainty about the state of the world and our place in it. Pandemics, climate change, wild weather and economic issues can all lead to a sense of powerlessness and anxiety.
On the latest episode of NZ Herald podcast Ask Me Anything with Paula Bennett, psychologist and author Jacqui Maguire discusses coping with disasters on a personal level and dealing with distress caused by living in a world in permacrisis.
Maguire says that the feelings many are having now are nothing new.
“There [have] been periods of permacrisis forever, but we’re just really acutely feeling it now. People face trauma and uncertainty and challenges all the time.
“I think the difference here in New Zealand is we are personally experiencing some of this uncertainty in an ongoing way. In terms of our last three years, they’ve been bloody hard for a lot of people for many different reasons.
“The human brain hates ambiguity, hates uncertainty. A sense of security and safety is pivotal for good mental health and wellbeing. And that makes sense.”
Clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire.
Feeling this lack of security can be exhausting, and Maguire points to Auckland University of Technology research that suggests that burnout is on the rise.
“The impact on all of us, I think, is when we’ve run out of our stress hormones when we’ve outdone our surge capacity, many people get extremely fatigued and tired.”
Maguire believes it’s important to acknowledge and validate these feelings, rather than trying to push away or ignore them. She points to a researched ratio of positive to negative emotions to help people feel better generally.
“You need three positive emotions to every one negative every day, just to balance out. That’s probably a very crude measure, but it’s repeated pretty regularly in the research. If you’re at work in a team, it’s seven to one. To have a well-functioning team, you need seven positive emotions to every negative.
“And it doesn’t have to be an intense, positive emotion. It just has to be [having] a laugh with someone, or you say thank you to someone, or take time to look up from your screen and acknowledge the barista that’s making you coffee. It’s small things that are really important to our everyday functioning.
Listen to the latest episode of Ask Me Anything with Paula Bennett for more from Jacqui Maguire on how to get through challenging times and learn to live the good life.
Ask Me Anythingis a NZ Herald podcast, hosted by Paula Bennett. New episodes are out every Sunday.
