Burn out: is it real?

The feeling of burn out is one that we can all recognize: feeling exhausted and simply “over it”. But is burn out a real thing? How does this compare to stress or mental health concerns like anxiety and depression?

Burn out isn’t yet recognized as a clinical, or medical condition. The term actually comes from the working world and is often studied and related to feelings of exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy at work. Often we see research being done on burn out in health care providers like nurses, doctors and medical students - people who are working demanding schedules and are providing emotional support. The experience of burn out is not limited to health care! Many of us can relate to these feelings in various jobs we have worked. There are studies that suggest that up to 85% of financial professionals have experienced burn out. Burn out is an interesting concept for employers to consider, but also for individuals to consider for their own health. It’s been linked to increased cardiovascular conditions such as increased blood pressure and artery diseases, sleep disturbances, increased drug and alcohol use, and increased depression and anxiety. While burn out in research is still linked to the working world, many of us can relate to the feelings - especially over the COVID-19 pandemic - of exhaustion, being drained from supporting others, overwhelm through listening to the news, or just trying to navigate the changing landscape of the world.

What does it feel like to be burnt out?

Christina Maslach, one of the main researchers in the field of burn out has identified three components that help us understand the feeling.

Exhaustion

Exhaustion is the main symptom of burn out. It can can show up as a physical, cognitive, and emotional ability to do our work, and feel positive about it.This exhaustion can come from the demands of our job, having too much to do and not enough resources or time, workplace culture (being on 24/7), not having the skills to do tasks, or not liking your work.Usually this manifests for people as an inability to see the greater picture in their work, routine tasks become demanding, and a struggle to get in and out of work.

Cynicism

This usually manifests as a feeling of detachment from our work and a lack of pride in what we do. We don’t feel invested in our assignments, projects, colleagues, and can feel overall negative towards these different areas. Cynicism is often the result of high conflict, lack of autonomy in decision making, and unfairness at work.

Inefficacy

People who are burnt out sometimes experience the feeling as feeling incapable of completing their tasks or that their skills are slipping. This can lead them to feel like they aren’t preforming at a top level. A lack of meaning and connection to their work can lead people to feel unappreciated.According to the research, those experiencing burnout can fit different “profiles” of these burnout characteristics. Some may experience all three of these components, while others fit primarily into one type - primarily cynical, inefficacious or exhausted.

How can we support burn out?

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms of burn out there are things you can implement into your life for support!

Prioritize Taking Care of Yourself

In order to combat feelings of burn out, we need a foundation of strong health. We like to call these lifestyle factors the “pillars” of health. These involve how we eat (our diet), move (how we move our bodies in ways we enjoy), think (our mindset and mindfulness practices), rest (our sleep, but also activities that restore us) and connect (how we connect with others, but also the world around us).When we are focusing on activities in all of the pillars, and keeping a balance that makes sense for our life, we have a sturdy foundation to build upon.

Reflect, Evaluate, and Change

When we are feeling burnt out, it’s also important to reflect on where our time and energy are going. We often tell our patients to complete an activity we refer to as DNE - draining, neutralizing, energizing. We have them take a look at their week, and pencil in next to every activity and social interaction a D, N, or E to express whether they felt drained, neutral or energized after that interaction or event.This reflection practice can help build the foundation to evaluate what changes can be made, at work, or in our personal lives, to focus more on energizing activities or social interactions and less on draining ones.Changing these activities might involve setting boundaries, redirecting energy and having conversations with employers and friends about what you want and need.

Job Crafting

Job crafting is the concept of allowing employees to customize their tasks and jobs to better suit their motives, passions and skills. This concept jumps off the idea of reflect, evaluate, and change - and requires support from employers to encourage employees to independently structure these aspects of job specific tasks. And it also takes reflecting from the individual to establish where change can be made, and how they can structure their role to better suit them.These changes can be small - such as fostering social connections with co-workers in other departments, or establishing an organization system that supports your work and needs. There are always ways to personalize your work, no matter what role you do.Job crafting can help increase engagement (combating cynicism!), improving mastery of skills (combating inefficacy!), and making people feel happier at work.

Connect

Another way to combat burn out is to create meaningful relationships at work. Research has been found having friends at work is especially important for women. Friendships enhance women’s enjoyment of work and their performance making them less likely to quit or search for other employment, it helps them feel less stressed and more connected to, and trusting of co workers. This is often called relational energy - which is the energy that is emotionally charged or drained in every social interaction.

Purpose and Meaning

While not everyone feels as if their career is their dream - or what they absolutely love to do - there are ways to reframe our roles and encourage a feeling of purpose and meaning at work. In doing these reflections, we can support individuals in feeling happier and more engaged with their work.

Values and Priorities

We often encourage our patients to reflect on their values - aspects of their life by which they judge what is important. There is research that reflecting on values, and writing about why they are meaningful to us, is one of the most effective psychological interventions – supporting us feeling more powerful, proud, in control, loving, empathetic and reduces unhelpful rumination after a stressful experience. It’s thought that all these great benefits come from the fact it helps us transform how we think about stressful situations and shows us we can improve our situation through our own effort and support of others. You can access our values and priorities work sheet here.

Using skills at work

Leaning on your own unique skills at work can be really helpful. Figuring out what these are can involve taking a character strengths survey (like the one offered by the via-character institute) that helps you identify your top strengths. Once you have identified your top five strengths, you aim to use one of them, in a new way, every day for a week! This practice has been found to increase levels of happiness, and lower levels of depressive symptoms - benefits lasting as long as six months later! It is also a nice practice to go back to if you are feeling blah - remembering what you are good at and finding a new way to use that in your life!

When does burn out become a mental health concern?

While we have been mostly focusing on burn out as a workplace concept, as healthcare providers we are mindful of the overlap between stress, anxiety, fatigue, and depression. Like anything there can be many reasons why we feel low energy, anxious, or depressed, including physical concerns and health conditions, but also situational and emotional experiences.We believe the feeling over burn out can extend beyond the working sphere, and we are here to chat about your experience. Burn out can also exist at the same time as mental health concerns, or physical reasons for fatigue. We are able to support you in an investigation that helps determine where the sources of your symptoms and experiences are coming from, getting to the root of the best way to support you.There is no direct line from where burn out bleeds into mental health concerns, but if you are feeling depressed, anxious or unwell, do not be afraid to seek support. This is a common experience for many people and there are wonderful supports and practitioners that are here to help you!Book a complimentary meet and greet with our naturopathic doctors or nurse practitioner to start exploring ways naturopathic medicine and therapy can support you!