Burn-out

A burn-out. Everyone has made contact with someone that once had a burn-out or everyone has heard about the topic. Of course it’s something really natural and something that can happen to anyone going from a younger age to an older age.

What is a burn-out?

With a small amount of stress out body gives off a natural reaction that puts us in a situation where we react faster and be more alert for danger: our heart rate goes up, muscle tighten up and adrenaline comes free in our blood. This is a mechanism for surviving for an example when we are eye to eye with a wolf.

A little bit stress is not bad, in fact it is good for yourself to keep being challenged enough and to be feeling good. Stress actually becomes a problem when you can’t handle the constant feeling of being challenged and being too much in general.

This kind of stress can have effects on you mentally but also physically. There are of course symptoms that can help you recognize.

A person can also be burnt out when he/she has a lot of things to in a short period while when we talking are talking a burn-out it’s about a longer period of time.

Symptoms

Of course there are symptoms while you are nearing or are in a burn-out. I have divided them in 3 groups to make it easier for looking if u are having troubles with these types of symptoms.

Of course I’m not a doctor, if u are having real trouble with these symptoms try seeing a doctor, but these are common symptoms people tend to have while nearing or having a burn-out.

Physically

• You are having a hard time getting yourself to sleep or you are having trouble waking up multiple times while you are sleeping. Tired while waking up is also one.
• You are constantly feeling tired and have the feeling you don’t have energy.

Mentally

• You feel frustrated a lot.
• The feeling of  having trouble concentrating.
• You don’t feel as motivated at work.
• At some point your self-confidence will be slipping away.

Behavior

• Feeling more agressive than other
• You are more like to isolate yourself from others
• The feeling of to crave for the usage of drugs , alcohol or start smoking
• You are working less efficient and start making more mistakes

Of course these are symptoms that you should see in a longer period of time. Everyone can have a bad day but that doesn’t mean you are nearing a burn-out.

How to handle a burn-out?

A lot of organizations recommend different training to help you associating with stress. Trying to see what caused your burn-out can help you with understanding the situation better and can help you with getting a better grip around your situation.

The longer you wait while pressuring yourself, the longer it will take to recover. Intervening at a timely manner is important because getting rid of the overloaded feeling.

Doctors also will prescribe medications that will temporally support your mood and help physically to restore your energy. Even after the medications it is important to try to change the situation that got you on a burn-out in the first place.

Causes

Burn-outs are always the results of a combination from the situation, a personality and the environment. In every situation one will come out more strong than others.

The situation

Situations that are the cause of your stress can come back daily in your life and it’s important to see what gives you stress. By changing that situation or even eliminating the situation out of your life, you reduce the stress that you have to deal with every day.

A personality

How someone functions can play a big role in how you take and can deal with different kinds of stress. For one person it can be a fun challenge but for another person it can be a really stressful task.

Other personal characteristics can also be a problem and can one of the reasons you are more easily to get a burn-out. If u have any difficulties with expressing how you feel towards other, you find It hard to ask help from others, you think it’s hard to say no, you are pessimistic or even when you can’t look positive on the achievements you did.  These can give you a higher chance for leading you toward a burn-out.

Environment

Even your environment can be a critical point. Having people around you with positivity or friends around you who you can easily talk to can help lower the risk of you getting a burn-out.  Living in calmer and more positive environment can help you withstand harder and more stressful situations.

Things you can do in advance

Acting on time is of course the important thing in the whole process. With tips like these you can avoid those situations.

• Always take enough time after a stressful situation.
• Try to handle small matters as quickly as possible. This way small matters don’t stack up into a big mountain of matters.
• Put priorities for yourself and take extra time in mind.
• Check if it’s realistic. In doubt ask a friend for advice.
• Take one thing at a time. Focus on your current thing.
• Put you own boundaries and say no when you have too much to do already.
• Make enough time for your own hobbies or own free time spending. Physical exercise is also a way to detour your stress
• Search the thing that relaxes you the most and make time for this in your own schedule

How many people suffer from a burn-out?

If u are ever thinking that it would be embarrassing to tell people you are suffering from symptoms of a burn-out, don’t be.

The number of people suffering from a burn-out are rising surprisingly really fast. At the end of 2017  140.000 people were sitting at home from mental illness and the big number is due to different kinds of burn-outs. This number is the increase of 39% compared to 2012.

Digitalization brings a lot of stress at everyone’s workplace because there are more things to be expected of the workforce. Bigger companies will always try to change their way of working to make their production as efficient as possible. All these things can add stress to your normal environment and can lead to early symptoms of a burn-out.

How can you support someone with a burn-out?

While it is your other half, a family or even a good friend it’s hard to watch them suffer from a burn-out. While it is having a big impact on his or her life it could also have a big impact on your own life. That’s why it is important while trying to help them to also take some time for yourself and catch your breath

Your part during the healing process

The role from the person’s friends or family is important. They know the person like no other and were there when it all happened. Maybe it’s thanks to you they went looking for help to fix it. That’s why it’s important to be by their side when they are being helped.

After the process

Even after getting help it’s important to try and change this behavior. It’s understandable if it doesn’t work from the first try but it’s important for your own health to keep on going until you’ve succeeded in lowering the stress in your daily life. That’s why it’s important for the person to have good friends around them so if something bothers them they have someone they could easily talk to.

Go against the expectations

In every culture or for every different country everyone will have some expectations for them made, people expect you to do this or that but that doesn’t mean you actually have to that. You have to do things you want to do, the things you like to do and the things where you feel comfortable with.

Of course having these expectations can be stressful and but it’s also important to keep in mind if u can actually change anything about it. If u can’t change anything about it you shouldn’t be stressing about it either because adding stress in your life isn’t bad but it could be quickly too much.

Going in against expectations can also be really hard and could bring a lot of stress with it but for most people, trying to fit in the expectations that were made for them is harder than going in against the stream.

The relationship between a burn-out and a depression

There are a lot of assumptions that a depression and a burn-out are the same thing but that’s not true because you’ll get a burn-out from a long-term overload while you get depressed through major life events.

With a depression you will feel less energized about anything while with a burn-out you will only feel less energized towards your work related things. With a burn-out you can always enjoy everything else while a depression will work on your mood: nothing is positive or even worth your time.

Different ages

Burn-out sometimes even occur with younger people or teenagers. The expectations for them is of course really high. Parents expect them to get good degrees, to build a good social life, to have a lot of hobby’s and all of that while their body’s and mind are in the midst of developing.

Teenagers don’t have the exact same burn-out because with teenagers they show scared feelings while having dejected behavior. Teenagers start losing interest and start performing less good while sometimes they even start to behave aggressively. With teenagers s something like this can be accompanied with anxiety. Anxiety can have different bad effects on your life. Read about it here.

A bore-out

A bore-out is extreme boredom at work. It has the same symptoms as a burn-out: feeling tired and negative feelings towards work related tasks. The cause for this phenomenon is routine work or work below employee level.

A bore-out can arise because an employee ‘grows out of his job’ through years of experience and knowledge. The best solution for a bore-out is probably to make the current work more interesting in a timely manner (for example by taking additional courses) or to look for a different, more challenging job.