Feel like you’re living life on autopilot? Don’t even remember what you did yesterday, let alone last week? Can’t get control of your stress? Then you, my friend, are experiencing burnout symptoms.
Burnout has been a hot topic over the last 2 years, with the great resignation taking center stage. Over these last 2 and a half years, many of us have had time to re-evaluate both what is meaningful to us, and what truly serves us.
For me, having a baby has made me reflect on how I live my daily life, carefully considering what’s most important and what I’m no longer willing to let suck the energy from me.
What are the symptoms of burnout?
So, let’s talk about what the term really means and discuss what burnout looks like. It can be physical, emotional, or both. The term was coined by Herbert Freudenberger in 1975. He defined it as three components:
1. Emotional Exhaustion: Fatigue that you experience when you care too much, and for too long.
2. Depersonalization: The loss of empathy, caring, and/or compassion.
3. Decreased Sense of Accomplishment: When you feel like nothing you do makes any difference.
Let’s dig deeper into these three constituents:
1. Emotional Exhaustion
Emotions are strong feelings, like love, anger, joy, or excitement that are accompanied by a physical response. For example, when you see someone that you love or have a crush on, you can feel it within your body. Your heart beats a little faster, your face starts to flush, and you get nervous.
Emotional exhaustion, on the other hand, also known as mental exhaustion, is where you experience continuous situations in which you feel like you have little to no control, or there is excessive, ongoing demand. Experiencing this constant stress never gives the brain a reprieve, thus leading to symptoms of burnout.
2. Depersonalization
This is when you reach the point of burnout at which your body begins to feel numb, and you begin to move on autopilot. That job that you once had so much passion for is now merely a task that needs to be completed each day.
3. Decreased sense of accomplishment
All that hard work you put in to get where you are all feels like it’s for nothing. You show up, day after day, but for what? No one appreciates your effort. All of this is likely not true, but is how you may feel if you are experiencing burnout symptoms. This cycle can lead to depression.
Who does burnout affect the most?
Burnout is highly prevalent in today’s society, especially in professions that involve helping others, such as teaching and medicine. Statistics show that nearly 20 to 30% of teachers have moderate to high levels, with almost 52% of medical professionals also reporting burnout symptoms. Another growing trend that deserves more attention is parental burnout.
What will NOT cure burnout
There are a plethora of fad recommendations on how to overcome symptoms of burnout. These are things that may be temporarily relaxing, but will NOT break you free. They include self-care, meditation, a great vacation, a sabbatical, yoga, or a spa day. Take a step back for a moment and realize: all of these things imply that you’re the one causing the burnout. Of course, there are things we do that exacerbate it, but by and large, it’s a psychological syndrome caused by a prolonged response to chronic stressors.
The most common stressors are work life/environment, parenting, and being a caregiver (e.g. caring for elderly parents).
You’re probably thinking to yourself: “so what will cure burnout?” Check out my next installment on how to break the cycle.
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