What is burnout? | Signs, symptoms, and coping strategies
Burnout can occur at work or at home and differs in severity from person to person. When burnout strikes it can be debilitating and leave us unable to concentrate, work effectively, take part in activities we previously enjoyed, or manage and maintain a basic self-care routine.
What does ‘burnout’ mean?
We all get stressed from time to time depending on what we’ve got going on, but burnout is different.
Burnout describes a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that’s caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It’s the culmination of stress that’s built up over time to leave us feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet the demands of life.
A long-term problem
Because feeling drained at work and exhausted by routine is common, it can be difficult to recognise burnout as a serious problem. You may feel like a good night’s sleep resets you or that the weekend helps you temporarily ‘deal’ with these feelings.
Unfortunately, if you’re on the road to burnout, this only helps for a short time. Addressing the source of the stress and putting a long-term plan in place to minimise symptoms is the best way to avoid stress levels rising to uncontrollable levels.
What are the symptoms of burnout?
- Physical exhaustion and fatigue
- Digestive issues and stomach problems
- Detachment, loneliness, or isolation
- Increased irritability and anger
- Avoiding social events and interactions
- ‘Brain-fog’
- Negative thoughts about the future
- Feeling hopeless or useless
- Increased anxiety or worry
- Feeling overly cynical or apathetic
- A diminished sense of enjoyment both personally and professionally
What causes it?
Burnout can be caused by almost anything.
Because we all respond to stress differently, the people, places and things that cause us to feel drained and overwhelmed will differ from person to person.
For one person, work may be a huge source of stress. A seemingly insurmountable workload and pressure from colleagues can make them feel like they’re drowning in their workflow with no way out.
For someone else, excessive exercise may be the cause. A physical reaction in the body following a prolonged period of unsustainable training can cause the mind and body to ‘crash’ both physically and mentally, leaving them disillusioned and disinterested in training.
Am I close to burnout?
A healthy level of stress can be good for us, as it helps us focus on important tasks and encourages us to get things done. Without it, we’d never feel incentivized to do anything.
When we’re approaching burnout, these levels move into unhealthy territory, causing the mind and body to start shutting down in the face of stressful or challenging situations. This is where we may start to feel apathy, disinterest, and blunted to people and tasks we previously enjoyed.
When and where does it start?
Burnout usually starts long before we start to crash and feel unable to continue. It’s also not just isolated to the workplace.
You may be on the road to burnout if your routine has recently gotten busier or if you’re suddenly involved in more stressful situations. You may have started a new project at work or taken on a new exercise regime that you’re struggling to maintain or slot into your already busy schedule. Any feelings of disinterest, apathy, or exhaustion should never be ignored.
Making small adjustments to your busy routine and talking with someone can help put things into perspective and give us a better understanding of where your current routine may be headed.
Are stress and burnout the same?
Although stress can be a contributing factor to burnout, stress and burnout are two very different things.
We typically associate feeling overly stressed with ‘hyperactivity’ and feeling like something must be done right away to rectify the cause. Feeling burned out typically has the opposite effect, detachment, disinterest, a lack of motivation, and a general disinterest in life being more common.
| Stress | Burnout |
|---|---|
| Characterised by over-engagement | Characterised by disengagement |
| Emotions are reactive | Emotions may feel “blunted” |
| Produces a sense of urgency or hyperactivity | Produces feelings of helplessness and hopelessness |
| Loss of energy | Loss of motivation, ideals, and hope |
| Leads to anxiety | Leads to detachment and depression |
| Primary damage is physical | Primary damage is emotional |
Burnout in the workplace
Work can ask a lot of us and create an atmosphere and environment where we feel overwhelmed and overworked.
Colleagues we don’t necessarily see eye to eye with can cause negative emotions and self-talk to surface, leaving us feeling apathetic, unmotivated, and fed up in our role.
