How do you know if you are burned out?

in collaboration with

Johanna Rozenblum (clinical psychologist)

It can happen that a professional mission puts you under a little pressure. But too much anxiety can lead to burnout. It’s burnout. A situation which, if not taken into account, can have a lasting impact on you.

What do we call burnout?

Used in all sauces whenever fatigue is involved, the concept of burn-out is not always well understood. Sarah Boss, a psychotherapist, interviewed by ScienceFocuslast December 7 gives a simple definition: “Burn-out refers to feeling so stressed over a long period of time that chronic syndromes appear.” In the workplace, burnout can occur due to work overload, but also, conversely, boring work. “It is the excess or insufficient stimuli that causes the symptoms to appear.” Burnout also occurs when people are under too much pressure, get no rewards at work, and feel neglected.

But unlike anxiety, or nervousness, burnout also occurs over time and in the failure to recover. “Stress is a positive thing, it helps us feel motivated or focused when we need it. But then it would be natural for this period of stress to end” evokes such. What characterizes burnout is therefore the failure to recover after a period of stress.

What are the signs of burnout?

For Johanna Rozenblum, clinical psychologist and member of our Doctissimo expert committee, professional burnout is “a suffering which becomes widespread at work but which contaminates other spheres of life, the emotional, friendly, private sphere, and which no longer allows us to have a satisfactory quality of life”.

It groups the signs into 4 categories that can put you on the path:

• Anxiety that flares up and goes beyond the work environment, with trouble falling asleep and sleep that is no longer really restorative;
• Problems with concentration and memorization which go with a loss of efficiency which often leads to a loss of self-confidence;
• Apprehension about going to work, which can range from anxiety, to physical somatic symptoms such as vomiting, locked back, tachycardia, panic attacks, etc.
• Depressive symptoms, sadness, a loss of meaning, yet with an obsession with thinking about work day and night and which no longer allows you to flourish and feel good.

When the signs of exhaustion are there, it is important not to ignore them. Rather, the best way to reduce them would be to think about how you can resolve the deep-rooted issues that are causing them, how to work differently without burning out. This could involve a therapist, to understand personality traits or past experiences, such as perfectionism or fear of not doing enough, that may be affecting your performance. Other physical measures, such as finding a way to improve your sleep and adding exercise back into your daily life, can help you recover better.

When you notice signs of burnout, it is important to seek help from the medical profession. Talking about it is already a first step towards better being.

Slide: Symptoms of burnout