Why You’re ALWAYS TIRED! – How To Reduce Stress, Anxiety & BURNOUT | Izabella Wentz
While frequently associated with a stressful job, burnout can affect many areas of your life and even cause health problems. Thankfully, there are ways you can cope with and even overcome this often-debilitating state of being.
Dr. Borland shares burnout’s major symptoms and provides some tips on how to recover.Burnout can be difficult to describe. However, it’s not a medical condition. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, burnout is defined as “physical, emotional or mental exhaustion, accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance and negative attitudes towards oneself and others.”
You may not realize you’ve hit burnout until it’s too late when you’ve crossed the line between “really tired” and “too exhausted to function.” Alternatively, you might be the type of personality who likes to stay busy, and might not recognize when you’re doing too much.
“If you’re used to going 100 miles an hour, and then suddenly take your foot off the accelerator, you’re now still going at 85,” says Dr. Borland. “However, you may feel that that’s somehow not good enough because you’re so used to going at 100 miles an hour. There will be times where you have to go a little faster, but we can’t sustain that 100 miles an hour all the time.”Burnout also happens when your work-life balance gets out of sync. This has been a common occurrence in the last few years, with the rise in remote work and technology permeating our daily lives.
“I’m seeing people that are having a very difficult time finding the necessary boundaries in order to manage their personal life and work demands,” Dr. Borland says. “Finding that balance has proven to be extremely difficult. Throw in the uncertainty regarding COVID-19, and it is really depleting the physical and emotional reserves that we usually hold onto.”Fatigue is a major symptom of burnout and can affect all areas of your life. You might feel like sleeping all the time, or find that even simple tasks take longer to complete. Dr. Borland says the COVID-19 pandemic has only magnified these feelings. “People are really having a hard time trying to balance work and parenting responsibilities — for instance, trying to deal with children and virtual schooling and navigating situations where, frankly, there’s no blueprint,” he says.Tension headaches are a common burnout side effect, Dr. Borland says. “A lot of my patients deal with pretty significant headaches.”The symptoms of burnout can often resemble the symptoms of more serious medical conditions. These can include mental health-related mood disorders.Depression’s symptoms also tend to be more general, he adds. “Imagine you’re experiencing depression and visit a villa in the South of France,” Dr. Borland says. “The reality is, those depressive symptoms are going to accompany you on that trip.”
If you’re dealing with burnout, however, you’ll have a different experience visiting that same villa. “Once you detach from work or whatever it is that’s causing the burnout, you’re going to be able to enjoy that vacation and relax,” he explains. “If you’re feeling depressed, you most likely will not.”Seeing a therapist is often a good first step to tackling burnout. “We often talk about the idea of our gas tanks being on empty,” says Dr. Borland. “And what we do in therapy is really try and focus on how to refill that tank. Having that safe place to talk with someone who is not a family member, or a friend, or a coworker, or a neighbor — but someone who is impartial and is trained to give clinical feedback — can be life-changing, especially during these stressful times we’re living in.”
One of the first things a therapist might want to know is what you’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis. For example, Dr. Borland says if you say you’re not sleeping, eating or concentrating properly because you’re so worried about a work presentation, that’s a big clue something is going on.
What Is Burnout?