Burnout: here's how to recognize the symptoms – National

When friends or family members ask you how you are doing, a common answer is "busy". Being busy has become a kind of social currency – a currency that can lead to burnout.

The World Health Organization now recognizes that the "overwork" of work is a professional phenomenon. The syndrome is included in the agency's medical diagnostic manual, which guides healthcare professionals around the world.

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According to the WHO, doctors can establish a diagnosis of burnout if a patient has three symptoms: feeling of burnout or exhaustion; feel mentally distant or cynical about your job and problems to get the job done.

If you had told people that you felt exhausted in the early 1970s, you would have had a lot of disapproving looks. At the time, the term was used to describe the side effects of excessive drug use.

It was only when the German-American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger borrowed the term in 1974 that the definition changed.

He described the tasks of volunteers at a New York clinic: gradual emotional exhaustion, loss of motivation, and reduced commitment to work.

According to Harvard business review, workplace stress results in health care costs estimated at US $ 125 billion to US $ 190 billion each year.

"When you're stressed, your body releases cortisol and it's great. If a car stops in front of you and you have to brake suddenly, you benefit from this immediate relaxation of stress, "says Siobhán Murray, a psychotherapist living in Dublin.

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"It's a good stress that keeps us safe, but when we're burned out and we're in this horrible phase of ongoing stress, our body still produces cortisol. We do not have enough. We do not allow ourselves to replenish the reservoir, "the author of The burnout solution added.

Cortisol plays an important role in helping your body react to stress, which helps regulate your metabolism and your immune response.

Symptoms of burnout

Although the symptoms of burnout vary from one person to another, according to experts, the most common are:

• Signs of physical exhaustion. These may include chronic fatigue, insomnia, constantly falling ill, and weight gain or loss of appetite.
• Signs of emotional exhaustion. These can manifest themselves as anxiety, depression, and anger problems. There is also a tendency to pessimism, cynicism and detachment.
• A drop in productivity. Your overworked brain begins oversight important tasks on a regular basis. This, with a inability to concentrate and pay attention, usually leads to a vicious circle, where the workload only grows.

Laura Abate of Montreal worked as an independent blogger on a trip when she was exhausted. She said it was this self-imposed guilt of wanting to succeed and comparing herself to other people who had pushed her to the limit.

"IIt was simply a total lack of energy, clarity. I would say that I am rather depressed because I do not want to talk to anyone, I do not really want to get out of the house, "said Abate.

Abate says she is a self-employed worker, worked 60 hours a week and never stopped working.

"And all my goal in life was to have the freedom to travel and this trip became a dark subject for me. And so, mentally, I just was not there. It looks like a black cloud, I suppose, and nothing seems to make sense. "

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A Gallup study found that nearly a quarter of American workers felt exhausted at work "very often or always". Experts say there is a stigma badociated with burnout.

"That's why a lot of people I see here who, you know, are burned out or have been on long-term leave, feel like they've failed. They feel weak and it is so difficult to change this fundamental belief because they are perceived as a weakness or they are despised, "said Kristin Greco of the Newmarket psychotherapy team.

Experts say the most important thing to understand with burnout is that a vacation or two will make no difference. You must find the cause of your exhaustion and make adjustments.

"People do not ask for help or if they do, there could be a" here, a pill, it'll cure you ".

To be healthy, you must challenge yourself to grow, go beyond the comfort zones and know when to rest and play.

A horde of toxic products could rage all day and all night, giving priority to work, bringing productivity as a sign of honor and imposing results at any cost.

Experts say the latter is often the result of a toxic work culture or unresolved fears about their dignity. If I succeed, this will be enough.

Lifestyle choices that can prevent burnout

According to Dr. Shimi Kang, a Vancouver-based psychiatrist and a regular speaker at the workplace and mental health, your daily life should include:

• To play. It involves stimulating the brain in a new and diverse way, she said. This could mean embracing a hobby that has nothing to do with the tasks you perform at work.
• Other. Having "positive and meaningful social connections" is also a proven way to reduce stress, Kang said. It usually has to go beyond the partner and the children, she added. "As mammals, we are supposed to live in community." Whether it's friends or extended family members, everyone needs a "village."
• Time to stop. It does not mean a vacation, said Kang. Although unplugging for a few days or weeks is certainly useful, our brain must relax and recharge daily. This may mean taking a lunch break instead of swallowing your meal in front of the keyboard; go for a walk in the evening, or even take a shower and read a book instead of spending the last moments of the day surfing the web. However, it is not easy to create time for downtime in our overloaded routines. This requires a conscious effort, said Kang, who advises his patients to literally create a pie chart of their 24-hour day and take the time to relax for a few moments, without eliminating some tasks that are not absolutely necessary. required.

It is therefore up to the person to set limits or employers to recognize when a person is exhausted to the point of being exhausted and developing an action plan.

– With files from Erica Alini, Global News