It’s Not You, It’s Burnout.

May is Mental Health Awareness month. This month, I’ll be releasing a series of articles on burnout, and how it impacts our creativity, mental health, and innovation.

I remember the first time I felt burned out. It was the middle of my fieldwork as an occupational therapy graduate student, and I was applying my knowledge to real life for the first time. The stress of studying, working, treatment planning, and keeping up with my family finally caught up with me.

I hit a wall where I just wanted to sleep all day long and do nothing else. It was not the same as depression. As someone who has hypothyroidism, I know what that feels like.

It felt like I could sleep for a week and still be tired, but that would only make my stress worse because there was so much to do.

I had no idea what was happening at the time, but after some research, I realized this was common and “normalized” as part of the experience students going into healthcare go through.

Only, it should not be normal by any means.

Photo by Tara Winstead from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-skeleton-buried-with-sticky-notes-8386717/

Particularly in healthcare, I notice colleagues wearing burnout like a badge of honor. Not only that, but if we do not address the root issue, burnout can be chronic.

Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.

Excessive fatigue, cynicism, and a sense of ineffectiveness that goes beyond the difficulties of the workplace characterize it. It is often experienced as depletion of mental energy and a low sense of accomplishment. Burnout can occur from work, school, hobbies, or any situation where one’s mind and body are overworked.

You can experience burnout from one job or activity, or you can suffer burnout from several situations at once. The exact causes of burnout vary from person to person. Some common causes include:

Too much stress

Too much pressure to perform

Lack of control over your workload

Excessive multitasking

Lack of personal growth opportunities

Especially our healthcare workers, who can suffer immense pressure and stress with no viable way out. Lately, burnout has been a buzzword for self-diagnosis, or a casual expression rather than treated as a mental health condition that places negative consequences in our daily lives.

I have had many experiences with burnout and personally; it has been one of the most challenging situations for me to deal with.

I thought I would share how I coped and will confront it with techniques I’ve learned in the future.

Burnout is common and tough to solve

The word “burnout” has been circulating in the English language since the 70s. Herbert Freudenberger, an American Psychologist, coined the term “Burnout” in a scientific article he authored: “Staff-Burn-Out”, used to describe observations of himself and other staff at a free clinic for drug users (1)

In 1981, Dr. Maslach and Susan Jackson published an instrument for assessing burnout, the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Dr. Maslach Theorized burnout is described by three components: Emotional exhaustion, cynicism and mental distance from one’s work, and reduced self-efficacy and feelings of accomplishment (2).

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines burnout as “a syndrome that occurs when someone feels emotionally and physically exhausted from job-related stress (3).”

Burnout has reached epidemic proportions. The APA writes:

“As in 2020, American workers across the board saw heightened rates of burnout in 2021, and according to APA’s 2021 Work and Well-being Survey of 1,501 U.S. adult workers, 79% of employees had experienced work-related stress in the month before the survey. Nearly 3 in 5 employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress, including lack of interest, motivation, or energy (26%) and lack of effort at work (19%). Meanwhile, 36% reported cognitive weariness, 32% reported emotional exhaustion, and an astounding 44% reported physical fatigue — a 38% increase since 2019.” (4)

What is burnout and why do we feel it?

Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you lose the interest or motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place. Burnout reduces productivity and saps your energy, leaving you feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel you have nothing more to give.

At first, burnout looks like productivity. Over time, whack-a-mole problems keep popping up, keeping you firefighting all the time instead of doing the strategic work you need to be doing to move projects forward. It becomes harder to care about your work and start checking out.

The feelings of burnout can vary from person to person, but there are some common signs to look out for (5):

• Overwhelming fatigue
• Feeling emotionally detached, apathetic, or dissatisfied with work
• Headaches or changes in sleep and diet
• You experience constant stress about work and find it difficult to relax at home or outside of work hours because of this worry.
• You feel you’re not good enough at your job.

