Most people lack understanding of "professional exhaustion", nor do they have ability to handle it at times when the profession exhaustion has become an epidemic, Prof. Zhao Yan with Beijing Normal University expressed her worries at the "international psychology conference".

The "professional exhaustion" means a state of fatigue both physically and psychotically under big working pressure. In 1961, a novel named "cases of exhaustion" caused a great stir in American public. The book told a story of an architect, who fled to African jungles after losing enthusiasm and ideal under extreme fatigue. Since then the word "exhaustion" came into people's attention. "Such things happen more and more frequently in our lives. The Chinese society has entered a period when profession exhaustion take place more and more frequently."

Foreign researchers have carried out studies for profession exhaustion since 1970s, but the Chinese scholars haven't paid attention to the common phenomenon in the world till the end of the 20th century.

Not long ago, the Anzhen Hospital in Beijing released a survey done among 700, 000 people in 10 years, according to which, the occurrence of cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral embolism rise 136 percent and 220 percent in males and females under 35 years; the occurrence of the acute coronary heart disease rises 50 percent among males from 45 to 49, and females from 55 to 59 years old see a rise of 32 percent. At the same time, the psychological health becomes a more and more significant problem in the young people.

Prof. Xu still remembers a report that was done a few years ago. It says the intellectuals at Zhongguancun, Beijing die at 53.34 years old on average. Their life span is 5.18 years shorter than 10 years ago.

The people whose profession is to offer assistance to others, those who deveote to their work, people work under high pressure and those who underestimate themselves are prone to profession exhaustion. As survey shows, psychiatrists are the group that is most easily to suffer from professional exhaustion, accounting for 40 percent of all patients. Teachers come after psychiatrists. The journalists, police and medical workers are on the list of the people who easily suffer from profession exhaustion.

Prof. Xu gets worried when talking about the harm of profession exhaustion. The profession exhaustion will lead to bad working performance, loss of professional ethics. Moreover it will likely to cause family crisis. When talking about intensive pressure o individual's influence, Prof. Xu says people can better adapt themselves to society by adjusting their state although social development is not controllable by individual's effort.
 
(People's Daily  August 17, 2004)