Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa season is here (thanks to those supporting SHTF Blog by using the Amazon search bar for shopping) and if you’re a SHTF Blog reader not finding joy in the season, it might be a sign you’re on the verge of prepper burnout.
From the Ranger Man Book of Doomsday Definitions:
Prepper Burnout (noun) – the act or process of exhausting mental, physical or emotional energy through intense focus and preparation on/for a collapse in social order, natural disasters, pandemics, economic troubles or other problems that could put an individual’s life or livelihood in danger.
It can happen to the best of us, and anyone following this site from the beginning knows that it happened to me. After updating the site 7 days a week for nearly a year and a half, I found my outlook on the world was changing. I began to see daily life through a TEOTWAWKI lense as I searched for post material and signs The End was upon us. Prepping consumed me and I burned out, sold the site off, took a very long break until I eventually recovered and bought SHTF Blog back, ready to enter the prepper world again in hopes of leading you all toward apocalyptic preparations.
I learned from that experience and now have a healthy balance between preparing for difficult times and enjoying daily life. The two can coexist for the more veteran prepper, but many newcomers are susceptible to prepper burnout. Take Melinda for example, who used to author Prepper’s Home Journal, a blog on prepping. She brought Chad Person’s Underground Bunker to my attention. Want to see her site? It’s gone. The last post I read from her she was asking readers for advice about how to combat prepper burnout. It’s safe to assume the Melinda’s blog treated her the same way SHTF Blog treated me, an intense focus on prepping that corrupts your daily thinking. Melinda was a victim of prepper burnout.
Are YOU on the road to prepper burnout?
You could be on the road to prepper burnout if you:
- Only read news articles that cover bad, negative or pessimistic material and you ignore counter arguments that pose a more encouraging outlook.
- Don’t see the beauty and pleasure in daily life, because your thinking is focused on The End.
- Spend your spare money on securing preparedness goods and spend budget nothing for personal entertainment.
- Visiting preparedness websites on a daily basis puts you in a sour mood.
Prepping is important – don’t burnout!
Ways to combat prepper burnout:
- Recognize that people have been preparing for the end of time since the beginning of time. While doomsday could strike tomorrow, it’s quite unlikely.
- View prepping as a hobby. This has worked well for me since my burnout. Everyone needs a hobby. I could collect stamps, baseball cards, become a television junkie, play video games non-stop OR I could prepare for uncertain times through skills building, gardening, reducing energy needs, etc. Prepping is a practical, worthy hobby. Since seeing prepping as a hobby with real world benefits, I decided to update SHTF Blog 5 times a week, not 7, and I sought the help of Jarhead Survivor so the full weight doesn’t land on my shoulders.
- Find a healthy balance. Prepare for social collapse and social order at the same time. It is wise to spend money on food and water storage in case catastrophe strikes and it is also wise to put money aside for retirement in case it does not.
- Focus initial gear and food purchases on those that have use now, not just under times of trouble. By this I mean, buy items that have a dual purpose, things that you can use now. Nothing is more disheartening than spending a ton of money on an item that only sits on your SHTF shelf waiting for the day it will be needed. You begin to think, “Why did I do that?” If you can use the item now, you’ll find the purchase worthwhile. The same goes with food. Buy foods you eat daily to start, build a backup supply of those foods. You KNOW you’ll eat them, just rotate stock. Add items like freeze dried foods later.
- Take a break. Focus on something else for a while until you have the energy and interest to return.
These are just a few suggestions. Have you suffered prepper burnout and come back again? If so, what worked for you?
– Ranger Man
20 comments
I agree, when I first started I was consumed with getting it done. Then I took a break and started back adding a little at a time. I was suprised at how fast it mounted up, only bought when there was good deals, so I ended with more then I would have had for the same monies. Now I am comfortable with what I do have and it doesn’t seem that hard to add extras.
I think most feel they have to get it done NOW. You must deal with the time you have left to not to hurt your everyday thinking and living. I did and it worked for me.
I do agree that the way it looks time is short. But be careful, get imput from others before you buy or you will purchase useless items. And time and money are wasted.
Good Luck To All
Hmm, I think about these things a little different than other folks. What I mean is that I am not arrbitrairy about what I buy and how I buy. I sort of run on threat assessment and what I am prepping for. This means that some things never stop and require constant ongoing attention(food, water etc) and some things are like art, at some point you have to call it “finished”. These sort of precludes burnout, also, I think a lot of the burned out feeling comes from peoples attitude of preparing for the never ending threat. This is why I structure my preps around threat assessment. For instance, I did very little for several years while things were very good, although there were threats out there, the direct threat to my liberty and well being were very minimall. That being said, I spent most of my time and money on personal training and hobbies(which coincidentaly coincide with my preps at some level). I spent more time on PT, art, martial arts, gun training and target practice, etc….those types of things. When the threat is low, I live large and hone my skills or aquire new ones, when the threat is much higher and of greater concern, I tend to tweek gear, update, buy bulk items(ammo, food, TP, fuel etc) which I use eventually if or when the threat subsides and things normalize. This way, the intensity is only there when the intel indicates the need. Besides, who can get bruned out buying COOL TOYS:)!
Rangerman it looks like with all your resents post you are just copying what Creekmore said months ago. Sad.
Creekmore: Why Aren’t You Meeting Your Survival Goals
Rangerman: Goal Setting to Help Survive When TSHTF
Creekmore: Are you a Survivalist or Prepper?