The burnout cycle

Have you ever felt so stressed out and fatigued from work that it’s hard to sleep at night? Most of us have experienced this at some point. It is a state of physical or emotional exhaustion combined with doubts about your competency and the value of your work. Burnout decreases the quality of your work, depletes the energy you require to maintain balance, and increases the mental distance from your work.

And If all that wasn’t enough, it makes us feel increasingly ineffective and alienated. The longer we stay in burnout, the more challenging it is to uplift ourselves from the downward spiral.

It’s not enough to just take a week off to recover. When you return to work, you’ll still have the same type of work, the same productivity requirements, and the same stress-inducing environment to contend with.

The same happens when we switch roles or companies. Burnout is a systemic problem, and rarely a personal issue of resiliency and grit.

You might feel better in the short term, but it won’t be long before you’re burning out all over again. Breaking this cycle requires a more fundamental change.

Zero-ing in on Overwhelm

We characterize the feeling of being overwhelmed by an inability to focus on one task, followed by the development of distraction, and then chronic procrastination. The more overwhelmed an individual becomes, the less likely it is that he or she will achieve.

Being overwhelmed leads to stress, which can cause severe health consequences if not resolved. By realizing the sources of overwhelm and developing strategies to manage it, highly effective people can maintain productivity levels that maximize their utilization.

What You Can Do to Help Avoid Burnout

We associate burnout with physical and emotional fatigue, emotional exhaustion, diminished interest in work, lack of fulfillment, and a feeling of cynicism or detachment from the job.

Studies have shown that burnout is associated with health problems such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, as well as stress-induced depression and insomnia.

It’s important to note that society, work culture, and injustice all impact burnout, and we can not just “resilience train” ourselves to cope with these factors.

There are many ways to ease burnout — from taking time off and getting enough sleep to finding new work or changing your job.

Here are some suggestions that could help you regain your energy:

Self-care- Burnout isn’t always caused by work alone; sometimes personal issues can contribute. If you’ve been feeling stressed out lately, try making time for self-care activities — such as going for a walk or taking a breathwork class — that help relieve stress. This can also be helpful if you’re feeling isolated or lonely at work or while seeking another job.

Ensure your employer is meeting your needs — People with chronic illness, disability, or caregiving are at increased risk of burnout. Make sure your workplace recognizes your need to go to regular health visits and makes accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Don’t let work keep you up at night — Sleep deprivation increases levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, which can make us more susceptible to chronic illness and stress.

Take your lunch break — Eating regularly and well-balanced meals that fuel your body throughout the day. Skipping lunch will only make you more tired and less productive at work or hangry with your loved ones when you arrive home.

Prioritize your mental health — Share what you are going through with family and friends. Do more things that make you feel like yourself. Meditate, exercise, and drink enough water. Talk to a professional.

Find new work- That being said, no amount of self-care and mindset work is going to break the burnout cycle if your current job, or career field, is the culprit. Some professions are more prone to burnout than others.

If your job is the source of your burnout, quitting may be one way to get yourself back on track. But don’t make this decision lightly; consider all the options before you send out resumes.

Consider if you’ve felt this at other jobs in the same field — and if so, it may be time for a career change.

That said, if you find you are struggling with burnout and view your job as a constant struggle, then it might be time for you to evaluate your situation. Talk to someone. Give yourself a break from the grind of work pressure. You can’t do your best work when you’re already at your wit’s end — take better care of yourself so that you can focus on work that is meaningful to you.

Resources

1. Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burn‐out. Journal of social issues, 30(1), 159–165.
2. Maslach, C., Jackson, S. E., & Leiter, M. P. (1997). Maslach burnout inventory. Scarecrow Education.
3. American Psychological Association. (2022). Apa Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://dictionary.apa.org/burnout
4. American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Burnout and stress are everywhere. Monitor on Psychology. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress
5. Zaleska. (2022, April 19). Burnout: 5 signs and what to do about it. Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/signs-of-burnout/