March 31, 2025
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WMUL-FM) — As spring break has come and gone, the crucial finals week is approaching quickly. With that, stress and burnout comes at an all time high.
During the Stress SOS: Staying the Course virtual event on March 27 at 1pm, mental health specialist Ashley Coon, MA, presented a slideshow, which included how burnout can occur and how to manage it.
Coon described burnout as “a state of mental, emotional and physical exhaustion brought on by repeated or prolonged stress.”
Some signs of burnout can include fatigue, lack of motivation, isolation and physical symptoms like headaches. Risk factors can involve things like feeling overwhelmed with assignments, spending excess amounts of time on work or school-related things and a lack of support from family, friends or peers.
Coon spoke about how stress levels can vary depending on things such as exams, big projects and other life responsibilities. “Stress is inevitable, it’s not something that we can avoid, but it is something that we can cope with and manage and that’s what really makes the difference,” she said.
Coon emphasized the importance of evaluating and identifying that someone is burnt out is very important.
“I think we start with evaluation and identification,” she said. “I think, with most mental health concerns that we face, it’s a lot easier to face something when you know what you’re dealing with and when you know where you’re at.”
She suggested sitting down and creating a list of the responsibilities and assignments that are coming up and scheduling time to do those tasks, while also taking time for yourself.
“Maybe for you, on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, just sitting down and saying ‘OK, here’s everything that I have coming up, here’s my daily and weekly responsibilities,” she said. “How am I going to structure my time and plan for my week in a way to where I can hit those priorities and still be able to be a human?’”
She also stressed the importance of understanding why you’re doing this work in the first place. “Just having reminders of what we’re working towards can be super helpful to keep us moving forward,” Coon said.
Coon then spoke on how crucial it is to ask for help when needed. She also said that hyper independence can lead to “worsened stress or burnout”.
“Relying on others is super important to help take some of that weight and stress off of us,” she said.