What is burnout?

Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion that can drain you of all your energy, make you hate your life, and make nothing seem worthwhile.

As a condition, it has elements in common with depression, but the origins are completely different.

The causes of burnout are extremely demanding situations to which the person has been exposed for a long time. Such situations are:

• extremely exhausting work
• extremely long overtime
• caring for a family member facing an illness (often, this person being a parent)
• repeated and prolonged exposure to negative news (this includes all those who assiduously watch the news)
• concerns about personal safety or the safety of family members

According to ICD-11, Burnout is an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition. The ICD is a diagnostic manual of mental disorders, similar to the DSM, except that the ICD is edited by the World Health Organization.

I could write 10 pages about why I disagree with this, but I’ll spare you, because you didn’t write the ICD and I don’t know how much you care about that.

I’ll just confine myself to saying that I don’t consider burnout to be just occupational. Sure, it often occurs in connection with work. But you can get burnout as a result of an abusive relationship, as a result of a loved one’s illness, as a result of a traumatic life situation.

For example, I might have burnout caused by living in Romania. Every day, I wake up and get a little bit peckish when I see that I’m still here (meanwhile, that part has been taken care of, but I appreciate the encouraging messages from you guys).

You might have burnout caused by people like me, who complain that a country sucks but don’t get into politics to really make a change.

Everyone with his problems.

But the problems you drag around for a long time eventually get to you.

What does burnout actually mean?

The first to use the term burnout was psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in the 1970s. Burnout is a state of severe stress that leads to physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.

The intensity is much greater than in a normal state of fatigue.

Burnout sufferers feel they have no energy for anything, hate getting out of bed in the morning, and end up with an extremely pessimistic outlook on the world and life.

Without proper treatment, burnout can cause serious conditions such as heart problems, depression or gastrointestinal disorders.

Who can get burnout

In short, anyone can get burnout if they are in or end up in an extremely stressful situation. There are professions prone to it, such as air traffic controllers, doctors and nurses on ambulances or in emergency units, social workers or psychotherapists.

Parents of a newborn baby can get burnout because of the demands of caring for the child, and parents of children with special needs are often burnout, also because of the extra demands of caring for the child.

Disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or perfectionism, or certain personality traits such as high competitiveness, the need to be in control, the desire to please everyone, or the desire to be number one, can increase the risk of burnout.

If we’re just talking about work, burnout can be (and often is) caused by the following:

• volume of work far beyond the individual’s ability to handle
• intensive pressure on deadlines to meet (deadlines that are usually unrealistically short)
• unclear responsibilities
• unfair treatment, discrimination or mobbing
• lack of adequate communication from those in management

As a note, I can’t help but mention that most corporations I know fit such a description, which means that if you work in such a company, the risk of falling into burnout is high, especially if you also have the personality elements that make you susceptible to falling victim to this syndrome.

Symptoms of burnout

If you’re not sure if it applies to you, here are some of the most common symptoms of burnout:

Exhaustion: you feel “drained” of energy and vitality and emotionally “drained”. Common physical symptoms include stomach and headaches, changes in appetite (either over or under) and sleep disturbances (insomnia, interrupted sleep, difficulty falling asleep, etc.).

Iritability: Burnout can cause you to be constantly “on edge” and to lash out at family, friends or co-workers.

Isolation: Burnouts usually feel overwhelmed, so they tend to cut ties with family, friends or co-workers.

Frequent illness: Any stressful episode affects the functioning of your immune system, which can make you more susceptible to colds and various other ailments.

Ecape fantasies: Burnout sufferers can often find themselves daydreaming about quitting their job and going out into the world, or simply taking an extended vacation where they can finally relax. In other less happy situations, this escape is to alcohol, drugs or overeating.

