Burnout in musicians

‘Burnout’ is a term which is often thrown around in conversations and personal anecdotes, and that was how the idea originally emerged. In research, it was first conceptualised in the context of health care and human service workers,¹ then later adapted to other domains including athletes² and academic learning.³ In music, burnout has not yet been studied extensively, but several studies have investigated burnout amongst tertiary music students.^4–6

Note: due to the scarcity of studies on burnout specifically amongst musicians, some of the information below comes from research on sport psychology and it is not yet known how well these findings generalise to musicians.

What are the symptoms of burnout?

Burnout is a syndrome, which means that it describes a set of symptoms rather than the causes. The symptoms are:^2,6

• Exhaustion (both physical and mental)
• Music devaluation (loss of interest/feelings of resentment)⁷
• Reduced sense of accomplishment

What are the consequences of burnout?

Negative consequences associated with burnout include:⁸

• Depressed mood
• Psychological stress
• Negative emotions
• Withdrawal from the activity (i.e. music)

Burnout and depression

Burnout and depression are related and share some similar symptoms. However, they are seen as two different constructs: the main difference is that while burnout is specific to a context, depression extends to one’s whole life.⁹ In support of this, studies have found that burnout measures and depression measures can be clearly distinguished.¹⁰

What are the causes of burnout?

According to the Cognitive-Affective Stress Model,¹¹ burnout essentially comes from chronic stress. There are four stages to burnout:

1. Situation: demands vs resources
2. Cognitive appraisal (how you perceive the situation)
3. Physiological response
4. Behavioural response

1. Situation: demands vs resources

Burnout occurs when there are high demands and insufficient resources. Situational factors which contribute to burnout can include:

• Time demands
• Energy demands
• Insufficient skills
• Low autonomy
• Interpersonal difficulties and low social support

2. Cognitive appraisal (how you perceive the situation)

Burnout occurs when you perceive that the demands outweigh the resources, making you feel overloaded.

Cognitive appraisal involves various elements including:

• Your perception of the demands
• Your perception of the resources available to you to meet the demands
• Your beliefs about the nature and probability of potential consequences
• What those potential consequences mean to you

Feeling overloaded for long periods of time can lead to feelings of helplessness and a sense that you are not in control of the situation. In addition, it can lead to a loss of meaningfulness in what you are doing.

3. Physiological response

The stress from feeling overloaded lead to physiological arousal, which can result in negative consequences including:

• Tension
• Anger
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Illness susceptibility

The physiological response can further fuel the ‘cognitive appraisal’ stage, as these experiences (e.g. fatigue, irritability, etc.) can reinforce the feelings of overload and helplessness.

4. Behaviours

Various behaviours can emerge as a result of the above (situation, cognitive appraisal, and physiological response), including:

• Decreased performance/decreased efficacy
• Withdrawal from the activity
• Interpersonal difficulties
• Lack of flexibility – becoming stuck in routines

The diagram below explains these components using a hypothetical example:

Some sport psychology researchers have argued that chronic stress is necessary but not sufficient to explain burnout. After all, not all stressed people experience burnout.¹² One factor which may contribute to burnout is entrapment.

Entrapment

According to this theory, people who feel entrapped in their activity are more susceptible to burnout.¹² Entrapped people are those who no longer experience satisfaction from the activity but stay for various reasons unrelated to enjoyment.¹³ These reasons include:

• Not having other attractive alternatives
• Feeling that they have already invested too much in the activity to quit
• Social expectations (feeling that others expect them to continue)¹²

Prevalence

Due to the scarcity of studies, it is difficult to accurately give a prevalence rate for burnout among musicians. However, one recent study⁶ which surveyed over 300 conservatoire students in Australia, UK, and Poland found that around 10% of the respondents could be classified as suffering from burnout.

Preventing and managing burnout

Unfortunately, there is currently no research on prevention or management of burnout specifically for musicians. However, there is existing research for burnout in the realms of health care and sports, so here are a few things I’ve gathered from these domains which may be helpful.

