Overwhelming job demands have become commonplace in our fast-paced world, making it easy to accept them as an unavoidable condition. Sometimes a little bit of stress may be suitable for our health and help us to become even better at what we do. But when this stress collaborates with the challenging times our world is going through (natural disasters, wars, and hunger) burnout is unavoidable.
To put it another way, “burnout” is an actual emotional and energy breakdown caused by too much job commitment, which kills our will to work and is harmful to our overall health.
When The Tension Persists Over An Extended Period Of Time
Eustress is a state of physiological and psychological activation that enables us to give our best effort in order to accomplish a goal, whereas distress is a state of mental and emotional exhaustion that prevents us from giving our best effort.
There are two types of distress: acute and chronic stress, which is characterized by feelings of dread, worry, insecurity, and fear of losing control of ourselves and our surroundings, as well as bodily symptoms. For example, when we learn of a significant sickness or a major life change, such as the death or terminal illness of a loved one, our body’s automatic stress response system (BSRS) kicks into high gear.
Even if we choose to make a change, such as having a kid, moving, or taking a new career, it may have a pathogenic effect if we don’t give it the significance and context it deserves. They need to be dealt with, therefore do something about it.
What Are The Symptoms Of Burnout?
Burnout syndrome, which literally translates to “burnt, melted, weary,” occurs when a person is overworked and unable to cope with the demands of their job.
If you’re in a job where you have to deal with people’s emotions on a daily basis, you’re more likely to experience this form of stress. If you are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you may find it more difficult to adjust to life’s ups and downs, feel more vulnerable, and have a worse quality of life overall.
If we’re feeling vulnerable, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Symptoms of burnout include:
Inappetence or a disturbed eating pattern; sleeplessness; overall tiredness; muscular strain; headache;
detachment, apathy and discontent, powerlessness, frustration, failure, lack of interest, isolation, closure, anxiety, panic attacks, depressed notes, and deterioration in job performance.
When we’re in a stressful situation, it’s crucial to pay attention to how our body responds and to pay attention to how we feel. To have a deeper sense of what is going on with your body you can try meditation.
Even if we see just a few of the symptoms described above in ourselves, we should take a moment to consider if we’re spending our time and energy wisely and whether we can make sense of what’s happening to us, gradually incorporating it into our daily routines.
It’s important to acknowledge and talk about our negative feelings with people we care about, especially those who have the ability to listen attentively and empathize with us (such as indifference, rage, and resentment).
In the event that all of this becomes too much to handle, it is critical that we seek out professional psychological assistance in order to improve our ability to adapt.
Good Workouts Are Crucial
Our creative abilities in managing change must be trained (and our children must be taught) to strengthen our tolerance for frustration, develop constructive defense mechanisms, and integrate our emotional and cognitive lives (not just rationalizing) to find a balance between the two. We must also learn to listen to our interiors as we do this.
It will be necessary to set clear boundaries and give ourselves time and space for personal relationships, relaxation, and fulfillment if work begins to intrude on our personal lives in an unhealthy way. We should also unplug from any electronic devices that could keep us constantly connected to our jobs, preventing us from taking well-deserved breaks and recharging our batteries.
Prevent Burnout By Altering Your Point Of View
Finally, self-care is essential if you want to avoid or combat Burnout. Keep stress-relieving habits like regular exercise, a good diet, and strong social ties, and refrain from abusing “quick” fixes like alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs that might lead to addiction.
Sometimes we must examine our relationship to work and ask ourselves, “What does it satisfy and satisfy us about it?” Let’s attempt to spend our energy in this area to find out what drives and enriches us. Finally, let’s look at how many hours a day we spend working, keeping in mind that our minds may function even when we are not in the office, sometimes even at night, making it difficult to achieve a healthy equilibrium between excellent sleep and awake.
Perhaps it is time to explore positive change, such as new ways to interact with coworkers or a discussion of responsibilities, tasks, and workloads with our supervisors, if the quantity of work we confront each day is out of control.