Burnout explained: how prevalent is it?
Burnout is actually surprisingly common compared to what you might think. In fact, it’s so common that some consider it a worldwide pandemic, given the financial pressure and personal pressure that millions of citizens around the world face on a daily basis.
The number continues to grow, especially during times of mass crisis, such as Covid-19. It is absolutely crucial that you identify burnout as early as possible and respond appropriately before it begins to have detrimental effects on your mental health, your physical health and the personal relationships in your life.
Are burnout and stress the same thing?
Now here’s a common misconception: “Burnout and stress are the same thing”. This could not be more wrong. Let’s define these two terms so that we can differentiate between the two conditions.
Stress usually appears as the feeling of being overwhelmed by the circumstances in your life. This might mean there are too many demands and excess amounts of pressure that you are struggling to keep up with. This is most common in your professional life.
For example, if you have multiple college assignments that you have to complete within a very short deadline. However, don’t think that this can’t occur in your personal life too. For example, looking after lots of children at once.
Burnout, on the other hand, is a term used to describe the physical and emotional exhaustion accumulated from having experienced high levels of stress for an extended period of time.
How can I tell if I am experiencing burnout?
It may be difficult to tell whether you are going through an episode of burnout or not, so here are 5 strong indicators that you are.
You notice that your ability to concentrate, your attention span and your interest level in your work is reduced. You also now struggle with procrastination
It may be that, once upon a time, you used to love diving head-first into a project that you were excited to work on, and you were able to remain laser focused on this task for hours on end.
But then, all of a sudden, you catch yourself drifting into your own empty thoughts and getting distracted easily every time you sit down to work. This, alongside the fact that you may also find it very hard to feel motivated to even start the work in the first place, can serve as very telling signs that you are burning out.
You fall sick a lot more often than normal and you have lower immunity.
This is a much more physical that symptom. In case you didn’t know, tiredness coupled with prolonged stress both weaken the immune system due to an increase in a hormone in your blood called cortisol.
The damage to your immune system is only made much worse by a lack of adequate sleep. All the harmless little bugs that your body is usually able to fight off on its own will now have a much easier time infecting you as your defences are down.
You experience constant muscle pain, headaches (and maybe even migraines).
This one is quite self-explanatory. The fact that your body is under constant stress, whether that is strenuous physical activity (hence the muscle pain) or exhaustive amounts of brain usage when reading, calculating and looking at screens (hence the migraines), your body struggles to find time to rest, replenish and repair itself and so you experience different types of pain in different areas.
You find yourself being dependent on food, alcohol, drugs or any other consumed substance in order to be able to function.
This links back to the first point regarding a lack of energy or motivation to start tasks. Many people begin to rely on consuming (mostly) unhealthy amounts of these substances as crutches to give them some sort of “high” that may provide an hour, or so, of energy to do even the simplest of tasks.
This is particularly dangerous because substance abuse and overeating tend to lead to irreparable bodily damage and other severe consequences in one’s personal life. If this is you, make an attempt to tackle the root cause of your burnout immediately.
You notice that your sleep schedule has been disrupted.
We mentioned it before. But we’ll mention it again because sleep is that important. YOU MUST GET ENOUGH SLEEP EVERY NIGHT. It is essential for the body’s ability to repair and recharge.
It is not uncommon for burnout victims to experience episodes of insomnia where you find it difficult to fall asleep and, even if you do, you keep waking up too early, meaning you never get sufficient high-quality sleep.
You may also find, instead that when you do manage to get a full night’s sleep, you wake up extremely tired and you remain that way throughout the day. While this may feel like sleep-deprivation, it’s actually the physical exhaustion caused by the burnout.
I think I am experiencing burnout. What should I do about it?
The first step to solving any complicated problem is to address the root cause. What is causing you to feel so burnt out and exhausted? Is it your children giving you a headache? Have you been putting in too much overtime at work?
Are you struggling with time management while trying to organise a big event? Find out what it is that is making you so stressed and eliminate that cause:
- Take your annual leave off work
- Travel abroad to escape your stressful environment
- Ask a relative to look after your children for a week
Now you need to take care of your physical health because this has direct influence on your mental health:
- Start eating correctly (balanced meals, fruit and vegetables, etc)
- Start working out, yoga or try to at least go for a 15-minute jog everyday
- Get enough sleep (see a sleep doctor if you are struggling with this)
Introduce pleasurable, relaxing activities in your life:
- Visit or get on the phone with family and friends
- Find a hobby and continue it
- Make time for relaxation everyday
- Go travelling and explore different cultures
It is important to understand that you must maintain a healthy work-life balance in order to maximise your health and productivity. You want to avoid a burnout as they will literally throw your life off track.
It is a lot easier, less time-consuming and less taxing on the body if you just take appropriate breaks when necessary. Remember that we are not mental health experts, so we would advise that you still go and see a real doctor or get counselling if you are concerned about your burnout symptoms.