Americans Suffering From New Holiday Syndrome

While the holidays can help teach us the importance of teaching, there is such a thing as giving too much. The human-giver syndrome, as dubbed by Amelia and Emily Nagowski in their book, burnout, is a subset of burnout commonly experienced by those who spend a lot of their time catering to their family and friends without ever resting.

You might be wondering how it is possible that people might begin to suffer from burnout because of giving too much. In most cases, the problem is not so much with the giving, but more so with the constant need to help those close to you handle all of their stress.

The human giver will also find a number of activities to preoccupy their time with, including organizing donations at their child’s school, Christmas shopping for the entire family, planning elaborate meals, and in general, going out of their way to do everything they can for everyone around them. In order to avoid this holiday burnout what you might want to do is try and apply the following things.

Make sure that you are not only giving but also taking

Many relationships in this world can feel one-sided. If you find yourself in one of these relationships then what you ought to try is to openly communicate with others how they might be able to help you and offer back to you.

Learn How much you can do

A key part of giving is ensuring that you have the energy to carry out all of the tasks you have taken on to the fullest extent. Oftentimes, this can also mean just making yourself unavailable at times. No one is going to judge you for not being able to do everything, so it’s time to start saying no and focusing on the things you can actually give.

Remember it is not a competition

One of the simplest ways of combating this syndrome is understanding that things are not competition. Instead of feeling like you have to one-up those around you, you might instead want to focus on celebrating them and their successes.