The Burnout Syndrome

Burnout is the final stage of a prolonged state of stress lived by an individual , without possibility of release. A stressful situation that repeats forever, can not be changed and does not give the individual an opportunity for defense against stressful factors will inevitably lead to burnout.
Depletion is characteristic of a person unable to cope successfully with stress,who leads a bad management of stressful situations. This inability is temporary and is related with the perception of the situation. The situation is perceived as threatening, difficult or impossible to control or changed, and living it as a permanent condition of life considerably reduce any possibility of releasing the stress.
Exhaustion can be viewed as an imbalance, perceived by the individual between resources and requirements.
Resources refer to the individual possibilities, namely skill and abilities he has and which ensure him that optimal adaptation to the environment.
Requirements are all factors in the environment to which the individual has a certain responsibility.
Burnout is a state of contradiction between individual and environment, or between individual resources and excessive demands that unbalance adaptive function.
It should be noted that burnout is not synonymous with stress. Stress is a physical or psychological pressure that result from requirements that exceed the resources.
Burnout, however, marks a situation which is in process of deterioration ,coming from a deficient management of stress. It is a response to a chronic situation of prolonged stress, opposite to the occasional reactions to acute stress.