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If you said you had burnout in the early 1970s, you may have been frowning.
At the time, the term was used informally to describe the side effects experienced by heavy drug users: the general darkening of mental faculties, for example, as was the case for many animal revelers . However, when the German-American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger discovered the problem of burnout in New York in 1974, in a clinic for drug addicts and homeless, Freudenberger did not think about drug addicts.
The clinic volunteers were also struggling: their work was intense and many began to feel demotivated and emotionally exhausted. If they had already found their work rewarding, they had become cynical and depressed. they did not give their patients the attention they deserved. Freudenberger defined this new alarming condition as a state of exhaustion caused by prolonged overwork – and borrowed the term "burnout" to describe it.
Burnout has three elements: a feeling of exhaustion, a mental detachment from work and a poor performance at work
Its popularity was explosive and today, burnout is a worldwide phenomenon. Although statistics on the prevalence of burnout are hard to come by, 595,000 people in the UK alone have suffered stress at work in 2018.
Athletes get it. YouTube stars get it. Entrepreneurs get it. Freudenberger himself eventually gets it. At the end of last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the latest manual on the International Clbadification of Diseases, which addresses this issue of fashion, will recognize this problem, which it describes as a syndrome " resulting from chronic stress at work that has not been successfully managed. "
According to the WHO, burnout has three elements: a feeling of exhaustion, mental detachment from work and poorer performance at work. But wait until you're completely exhausted, something about it does not help and you would not wait to treat another illness until it's too late.
Feel the burn
So, how do you know if you are almost – but not quite – exhausted?
"Many signs and symptoms of pre-exhaustion would be very similar to depression, "says Siobhán Murray, psychotherapist based in County Dublin, Ireland, and the author of a book on burnout, The Burnout Solution. Murray suggests being cautious about rampant bad habits, such as increased alcohol consumption and sugar addiction to get through the day. Also, be aware of feelings of fatigue that will not go away. "So, even if you sleep well, at 10 o'clock in the morning, you already count the hours spent in bed. Or do not have the energy needed to exercise or walk around. "
Although there are many treatment options for depression, burnout remains the best way to change lifestyle habits
As soon as you start feeling this, Murray advises you to go see your doctor.
"Depression and burnout are very similar, but, even though the enthusiasm generated by the excitement was getting bigger today, burnout is now a disease, but it is still not one. It is always clbadified as a professional phenomenon. "It is important to get help. on the part of a health professional able to distinguish the two because there are many treatment options for depression, burnout is best treated by making changes to the mode of life.
And how do you know if you are about to be exhausted or if you live a difficult month? "Stress is really important and anxiety is what motivates us to do well," says Murray. "It's when we are continually exposed to stress and anxiety, that we do not let go, that it starts to turn into burnout."
Take this big project you worked on. It is normal to feel an adrenaline rush when you think about it, and maybe it has kept you awake at night. But, suggests Murray, if you still feel restless once the task is over, it's time to determine if you run a risk of burnout. "It's when you bring that with you into the next stage of your day and add it continually," she says.
When we are continually exposed to stress and anxiety, that we do not let go, it starts to turn into burnout – Siobhán Murray
Cynicism is another clbadic sign of the impending approach to burnout: to feel that your work is of little value, to avoid social commitments and to become more susceptible to disappointment.
"Someone on the verge of feeling begins to feel emotionally numb or mentally distant," says Jacky Francis Walker, a London-based psychotherapist who specializes in burnout. "As they did not have the ability to involve so much in the ordinary things of life."
She also recommends looking for the latest sign of burnout, namely the unshakeable feeling that the quality of your work is beginning to deteriorate. "People say" but it's not me! "," I'm not like that "," I can usually do x, y and z ". But of course, if they are in a state of physical exhaustion, they are not within their normal range, "says Walker.
If that sounds less than scientific, check out the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a test designed to measure burnout. The most widely used is the MBI-General Survey, which measures among other things exhaustion, cynicism and the extent to which you believe yourself at work.
First published in 1981, it has been cited hundreds of times in studies since then. Although it's usually used to measure burnout once it's in full swing, there's no reason you can not apply it to see if you're getting close to it.
You are pre-sold out: what's next?
The only way to stop burnout – and banish it for good – is to eliminate the underlying problem.
"What's left in your life that you can leave temporarily or permanently? It could be [sleeping a lot] to recover from physical signs of burnout, for example, "says Murray.
Walker has a three-step program, which includes determining the reason there is a gap between what a person can offer and what she thinks she is asked to give. "Sometimes it's because they feel the need to be too perfect, or they can have the impostor syndrome where they have to work very hard to conceal that they're not as good as everyone else's. thought."
According to a study conducted in 2018, burnout results from unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workload and a lack of clarity about the role a person should play.
However, sometimes the work environment is the problem. According to a Gallup study conducted in 2018 among 7,500 American workers, burnout results from unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workload and lack of clarity about the role a person should play. Workers were also stressed by the lack of support from their manager and unreasonable time pressure.
"Another problem may be that the values of society are seriously at odds with the person's own values, which creates a sense of tension and dissonance, because they do something they do not believe in," says Walker. . In some cases, his clients can solve the problem by taking something satisfying outside of work, but very occasionally, they decide to make a more radical change, such as changing company or even changing profession.
Whatever the cause of your burnout, Murray's main advice is to be nice to yourself.
According to Murray's experience, one of the major drivers of the burnout epidemic is the current culture of wanting everything. Often, it is simply not possible to have a healthy social life, to carry out a large-scale project and to achieve all your personal fitness goals at the same time. She says that it is crucial to prioritize and not expect too much of yourself; when others seem both the perfect boss, fitness idol and friend, they probably mislead us – or at least getting a lot of help.
If you feel like you're about to join the Burnout Club, step back, find out what's wrong – and let yourself be won.
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