Early detection is important so if you start to experience any of the symptoms of burnout, it is important that you talk to someone, whether it be a friend, your teacher, or a mentor. In addition, seek professional help if necessary.

In terms of psychological interventions, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based therapy, and Acceptance Commitment Therapy have been all found to produce positive effects in treating burnout.^8,14

Below are things you can do/think about to prevent and manage burnout yourself:

Learn and use relaxation techniques

As burnout is predominantly stress-related,¹⁵ reducing perceived stress is one of the main ways in which burnout can be prevented and managed. Relaxation techniques are an effective way to reduce stress¹⁶ and have been shown to be effective in lowering burnout levels.¹⁷ Relaxation exercises can include:

• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Deep breathing
• Yoga stretches
• Guided imagery

Build effective coping skills

Coping skills have been found to be negatively linked to burnout levels (i.e. those who have higher coping skills report lower levels of burnout).^7,15,18 Skills which help one cope with stress can include things like time management, having healthy sleeping patterns, maintaining fitness levels, and managing eating habits and nutrition.

Practise mindfulness

Mindfulness is defined as “the awareness that arises out of intentionally attending in an open and discerning way to whatever is arising in the present moment”.^19(p555)  It’s what some people call “being in the moment”. It’s about being aware of what’s going on in each moment, rather than thinking about the future or the past, or being on autopilot and doing things out of habit.

Mindfulness is negatively linked to burnout, and mindfulness-based interventions have been found to be effective in decreasing burnout levels.¹⁴ These interventions often comprise of activities like body scanning, meditation, and attention training.

Pursue music because you want to, not because you feel like to you have to

Enjoyment levels are correlated with burnout, meaning that people who enjoy what they do experience less burnout.² On the other hand, being entrapped in music makes you more susceptible to burnout.

This means that it is important to think about exactly why you are pursuing this path – is it because you love music and enjoy it? Or is it because you feel that others expect you to, or because you see no other alternatives?

Manage perfectionistic concerns

Perfectionism has two dimensions: perfectionist strivings and perfectionist concerns.²⁰ Perfectionist strivings include aspects like setting high standards and aiming for perfection, while perfectionist concerns include fear of making mistakes, fear of negative social evaluation, feeling that they are performing up to their own expectations, and negative reactions to imperfections.²¹

Perfectionist concerns are associated with higher levels of burnout, but perfectionist strivings have been found to be related to lower levels of burnout.²² In fact, some studies suggest that perfectionist strivings could have positive effects on performance.²¹

So try to focus your attention on striving and achieving, while still being self-accepting and kind to yourself. Aim high without beating yourself up if you make a mistake. Think about what you can do to improve, rather than worrying about what others think of you.

Find out more about managing perfectionism.

Social support

Having a support network is important in maintaining mental health and can help prevent burnout. In fact, one study²³ found that perceived support from others was linked to decreased burnout, regardless of actual levels of received support. So simply knowing that someone is there for you can make a difference.

…and most importantly: create a better environment for musicians

Within the sport literature, it is believed that restructuring the sporting environment to better support athletes is the most effective way to prevent and reduce burnout.^24,25 Intervention programmes which work with both individual people and the organisation have been found to be more effective than programmes which only target one or the other.²⁶

Perhaps a parallel can be drawn with the music world. Like athletes, musicians must dedicate intense amounts of time and effort into music, often from a very young age. This can create a unidimensional identity,²⁵ where a musician’s sense of identity and self-worth become reliant on their success as a musician. They are constantly under pressure and stress, often feeling that they are expected to give perfect, flawless performances. In addition, social support can be low as the musical world is a competitive and tough one, and people are often too ashamed to talk about their problems and weaknesses.

Changing the culture in the classical musical world to a more supportive environment would be beneficial, not only in reducing burnout but also improving the general mental wellbeing of musicians. And at Psyc for Musos, that is one of our ultimate goals!