Feeling Burnout? Here's How to Save your Sanity

Burnout is a state of exhaustion that happens when we experience prolonged or chronic stress. Experts say burnout is on the rise. Here’s how to spot it, and what to do about it.

Burnout is deep exhaustion – mental, physical, and emotional – caused by prolonged exposure to stress. When you’re suffering from burnout, you may feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unmotivated or unable to keep up with the many demands of adulting. The increased stress can cause you to check out and feel as if you don’t have the energy for much of anything…even fun activities you usually love, like hobbies or hanging out with friends and family.

 

When you’re trying to slog through burnout, your energy may be low, leaving you unproductive as the tasks continue piling up. This vicious cycle can leave you feeling hopeless and like you’ll never get out from under “all the things,” creating more stress. This chronic stress can impact virtually every area of your life, including your physical and mental health.

 

Symptoms of Burnout Feeling Burnout? Here's How to Save your Sanity

Burnout is more than just a bad day. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and exhausted on a regular basis, burnout may be behind it. It doesn’t happen all at once – it’s a gradual process, so learning to recognize the signs of burnout can help you reduce your stress and prevent burnout.

 

Some of the key signs of burnout are:

• Feeling tired all the time
• Your sleep isn’t restorative
• Changes in eating and sleeping habits
• Body aches, stomach issues, and other somatic symptoms
• Easily irritated or pessimistic
• Feeling detached or alone
• Unmotivated and uninspired
• Feeling trapped by your obligations
• Missing or being late/leaving early at work
• Avoiding or procrastinating on tasks
• Skipping out on responsibilities

 

Burnout is a recognized clinical diagnosis, and it has reached levels where it’s considered a public health problem. Trying to force yourself to work through it is counterproductive and will only further exacerbate the things you’re experiencing.

 Feeling Burnout? Here's How to Save your Sanity

So How Should I Handle Burnout?

You can prevent, reduce, or handle burnout by managing and decreasing your stress. The “3 R’s” can help you with this.

• Recognize: Understand the signs and symptoms of burnout, and be vigilant about looking out for them.
• Reverse: Manage your stress, get support, and reverse the course towards burnout.
• Resilience: Learn how to “bounce back” from stress by increasing resilience. Resiliency can be improved by taking intentional action to safeguard and care for your physical and mental health, such as learning new coping skills and making the ones you already have a habit.

Prioritizing your self-care can help you recover from burnout – or stop it from happening. Self-care can consist of many things, including prayer/worship, reading to or listening to Quran, spending time with family and friends, taking alone time for yourself to rest and recharge, eating nourishing foods, getting enough sleep, doing fun hobbies, and even activities like going for a mani/pedi. Your self-care is unique to you!

 

Have you ever experienced burnout? How did you overcome it? Drop a comment and let us know. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at @tuesdayinlove.