Physical symptoms of burnout

There are 130 symptoms that can be associated with burnout syndrome, but among the most common are the following:

• exhaustion
• muscle tension
• lack of energy
• chronic fatigue
• sleep disturbances
• problems with concentration and memory
• poor performance
• inability to make decisions
• imagination and initiative skills are severely reduced
• back pain
• sexual disorders (erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, impotence)

Warning Signs – How to spot the early warning signs of exhaustion

If at least 5 of the following symptoms apply to you, make sure you don’t get burnout:

• You frequently work unpaid overtime, just to keep the workload under control
• you find it hard to make even trivial decisions
• you’re hyperactive and/or have trouble concentrating
• you never seem to have enough time
• you- have lost your sense of humor
• frequently self-pity
• find it hard to say No
• feel irreplaceable
• feel like you don’t get the appreciation you deserve
• have been drinking more alcohol lately (be honest about that, don’t fool yourself that it was just a beer)
• you buy things to make yourself feel better (not because you necessarily need them)
• you are frequently unhappy with your own results or achievements
• you are less friendly and more frequently have conflicts with others
• you frequently feel guilty: Not doing enough, not doing the right thing, etc.
• your eating habits have changed (you forget to eat or eat more than usual)
• you have lost trust in people

Stages of burnout

Psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North have indicated 12 phases of burnout syndrome. These are as follows:

• Excessive change: frequently happens when someone starts a new job, or is given new duties. They want to prove themselves and push themselves far beyond their actual work capacity.
• Efforts to work even harder: initial ambition can be fuelled by the idea that you have pushed yourself and not given in, and then you may be tempted to push even harder. You forget, however, that you haven’t actually given in yet. And the fact that you haven’t given in yet isn’t proof that you won’t give in at some point.
• Denial of your own needs: out of a desire to do more and more, you end up sacrificing even basic needs, such as sleep or personal hygiene.
• looking outside yourself for blame: because you don’t want to accept your limits, you look outside yourself for blame, such as the boss who makes you work overtime or life that is unfair.
• excluding non-work-related activities: you neglect your personal life, your life as a couple, meetings with friends or family. Social events no longer feel like reasons to enjoy or relax, but rather obligations.
• Denial: you become increasingly impatient with the limitations of others and consider them lazy or incompetent, instead of taking responsibility for the consequences of your own actions.
• Retreat: you begin to isolate yourself more and more and put up with (or tolerate) fewer and fewer people around you.
• behavioural changes: you become increasingly irritable and start having tantrums for petty reasons.
• depersonalisation: you feel ‘outside’ your life and feel you no longer have control over your life.
• feeling of inner emptiness: you may start using various drugs to mask this feeling. Drugs or other addictive activities, such as gambling or pornography use. A common method is also overeating.
• Depression: life seems to have lost its meaning and you begin to feel a deep sense of hopelessness.
• Mental and/or physical collapse: such a breakdown can put you completely out of action and hospitalisation, drug intervention or other forms of medical care may be required.

How to prevent burnout with these 8 steps: what you can do to avoid burnout

There are more things you can do before you get into burnout than things you can do when you’re already there. They apply best when burnout is work-related, but can be adapted for other situations as well.

• evaluate your goals, break them down into smaller chunks, increase turnaround time, anything that can reduce the pressure you feel about what you have to do
• if you work in a corporation, see if you can negotiate longer deadlines or a reduction in responsibility. If that doesn’t work, see if you can move to another job or another department
• learn to ask for help when you feel you can’t, delegate tasks if possible, say when you can’t handle something
• understand that taking care of yourself and your body is not a fad, it’s a necessity, because you need that body to do everything you set out to do.
• take regular breaks during your work day, a minimum of 15 minutes every 2 hours.
• turn off your phone at a certain time in the evening, so that you don’t get “urgent” calls or emails. In other words, separate your personal life from your professional life.
• Give yourself at least one day off a week, where you don’t have to think or worry about things.
• Take at least 2 weeks off per year. The habit of using up all your days off with long weekends to go on city-breaks is very harmful. Your body and mind need more than 3-4 days to really relax.

In my opinion though, the most important way to prevent burnout and exhaustion is to identify our limits before we exceed them and then make sure we give ourselves enough time to recharge.

Limits are there for a reason, not just to annoy you and challenge you to go beyond them. They’re safety measures, warning indicators. Ignoring them is done at your own peril, and often with unpleasant consequences.

Remember that taking care of yourself is not only a right, but also an obligation. Because you’re the only choice you have.