The Teenager's Guide to Burnout: Finding the Road to Recovery

by Eliza Fricker, Eliza Fricker

An essential guide for all teenagers experiencing stress and burnout

Does any of this sound like you?
- Lacking in energy and feeling that your life has lost its sparkle
- Feeling like you can't ever quite relax
- Unable to sleep despite being exhausted all the time
- Finding that you don't really enjoy anything anymore, even things you used to love
- Feeling that everyone is irritating and no one understands
- Finding going to school really hard or not possible at all anymore

Then this book might help.

These are signs that you are experiencing burnout − your battery has taken a battering and you are running on empty. Many people think burnout only happens to adults, but it's something lots of teenagers experience too.

This book will help you to understand what burnout is, how you got there and what you can do to get back to a life you enjoy.

We've written it to help you work out if you might be burnt out, and if so, what you can do about it. It will help you identify some of the ways that you might be getting stuck when you're trying to get better. You'll get some ideas as to what is and isn't helping. And if you decide that you aren't really burnt out but you're heading that way, this book has some ideas to stop it from happening in the future.

Co-written by expert clinical psychologist Dr Naomi Fisher, who has helped many teenagers deal with the stresses and pressures of school and life, and by bestselling author and illustrator Eliza Fricker.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Autistic Spectrum Disorder

214 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 5, 2024

Reviews

[Emily Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Most books for teenagers who are distressed by or not attending school focus on how to get them back into school. There is often the assumption that if a teenager returns to school, this will be their route to emotional wellbeing and future happiness...this book is different. It puts mental health and emotional wellbeing first. It encourages teenagers to think about themselves and the things they need in life to be happy – and to ask themselves whether school provides that.’
 
‘A Teenager’s Guide to Burnout’ will certainly help some young people to feel seen and validated and will be a comforting guide on their path to recovery. The book is more about school burnout and school distress rather than burnout in general – it focuses a lot on the school environment causing burnout, which is certainly the case for some teenagers, but not for all (I’d have liked there to be acknowledgement of other factors e.g. young carers, physical health causes such as vitamin deficiencies affecting lethargy etc). I understand why this book has taken the approach that it has – there is so much pressure on young people struggling with school attendance and school distress to feel they need to get back to school. I was one of those children, broken by my school experiences and the environment around me, so it is refreshing to see this take a different perspective.
 
However, I do wish there had been more nuance in the book. For example, more thought around adjustments that could help them to manage the school day, how some do return to school and feel happy after burnout, and the ways in which school benefits some young people. I would like to have seen an example of a young person struggling with burnout where, when adjustments were implemented at school, they felt happier – as was the case for me. Whilst it is so important to know that school should not be the only way to gain an education, I do wish the book had acknowledged how school environments can benefit some young people – for example, those who don’t feel safe at home, those who don’t have the support of parents or opportunities provided to them at home. Schools can enable some children to access opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access, particularly those where parents are not supportive or encouraging in helping them to gain opportunities outside of school.
 
Overall, I think this book will be beneficial and comforting for certain young people, but less suitable for others. I do think it is wonderful to have a book providing a different perspective and acknowledging the trauma school can cause. It is also written in a really easy to understand way and Eliza Fricker’s illustrations are wonderful as always.

[lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

my mum got this book for me, and i'd kind of been procrastinating reading it for a while because i'm always a bit sceptical of self help books, but this was so helpful. it basically described my situation exactly, and i felt extremely validated in what i've experienced for a very long time, and what i'm in a crisis of at the moment.

it will definitely help me going forward, and has been a really interesting read. knowing that other people have experienced this and that they've got through is really encouraging, and knowing different strategies to help get through it will really turn things around for me i think.

burnout really is a struggle, and this book was a really good representation of what it is like to experience burnout. thanks mum for the recommendation i guess!

[Denise Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

For teenagers who feel unable to cope in a mainstream school, this confirms that it is the system that is broken, not them. The message is, the school environment is not right for you, therefore you shouldn’t go. Whilst this will be true for a surprising number of teenagers, it’s not the case for everyone and some young people might just need a break, or might need to ask school to make some reasonable adjustments. This book paints a more black and white picture.

As SENCO in a secondary school, I work with a number of students who are facing burnout and feel unable to attend. What would have been helpful, would be some advice on how to spot the signs before burnout occurs, and how the school can support students to return, if they and parents want that for them. School is portrayed as the “bad guys” but I would have liked to hear some suggestions about how we can (realistically) change the system so less young people face burnout.

This book will definitely help teenagers feel better about why they feel so “broken” and encourages them not to worry about school or education while they’re in that situation.

[CP · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. Whilst it is written for a teenager the authors also have their supportive-adults in mind too, creating a specific guide at the back for them (although the adult would also benefit from reading the whole thing in my opinion). It has metaphors and techniques that I recognise from therapy, and as a psychologist this is the book I've been recommending to friends, family and clients when their teen is showing any signs of finding life and school intense. Naomi's words are already very engaging but Eliza's excellent illustrations elevate it even further.

[Natalie Cichy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic collaboration with this easily digestible, yet really detailed, nuanced depiction of burnout—at its most basic and complex. The analogies and sketches work so well together, that it was tabbed and bookmarked, highlighted and referenced several times over in our home — read by multiple generations on an ongoing basis. I wish Fisher and Fricker would go one step further and make a colour version, breaking down the text even more and appealing to the visual learner.

[Mike Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

The general premise of this book is what we already know... the school system is broken and damaging our children. It's very black and white though; no advice on how to work with the system, only advice on the benefits of education outside of school.
Some areas provoke thought, hence a couple of stars.

[Carys Waters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this really useful, informative, and thought provoking. 4 stars.

[Diletta Ponchielli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book, really eye opening and so helpful. 5 stars for me!