The term burnout is being used a lot lately. I tried to explain it to a friend who I felt was reaching a point of burning out, and they couldn’t comprehend when I told them that I experience it from time to time, their response was someone like you wouldn’t experience that. It got me thinking a lot about it and the understanding people have of mental health professionals, as if we have a super power towards certain things.
The World Health Organisation explains that “Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”
https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/ (accessed 11/3/2020)
The age of millennial’s brought about people wanting everything and wanting it all now. While I sat in a meeting a couple of years ago, staff were told that at present we are short staffed so don’t take a sick day. Employees aren’t trusted and valued that feel pressured if they are sick they have to work, taking them longer to heal, making others sick and not being as productive as they could be. Then there is the fear that if I do take time off someone will get that promotion before me, or I may lose my job. This alone can add to a persons stress levels and chances of burn out before even looking at the expectations to achieve so much with tasks etc within your job.
Society is expecting people to be robots and do everything perfect while taking everything they have. Although the world health organisation says burn-out should not be applied to other experiences in our lives, I believe it is another factor. Being a counsellor I work with a lot of difficult cases of abuse, neglect and mental health issues, it is my job to listen and support the people I work with and I need the 30 minutes drive home after work and the time I spend with my nephews to take me away from what I am told, but we are human and I can’t be empathetic with out taking on some of that persons emotions, some cases for whatever reasons are harder to deal with than others but each add up together. With this there is days I amn’t always myself and I don’t want to talk to anyone once my work day is over and it can and does effect relationships at times with others. I can clearly see this in myself who deals effectively with my self care and knows some days I need some quiet ‘me’ time, so I can only imagine how someone on the brink of burnout or going through it and doesn’t understand may feel and how it may effect their personal life.
I believe with the way we live our lives now a days there is the potential for ‘life burnout’.
So, how can we recognise and deal with burnout?
According to psychology today, burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to:
1. Physical and emotional exhaustion
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Poor concentration and remembering information
- Anger
- Physical illnesses eg headaches, stomach aches
- Loss of appetite
2. Cynicism and detachment
- Loss of enjoyment
- Isolation
3.Feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment
- Lack of motivation
It is important to identify when you are reaching burn out as most of us will recognise it but don’t do anything until we have reached complete burn out. This is the first point to help deal with it. We all live busy lives and can get caught up in everything that ‘has’ to be done now, but take some time every day to do something for you, even if it is only five minutes to sit and drink a cup of tea. Remember what gave you joy before and do it for an hour once a week, if it is drawing, dancing, singing, baking, reading but something that doesn’t involve screen time, if you can’t think of anything try new things until you find something that fits with you.
Spend time with others, have conversations about other things that are going on other than just focusing on work.
Avoid or limit alcohol, going through a period of burn out can lower your mental health and well being and can bring up dependencies on alcohol, food or other drugs.
Make sure to get a good nights sleep, you may feel more tired than normal, your mental body is working harder at these times so it needs rest.
Talk to someone, be it a counsellor, therapist, support group or a trusty friend about what you are going through. If you don’t feel ready for this yet, keep a journal to help process your thoughts and feelings.
Most importantly, give yourself time, burnout doesn’t happen over night and neither does the recovery. There may be more things you can think of that are or have happened to you during a burnout and ways that you have found to cope, we are all different and many things will work for different people, depends on the person and the situation they are in. Just remember to take care of yourself, first!, you will get there.
