You are likely familiar with burnout; a state of mental, emotional and often physical exhaustion brought about by prolonged periods of stress. Let’s take a slightly different look at the factors that can cause burnout to get a more detailed idea of how you can prevent and treat it.

What is Burnout?

The World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome characterized by three distinct dimensions (World Health Organization, 2019):

1. Emotional exhaustion: You feel overextended, depleted, and drained, as if your emotional resources are completely used up.
2. Depersonalization: Your attitude towards family, friends and co-workers becomes detached and cynical and manifests in negative or excessively hardened responses.
3. Reduced professional efficacy: You begin to feel as though you have less competence and success in your work life. Over time, you may actually become less competent and achieve less.

How to Diagnose Burnout

Burnout is more than just a “bad day” or two. It goes beyond feeling overwhelmed by an important task or a short deadline. Burnout is not a medical or psychological diagnosis, but it is accompanied by psychological and physical maladies.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are common:

• Irritability
• Fatigue
• Distractibility
• Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping too little or too much)
• Tension headaches
• Apathy – the “I just don’t care” syndrome
• Pessimism
• Feeling hopeless or worthless
• Physical aches and pains, especially in the digestive system

You may be dealing with burnout if these symptoms persist over an extended period of time and seem to be caused by work or school.

What Causes Burnout?

Burnout results from the interaction of several factors. Here are the three most frequently cited:

1. Chronic workplace stress: Burnout is often the result of ongoing, unmanaged workplace stress. This comes from excessive workload, unattainable targets, and constant pressure to perform (Maslach & Leiter, 2016).
2. Lack of control: If you feel that you have little autonomy or influence over your work – or its results – you are more susceptible to burnout. This could involve inflexible working hours, unclear job expectations, and lack of resources (Bakker & Costa, 2014).
3. Work-life imbalance: Burnout results when your work pressures don’t allow time for relaxation, socialization, or personal pursuits for extended periods of time (Kossek & Thompson, 2016).

But there is more to consider.

A Multi-Axial Approach

Conversations about burnout – even between mental health professionals – tend to ignore several other factors that may contribute to burnout:

Cultural Factors
We are bombarded by suggestions – both subtle and not so subtle – that equate happiness with material success. Worse, we are told that the only way to achieve that success is to “get up earlier,” “work harder,” and “push through” symptoms of burnout and fatigue. You may need a rigorous work ethic to reach your goals, but not at the expense of your mental and physical health.

Physical Factors
How’s your health? If you have been sick or are recovering from surgery or dealing with a chronic illness, burnout is much more likely. Take stock of your wellness.

Emotional Factors
It is common for people to “lose themselves in their work” in response to an emotional upheaval such as a breakup, divorce or a death in the family. Work can provide a positive distraction from emotional distress and rumination over an uncontrollable situation. But realize that if your emotional state is compromised by other circumstances, you are more at risk for burnout.

Psychological Factors
If you are in the midst of psychological distress or actual mental illness, you should know that burnout is a lose-lose situation. If you continue to push yourself towards burnout, you can trigger an exacerbation of the mental health issue you want to avoid. Similarly, mental health issues can cause you to burnout more easily.

Situational Factors
People with less “drama” in other areas of life are more resultant to burnout at work. Is your home life chaotic? Are you dealing with relationship issues or problems (beyond the norm) with raising your children? Are you working harder because you are in financial trouble? These are common situations that can bring burnout sooner and intensify its effects.

Stop the Burn

When you begin to feel the symptoms of burnout – or your friends and family start to tell you about them – take these steps to prevent or reduce the effect of burnout:

Consider the situation. Remember that factors outside of work can have a drastic effect on your ability to function at work.

• Take stock of your health. Are you dealing with seemingly unrelated mental, physical or emotional issues? You may be more prone to burnout.
• Learn when to “let off the gas.” Slow down or take a break. If your health is in danger, consider a change of employment altogether.
• Take time to recover. If you are in a weakened state – physically, mentally or emotionally – realize that you may not be able to handle work pressure that would normally be doable.
• Take care of yourself. Look after your physical, emotional, and mental health. Maintain a healthy diet, get regular exercise and protect your sleep. Consider a practice of mindfulness and meditation. Develop a hobby. (Sood & Prasad, 2011).
• Make balance. Create clear boundaries between work and personal life. Set specific work hours, take regular breaks, and ensure time for relaxation and social activities. Prioritize your activities – no one can do everything (Allen & Martin, 2017).

Work – especially work in service of your purpose in life – is good. But when you work to the point of burnout, you will actually become less efficient, and may not be able to work at all.

Keep the fires lit, but don’t let them consume you.

References

Allen, T. D., & Martin, A. (2017). The work-family interface: A retrospective look at 20 years of research in JOHP. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 259–272.

Bakker, A. B., & Costa, P. L. (2014). Chronic job burnout and daily functioning: A theoretical analysis. Burnout Research, 1(3), 112–119.

Kossek, E. E., & Thompson, R. J. (2016). Workplace flexibility: Integrating employer and employee perspectives to close the research–practice implementation gap. In The Oxford Handbook of Work and Family (pp. 255-272).

Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103-111.

Sood, A., & Prasad, K. (2011). Mind-body medicine and holistic health in the geriatric patient. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 27(2), 261-279.

World Health Organization. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/

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Be well; do good!

• JWW