Rangerman: What is a Survivalist, Prepper and Doomer?
And on and on. I love your blog but you need to stop copying Creekmore and write your own ideas otherwise you just look like a chump.
I’ve read all 4 posts mentioned. What you say is equal to saying that the writer of The Torah copied the writers of The Bible. There’s enough shit in the blogosphere without somebody trying to stir more of it up.
This is an excellent article. I haven’t got to the burnout stage yet, but i can definitely see what you are talking about. It is easy to get carried away with “WHAT IF” scenarios. Thanks for the excellent advise.
Good article! You could also add stop reading Rawles for a few days LOL!!! Just kidding! Keep it coming Rangerman…
Rangerman what happened? Looks like you deleted my last comment, why? It was not threatening and had no curse words or racist remarks. It was only a legitimate question and observation of your recent posts so why would you deleted it? Could it be you are “limiting the conversation” on your blog? Now you would not do that. Would you? Looks like you would.
Fair enough. I restored your comment. But know that if you’re going to just call me names and criticize everything I write, your comments will get deleted. I know you’re a fan of Creekmore, so you’ll be glad to hear me say – I was wrong. Creekmore was right. The conversation should be moderated.
I would have deleted his second comment too. He’s just a troll here and he’s just a troll on Creekmore’s site, too. None of his comments are germane your article or contribute to the discussion. You’re just giving him a platform, delete him and he’ll go away to troll some other site.
I blocked his IP address to start and then he used a proxy server to get through. The comment from “Sam” was posted just a few minutes after his 2nd comment, which (ironically) also came from a proxy server. I’d like to give the guy one more chance, but if I have to delete, I will.
Moderating trollish comments (here/you) and editing to remove legitimate criticisms of the post and/or allowing someone who criticized a post to defend those comments (Creekmore), are two very different things.
WITWCT isn’t that what rangerman (what a dumb name) accused another blogger of? Sounds hypocritical to me.
WITWCT is a friggin luuuuuuuuuunatic! You can keep him around for comedic value, but he/she/it is virtually worthless.
Stupid, inane, goofy comments happened to Creekmore as well.
What about the 1st Amendment? What about it dummies!?! It doesn’t apply here. I say whack the goof when deserved and drive on with a….errrr your mission!
Funny how the critics don’t have their own blogs….hum funny isn’t it Rangerman?
Well, it is, actually, a little bit funny. I chuckled anyway. I’ve dished out shit out before, so I have to take it once in a while.
Trolls trolls trolls….
We don’t all have time to live in and RV and “blog full time.” Hell, if I quit my job for something devoted to the prepper mindset, it would be to participate in sustainable agriculture. That’s right. I’d get into farming. A small herd of cows, some pigs, and a bunch of poultry, along with the crops to feed them and my family (a maybe a couple of other really trusted families, who could barter something in return), along with all the land to support it all (and some woods). I’m thinking in the area of 20 to 50 acres.
Howdy Rangerman,
I’m about as intense a prepper as you will run across and do pretty well at avoiding burnout for a few reasons. After starting prepping 32 years ago after reading Howard Ruff’s Book, “How To Prosper During The Coming Bad Years”, I jumped on the prepper bandwagon bigtime. However, we never became fanatical that the world was ending and we had to hurry every moment. Now that the kids are grown and grandkids running around, they are my motivation to continue prepping. Wife, Starr, and I started a local prep group to be of service in helping others, http://www.bsoscblog.com. The great friendships we have made has helped immensely in averting burnout. We also turned our efforts into a family operated co-op business in a self-reliance preparedness products store, http://www.sosgeneralstore.com. Additionally,
we work at gearing up our other business to respond into either an economic downturn or upturn. Even in SOS, we are doing R&D on building products people will really need in the post-collapse scenario.
We have folks stopping by virtually daily to our shop or store, where we tell them look around and learn, you don’t need to buy squat from us. Just go get the stuff somewhere so you have it or learn how to build some items yourself after watching us show you how. In our BSOSC group, from the git-go, we have emphasized at all these prep meetings that all our learning and doing is the fun of learning from and with each other, certainly never, ever out of fear. On our blog/ forum, the first section gives our historical overview and organization guide which pretty much tells the story of what we are about. Today is the first time I’ve run across your site and must say, kudos to you.
Happy Preparedness Trails,
Jim
I definately burnt out as much from watching the USA continue it’s silliness as much as any thing. A few things that helped me were:
1.Did my inventory and had some surprises mostly good. Let me focus on what I really needed.
2.Stop getting irate over the daily stupidity of the politicians/Wall street. Just sit back and watch the show.
3. I started to look for ways to help others prepare. Started my own blog, built some car survival kits, 3 week food bucket, some extra water on hand for other folks. Much better attitude for me than the average hunt the hobo,shoot the looter mindset.
4. Give to charity. I’m disabled and on a limited income but if I can give to charity I’m not poor!!
Prepper burnout is definitely a needful topic of discussion! I think an additional warning sign is a generally higher level of anxiety than you or your loved ones are comfortable with you having. Anxiety (whether specific or free-floating) is a signal from your mind & body that something is consistently stressing you out, and unfortunately most people tend to ignore it until it flares into actual panic/anxiety attacks or serious physical ailments.
Personally, I just keep an eye on my teenager… when she starts rolling her eyes too often, or makes sarcastic remarks about prepping more than once a day, I know I need to focus on another hobby for a while! ;-)