Let's Talk About The Burnout Syndrome

Now, more than ever, the professional side has a strong impact on personal life.

The sustained effort that you dedicate to the effort to evolve professionally as much as possible or to maintain a certain balance between the professional and the personal life puts its imprint on your physical and mental state.

This article provides explanations of why burnout can occur - a psychological phenomenon that also has a medical component.

Are you requested a lot?

Burnout defines chronic professional stress that manifests itself through a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. This is due to the constant demands, routine and monotony, the hierarchical system, and the need for a role.

All this keeps the individual under constant pressure, which can result in exhaustion, lack of energy, and permanent fatigue. The person affected by burnout feels that any activity that was once perceived with a medium or low degree of difficulty is now felt like an overload.

Burnout causes an inability to access their resources, so that the phenomenon of forced adaptation, respectively detachment, occurs. In this case, pessimism, frustration is felt, and the employee becomes absent and indifferent, abandoning himself. And from here to depression, there are only a few steps left.

Does burnout mean depression?

Burnout can increase the risk of depression. The two pathological disorders have common symptoms, so it is important to differentiate them. Burnout is caused by prolonged stressful activity, while depression has a much more complex origin and manifestations.

There are recurring negative thoughts in depression that affect all areas of life, including professional life. Depression also has a psychotic component, through the desire and risk of suicide. Burnout usually shows an organizational dysfunction in the work area, but also at school.

Perfectionists, beware!

The need for performance and reporting on one's abilities and achievements can lead to the validation or invalidation of self-esteem. If we come to feel for a long time that emotional exhaustion and that detachment because we fail to feel appreciated or significant, then there are cognitive indicators of burnout: decreased ability to concentrate, lack of creativity, lack of spontaneity, difficulties in performing daily tasks with the day.

Burnout is included in the list of mental illnesses because it also has a medical component. This prolonged stress can lead to tachycardia, palpitations, or high cholesterol. There are also causes related to personality. They are affected by burnout, especially perfectionists, those who need immediate validation and rewards, those who are at the beginning of their career and want to prove their success and move quickly up the hierarchy.

In general, burnout is associated with low self-esteem and poor endurance, and stress resistance. Also, people who have a chaotic lifestyle, do not have the necessary free time to get involved enough in relaxing activities and social activities, do not know a balance in the areas of life, are more prone to this syndrome.

During the holidays, the symptoms worsen

The end of the year is the culmination of burnout. And this is because, as a rule, this is the time to take stock. It is also the time when staff evaluations take place in companies, budgets are made for next year, and the pressure is great.

It is a time of both analysis of what has been achieved so far and a forecast for next year. volume

work increases. There is the pressure of time and sometimes the extended schedule, so the overload. Above all, nature does not help us either. Decreasing the time of day and increasing the time of night lead to severe personal discomfort.

We go to work at night and come back all night. For people affected by burnout, even the holiday season is perceived as stress. They don't have time to buy presents, they don't have time to see friends or family, they don't have time to organize their holiday, and the list goes on.

How to get back in top shape

Yolanda Creţescu is a psychologist with over 13 years of experience in the field and the founder of the Happy Minds Vocational Center for Harmonious Development.

• It is important to find our family, social and emotional balance again and to have better time management. It is also important to consult a specialist, as cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and Adlerian psychotherapy are of real use in managing the emotions caused by burnout.
• It is advisable to give time for hobbies, passions, to practice creative activities, all these contributing to the exit from the daily routine and the area of pathological comfort. It is necessary to make a daily analysis of what happened, of what you have achieved positively for yourself, to re-establish your priorities, introduce the need for time with yourself and personal space, and at work, it is much better to express dissatisfaction and suggestions for change.
• To prevent burnout, you need a good self-image, time and social space, social relationships, and relaxing activities. You need to stay positively connected to your family and of course, you need positive relationships and a positive environment where you work.