Burnout
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Definition
Burnout is what happens when you do too many kink activities that you end up completely drained. The constant highs and crashes can wear you down and make you not want to participate anymore.
Explanation
Discovering kink is a really exciting time. There are so many classes, events, and kinks to discover and try out, and of course you are going to want to try them all. People often get so excited that they will try to try them all, and in the shortest time span they can.
When you try to go to every class, every event, and try every kink all at once you will end up giving yourself burnout. Without pacing yourself and allowing time to recover, especially with drop in the mix, the constant highs from playing and crashes from drop can wear you down and steal the joy from what should have been beautiful first experiences.
You can still get burnout when you are not new, and have been in the scene for a while, you get a special kind of burnout from going to conventions, and you can get it even as an experienced person running events. If you get burnout as an organizer or leader of some sort, then that can affect the community at large.
Pace yourself
You only get one first time to experience all of these amazing things. Take baby steps and the time to really enjoy them rather than blasting through all of the unique experiences you are going to have. If you have seen the movie Click, don’t fast forward through this.
I highly recommend not to combine kinks for the first time trying them. You don’t know how you will react to either, and you should enjoy each by itself first. It could be overwhelming and too much to try two new things at once. The more you rush through, the less effort is going into each, and you may miss an important safety factor. You could end up getting seriously hurt by not having patience.
As an organizer or leader, you will need to be able to pace yourselves, too. Know when to delegate, and ask for help when you should. If you can get help to spread task loads of running events, it will help keep you from burning out, and you will be able to run them for longer.
I cannot stress pacing yourself enough, at all experience levels.
Vanilla is important
Don't forget about vanilla life. It is important, too. Building and/or maintaining your career, connecting with family [blood or chosen], your lifelong friends, your home life, your finances, and your pets are all important. Don’t get so swept up in so much kink that you forget about everything that has been important to you up until that point. Try to maintain a healthy balance between life and hobby activities.
Homework
Do something you have been neglecting. Whatever that may be for you, be it hanging out with your family, going on a hike, painting, going to dinner with friends, house work, taking the dog to the park, or reading a book.