Below, we’ve listed some common causes of workplace burnout:
- Feeling unchallenged in your role with little to no autonomy or self-responsibility
- A monotonous or insurmountable workload
- A manager who micromanages your workflow
- Working in a high-pressure environment with little downtime
- A lack of transparency about your role or what’s expected of you
- Colleagues who are overbearing
- A lack of recognition or praise for the work you produce
The link between burnout and exercise
Physical activity is a great circuit breaker if we’re feeling down. It’s also great for building a healthier, more sustainable routine.
Regular aerobic exercise like running or cross-training is proven to help the brain recover from mental exhaustion and burnout. This is because the parts of the nervous system that are responsible for cognitive functioning are repaired and rejuvenated when we exercise.
Something as simple as going for a jog around the block can help if we’re feeling mentally exhausted. If you’re looking to readjust your priorities, making time for exercise is a great place to start.
Coping strategies
The most important thing to do if you’re burned out is to recognise that a series of triggers and stressors have caused you to reach this point and that there is not something inherently ‘wrong’ with you.
Understanding the areas of your life that cause you large amounts of stress is the first step to making the adjustments necessary for preventing it from happening again in the future.
Talk to others about how you’re feeling
Because burnout manifests emotionally and mentally, it can feel hard to talk about. Finding the words to describe how you’re feeling can be really challenging when you’re already tired, fatigued, and unable to motivate yourself.
The important thing to remember is that sometimes, just describing the feeling of not caring can help ignite a beneficial conversation about what happened, how you’re feeling, and what the future looks like for you.
Who should I talk to?
For some people, seeking professional help provides a safe and confidential environment where they feel confident and comfortable chatting about their thoughts and feelings.
We would always recommend therapy if you are feeling immediate feelings of despair or helplessness. Alternatively, talking to someone close who you trust as a listener can help make you feel less alone during a challenging time.
At work, talking to a trusted colleague or a member of senior management about what’s going on can help minimise the impact your workflow has on your mental health. Remember, adjusting how you work doesn’t mean taking a step backward or a decrease in responsibility.
Expressing concerns about the content or amount of work you’re given helps your employer make sensible adjustments to their strategy which helps everyone work more effectively in the future.
Adjusting priorities and changing your routine
Adjusting priorities extends far beyond the workplace. Talking to your spouse or partner about how you’re feeling means they can help reshape your at-home routine to better suit you moving forward.
This might mean your sleep schedule needs tweaking slightly to accommodate an extra hour of sleep a night or taking time to yourself a few times a week to practice the self-care routine you’ve been neglecting recently.
If you’ve taken the time to look at your unique list of stressors, adjusting can also mean making some ‘bigger-picture’ changes to how you structure your daily routine. Maybe start thinking about changing where you live or the career path you’re on to help with repeated feelings of hopelessness or disillusionment.
You might find that planning a big change down the line adjusts your perspective on stress, gives you an incentive to work towards, and makes the future look a little brighter.
How self-care can help
Self-care is all about taking time out to do the things we find most effective for recharging our mental and physical battery. An effective and regular self-care routine is a clinically proven way of strengthening our resilience in the face of stressors.
It’s also important to take a look at our daily routine which will include things we don’t even label self-care, like diet, our exercise routine, our sleeps schedule, or acknowledging our ‘self-critical voice’.
What’s most effective?
The most effective forms of self-care help boost our energy levels, restore physical or mental wellbeing, and reduce stress.
Other forms are more reward-based, like eating our favourite meal or watching a film we love in the evening. Take a look below for some ideas and inspiration:
- Have a hot bath or book a massage
- Relax and take time to yourself away from others
- Ensure your diet is healthy and working for you
- Practice mindfulness, yoga or Pilates
- Eat nutritious foods that help your body function
- Get enough good-quality sleep
- Build an exercise around activities you enjoy
- Get out of the house and into nature
- Limit time spent on digital devices
If you’re struggling…
If you’re finding work or your personal life overwhelming and are unsure where to turn, we offer a range of mental health services to help you wherever you’re at.
This includes access to therapists, online CBT therapy courses, mental health awareness material, and more.
If you are distressed or are experiencing despair, talk to someone now. If you feel either yourself or someone else is in immediate danger, please dial 999.
Last updated Monday 21 October 2024
First published on Monday 21 October 2024