Burnout: Are You Its Next Victim?

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Burnout is a condition that can be devastating to a person's life, relationships, and career. However, it's also preventable if its early signs are recognized, heeded, and addressed. Unfortunately, the signs and symptoms of burnout often go unheeded, especially by high-achievers.

What Is Burnout?

Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to:

• Physical and emotional exhaustion.
• Cynicism and detachment.
• Feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment (Maslach & Jackson, 1981).

For someone in the throes of burnout, the ability to effectively function on a personal and professional level is severely compromised, which negatively affects their physical and psychological well-being, relationships, and career.

However, burnout doesn't happen overnight. It creeps up on you, often taking months or years to fully develop. Its insidiousness makes it hard to recognize, yet that's also what makes it highly preventable.

The Signs of Burnout

For the three symptom clusters described above, there are readily recognizable signs and symptoms that exist along a continuum. The earlier you recognize them and put strategies in place to ameliorate them, the better able you'll be to avoid becoming a victim of burnout.

• Physical and Emotional Exhaustion

1. Chronic fatigue. This tends to start as a simple lack of energy. Easy to ignore because we all feel tired some days, right? However, if you're on the path to burnout, this "simple" lack of energy will progress. You'll find yourself feeling tired most days or every day; and if unheeded, it'll worsen to the point where you feel mentally and physically depleted and exhausted.
2. Insomnia. On the early road to burnout, you may find yourself struggling to fall or stay asleep once or twice a week. If unheeded, it's likely to worsen, eventually becoming a persistent, sometimes nightly problem.
3. Impaired concentration/attention. This may start as mild forgetfulness or lack of focus. However, as it progresses, your concentration and attention may become impaired to the point where you'll struggle to effectively manage your responsibilities.
4. Physical symptoms. Physical symptoms may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal pain, dizziness, fainting, and/or headaches (all of which should be medically assessed).
5. Increased illness. The road to burnout weakens your immune system, making you more vulnerable to infections and other immunity-related conditions. Therefore, as you edge closer to burnout, you'll likely notice that you're getting sick more often.
6. Appetite changes. Early on, you may not feel hungry, so you skip a few meals. In the latter stages, you may lose your appetite altogether and begin to lose weight. Alternatively, some people react to chronic stress by overeating, which can result in significant weight gain.
7. Anxiety. In the early stages, you're likely to feel mild symptoms of tension or worry. As burnout advances, your anxiety may become so severe that you can no longer work productively, engage with family or friends, or participate in social activities.
8. Depression. Often beginning as mild sadness and occasional feelings of helplessness or hopelessness, at its worst, you may feel trapped, despondent, and think the world might be better off without you (if your depression is to this point, you should seek professional help immediately).
9. Anger. This may first rear its head via interpersonal tension, annoyance, or irritability. As it progresses, it may turn into uncharacteristic angry outbursts or arguments.

• Cynicism and Detachment

1. Loss of enjoyment. This may first present as not feeling enthusiastic about fulfilling your commitments, but in time, it may extend to avoiding spending time with family and friends, resisting new projects, or finding ways to escape responsibilities altogether.
2. Pessimism. This may start out as negative self-talk, or a gradual move from a glass-half-full to a glass-half-empty attitude. At its worst, it may extend to trust issues in your relationships, making you feel like you can't rely on anyone.
3. Isolation. Early on, this may take the form of mild resistance to socializing (i.e., not accepting lunch invitations, closing your door occasionally to keep others out). In the latter stages, you may feel angry or annoyed when someone speaks to you, or you may come in early or leave late to avoid interactions.
4. Detachment. Detachment is the feeling of being disconnected from others or your environment, often leading to purposeful actions to remove yourself emotionally and physically from family, friends, work, and other responsibilities (e.g., calling in sick, not returning messages, coming in late).

• Ineffectiveness and Lack of Accomplishment

1. Apathy/hopelessness. This typically starts as a sense that nothing is going right or nothing matters. As symptoms worsen, these feelings can become immobilizing, making it seem like "what's the point?"
2. Irritability. On the path to burnout, irritability often stems from an increasing sense that you're not able to do things as efficiently or effectively as you once did. In the early stages, this can interfere with personal and professional relationships. At its worst, it can destroy relationships and careers.
3. Decreased productivity/poor performance. As burnout progresses, you may become increasingly less productive, resulting in incomplete projects and a seemingly never-ending to-do list. No matter how long you work or how hard you try, you can't seem to get ahead.

Why Are High-Achievers Especially Vulernable?

If you're like most high-achievers, you're highly driven or passionate about what you do. You take pride in (and likely ignore) the fact that you work long hours, accept heavy workloads, and put pressure on yourself to excel. You rarely say no, and you've never met an obstacle too big to tackle or a challenge too hard to overcome. Great qualities? Yes, in many ways. However, your kryptonite is that these great qualities are what make you highly vulnerable to the insidious nature of burnout.

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Prevention

If someone were to ask you, "If you received a credible warning that you were on a dangerous road that would ultimately lead to you becoming a victim, would you change paths?" odds are that you would say yes. Well, this is that warning.

If you've been experiencing but ignoring the signs and symptoms described above, you're on that dangerous path, and recognizing that is the first step to prevention. Your body needs a chance to recover. Your mind needs a chance to restore itself. So take breaks. Prioritize sleep. Learn when to say no. And identify and pursue activities and relationships in your life that are stress-free and restorative.

Balancing stress and restoration is always challenge for high-achievers, but I doubt you've ever met a challenge too hard to overcome, and this one is well worth the effort.

To find a therapist, please visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.