Review:
What Missionaries Need to Know about Burnout and
Depression is a very helpful short
book on the causes and available helps for people facing depression or burnout.
Esther Schubert has for more than ten years had extensive experience in
counseling missionaries and their children, both on the field and in their
homeland. She herself is a child of missionary parents, and lived in various
countries in Asia throughout childhood and high school. She travels to mission
fields several times a year for the mission of psychiatry in the missionary
community. Her book is a must have for people in cross-cultural ministry as
well as for the missionary community.
-M. L. Codman-Wilson, Ph. D., 2/19/2014
Excerpts
Burnout
“Burnout: “a fuel shortage
where one continues to burn the candle at both ends but has run out of the
necessary fuel…Burnout (and eventually depression for me) was a condition born
of good intentions. I fell prey to it for consciously unselfish reasons, though
I believe I was unconsciously driven to reach perfection in my career, as a
wife, as a mother and as a Christian. I pushed myself far too hard, far too
long and I failed to acknowledge my own limitations” (Esther Schubert, What Missionaries Need to Know about Burnout
and Depression, Olive Branch Publications, 1993, pp.1-2).
“Burnout can occur at any
time during missionary service, but first term missionaries may be the most
vulnerable. Statistics suggest that about 15% of first term missionaries bail
out. Many of them have faced the exhaustion of fundraising before coming to the
field. Culture shock often peaks at 8 months into the first term. Language
study may seem to be an unending, unsuccessful effort. The time frame of
burnout is approximately 2-3 years into a new experience” (p. 4).
But burnout is not only a
missionary liability. “Roy Oswald in his article on clergy burnout identifies
the following 16 symptoms:
1. “The tendency to feel negative or cynical about
parishioners
2. Loss of enthusiasm for job
3. Lowered emotional investment in work
4. Fatigue and irritability
5. Cynical and sarcastic humor
6. Increased withdrawal from parishioners
7. Increased rigidity in dealing with parishioners
8. Feelings of isolation and lack of support
9. Frustration in accomplishing tasks
10. Increased feeling of sadness
11. Physical ailments
12. Lowered enjoyments of legitimate sexual activity with
one’s spouse
13. Tendency to blame others for problems
14. Tendency to feel guilty much of the time
15. Feeling of “just hanging on” until retirement
16. Sense of emptiness and depletion” (p. 3).
“Burnout can occur from 2 sources:
1. The first is a ‘system generated burnout’ due to untenable
organizational mission policies, inadequate supervisory personal, inadequate
time off, unrealistic expectations of the mission board.
2. The individual traits of the person involved:
·
Perfectionists
who live with shoulds, oughts and the need to be in control may run on nervous
energy and burn out quickly
·
Workaholics are
often driven to live up to their or other’s unrealistic expectations
·
Oldest children
in a family who need to achieve control
·
Goal oriented
missionaries who are often frustrated in cultures in which these frames are less
important than people skills
·
Other-oriented people’s
need to be liked or admired. They are very sensitive to criticism and may drive
themselves to avoid it.
·
Unresolved
negative emotions such as bitterness (or anger) are sources. Bitterness may
occur due to unmet needs, personal loss or sinful attitudes” (p. 5).
“Friest says that people in
burnout sometimes feel like Garrison Keillor’s Catholic church in rural
Minnesota – Our lady of Perpetual Responsibility. (How about that for a
missionary wife’s job description!) Under the right circumstances, this style –
some people call it the “messiah complex” – produces a condition that he calls “compassion-fatigue”
(p. 6).
“Type-A missionaries display
many of the characteristics of people prone to heart disease. Sehnert lists ten
of these characteristics:
1. Tendency to “over plan”
2. Multiple thoughts and actions
3. Need to win
4. Desire for recognition
5. Always feeling guilty
6. Impatient with delays or interruptions
7. Over-extended
8. Sense of time urgency
9. Excessive competitive drive
10. “Work-aholism”
Type-B missionaries, those
who are addicted to helping, tend to manifest another set of characteristics.
