How to Recognize Burnout in Yourself and Others – and What to Do About It

Confession time.

I have a history of burning out.

I have burnt out three times; each time I needed to take multiple months off work to recover.

I have always been a high achiever and I have a tendency of pushing myself hard. In the moment it feels as if I get tunnel vision and as I’m working towards my goals, I lose sight of everything else around me.

As I start to become more and more fatigued it becomes difficult to notice how tired I am because it seems as if I’m simply putting my head down and getting the work done that needs to be done. The fatigue feels temporary and justified and the slow incremental decline is difficult to notice.

I know what it’s like to miss the warning signs and slip into that state of mind of “needing to work hard to get it all done”, even to your detriment.

This is one of the reasons why I have become so passionate about proactive mental health. I know what it’s like to burnout and I know now how important it is to regularly check in with yourself and take action to care for yourself first.

I’m going to share symptoms of burnout with you here so that you may do a check-in on yourself. After you’ve reviewed the symptoms I will share the proactive action steps you can take now to prioritize your self care.

According to WebMD, Physical Symptoms include:

• Feeling drained
• Noticeable changes in appetite
• Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
• Headaches
• Muscle aches
• Getting sick frequently
• Digestive issues

Behavioural Symptoms include:

• Feeling withdrawn
• Isolating yourself
• Leaving work early or coming in late
• Procrastinating more than usual
• Abusing coping mechanisms like drugs or alcohol
• Acting more irritable towards others
• Noticeably reduced performance, usually at work

Emotional Symptoms include:

• Feeling like a failure
• Low self-esteem
• Feeling trapped in the situation you are burnt out on
• Low motivation
• Cynical outlook
• Negative thinking
• Low sense of satisfaction
• Harder to feel proud of accomplishments
• Feeling detached
• Feeling alone

Exhaustion and stress can be somewhat normal experiences of working in a high-pressure career however when those symptoms are combined with some of the above, then you may be approaching burnout.

So, what do you do about it?

It’s time to go back to basics.

Sleep

It’s important to prioritize a good night’s sleep. This can feel difficult if you have trouble sleeping, do shift work, have young children at home, or simply have a lot on your mind. However sleeping is still the foundation for health.

If you work schedule permits, begin to schedule a regular bedtime for yourself. Aim to sleep at least 6 hours or 7.5 hours to coincide with adult sleep cycles. Stay off screens at night and read a good old fashioned paper book before bed to calm your brain and prepare for sleep.

Exercise

This is my go-to for stress relief. Exercise doesn’t need to be hours at the gym to be affective, it can be as quick and easy as going for a walk. If you have a busy schedule, pencil in a 15 minute walk into your break or lunch time and commit to getting outside and getting some fresh air.

Have you tried YouTube yoga? It’s easy to find a 10-minute or 15-minute video on YouTube where an instructor walks you through stretching your body. Some classes are aimed at waking your body up in the morning and others at quieting your body down for sleep.

Mindfulness

Take 10 or 15 minutes each day to sit in stillness. This can be during your morning coffee, at the end of your day, or whenever you’re able to squeeze it in. For some of my clients who are very busy I ask them to schedule 15 minutes into their work schedule.

While sitting in stillness, close your email, any messenger apps, and put your phone on silent. Set a timer on your phone for 10 minutes so that you don’t need to keep checking the time. Commit to sitting still for the entire 10 minutes.

You may notice during this time that your thoughts get louder. It will likely feel very difficult to sit still. That is normal. Use this time to take deep breaths into your belly inviting fresh oxygen into your body. The key is to allow yourself to stay in still for the entirety of 10 minutes, giving your nervous system some time to pause.

Reach Out

If you read this article and found you met more than one of the symptoms above for burn out, reach out to a friend, reporting manager, or a family member and let them know this is something you’re working through.

You’re also welcome to email me as someone to reach out to. Simply write “reaching out” in the email to [email protected]

Burn out is not an easy topic for discussion however if you think you may be experiencing it, it’s important to act now to prevent it from continuing or getting worse.

Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter where we’ll be diving deep into more neuroscience and mindfulness hacks to help.

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P.S. Did you miss my Live on LinkedIn last week where I shared this week’s Mindset Hack: How to Clear Your Mind? You can watch the replay recording by copying and pasting this link into your browser: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/tracey-gazel_mindsetshift-successsecrets-calmcoach-activity-6968291474211799040-tZfz