According to Tubesing, they demonstrate the following behavior traits:
1. A willingness always to give emotional support but
seldom to ask or expect it from others
2. A feeling of selfishness when not responding to other
people’s needs
3. Excessive concern not to hurt other people’s feelings
4. Determination to get a job done, no matter what the
cost to oneself
5. A desire to avoid conflict
6. A tendency to say “yes” too much and too often
7. A feeling that one “ought” to be able to help everyone
8. Sometimes, a sense of getting one’s own needs met by
helping others” (pp.
6-7).
Sources of Ministry Stress:
1. “Separations, rootlessness, transitions…Missionary kids
at the time of reentry are ‘invisible internationals,’ they are strangers
caught between two worlds. Their allegiances are many and none and they mostly
have difficulty knowing where ‘home’ is.”
2. Cultural stresses – in adjustment
3. Physical stresses – health, hygiene, climate, danger
4. Spiritual warfare
5. Interpersonal relationship – “Dorothy Gish lists the
inability to confront as the most frequent stressor encountered by missionary personnel.
Pre-field psychological testing listing the MMPI suggests that a significant
number of missionary applicants have a high need for affection which makes it
difficult for them to confront colleagues, missionary or national. Many of these
missionaries also utilize denial or repression as defense mechanisms and have
limited capacity for insight as conflicts develop.
6. Administrative and organizational issues
7. Emotional bruising and old baggage, caused by overly severe
or dysfunctional families, early loss or rejection. Trauma in earlier life will
be reactivated after a stressful life event…In many cases this is manifested in
the exaggerated response to a seemingly insignificant event, but one which symbolizes
earlier traumatic losses
8. False
guilt placed on or by others who label a depressive attitude sin” (pp. 11, 14, 18, 21).
Depression
“Depression is a biochemical
illness which often makes the pain of living more terrible than dying…Crisis intervention
for depression addresses three issues:
1. Immediate prevention of suicide
2. Gradual relief of severe emotional pain
3. Prevention or amelioration of further depressive
episodes” (p. 22).
“There is both endogenous
depression and exogenous depression. Endogenous is depression with a
biochemical base…Chemicals in the body and brain have been deleted resulting in
serious emotional disturbance…Statistics tell us that if victims of unipolar or
bipolar depression are not treated, there is a 15-25% chance they will
eventually commit suicide” (pp. 22-25).
“In exogenous depression, no
meds are needed. Usually the passage of time, support systems and counseling
are adequate…Exogenous depression is a reaction to real or perceived loss of a
loved one, place, possession, pride, self-esteem, job or status. It is caused
by acute external stress” (pp. 22-24).
Prevention
“Burnout and some cases of
depression may be prevented by the following:
1. Learning to “off load” emotionally. This requires
being in touch with one’s own feelings, keeping short accounts (not allowing
grudges and frustrations to build up in personal relationships), and dealing
with issues as they occur
2. Learning to say “no” when one is asked to do more than
is reasonable
3. Being alert to desperate feelings and understanding
the emotional implications of those feelings. It may help to consider a
worst-case scenario in an effort to defuse the subliminal unconscious fears.
This helps the individual confront the “what if” and to acknowledge the adequacy
of God's grace
4. Eating a regular balanced diet
5. Making time for meaningful relationships and
fellowship, keeping the capacity for laughter. Remember “A merry heart doeth
good like a medicine.”
6. Exercise. Missionaries need to schedule time to
exercise on a regular basis, understanding that exercise releases body
chemicals called endorphins which lift the mood and help in depression
prevention
7. Devotional life. Our devotional life compensates for
the fact that many spiritual goals are nebulous. It provides us with the
encouragement and sense of God’s presence in the good times as well as the difficult
ones
8. Paying attention to sleep needs and remembering that God
is more interested in us than in our work. David A. Seamands once commented
that we are not “God’s cosmic pets.” If we abuse our bodies and minds, they
will eventually wear out
9. Maintaining a commitment to the “law of the Sabbath.”
All of creation is geared to one day of rest per week. God set the example at
creation and Jesus continued that in Mark 6:31 when He said “Let us get away
from the crowds and rest.” The consequences of not observing the Sabbath are
catastrophic whether for the individual, the mission, the nation, or a
profession” (pp.
50-51).
“When we as
missionaries begin to see others in terms of what they can do, not who they
are, we deface humanity and damage the missionary community. God’s order is
grace first (relationship) and work second (even His). When we reserve God’s
order we get into trouble” (p. 51).