BURNOUT: There is more to life than productivity

Part one: The warning signs

It’s been a very weird two years.

Who could have anticipated that a bat in Wuhan would cause so much grief on such a grand scale?

Covid has had an astronomical affect on our lives. Our short and long-term health. It’s separated us from our loved ones. Prevented us from going home. Seen us lose income, jobs, confidence and small businesses. There’s been a loss of community. And a huge number of people working twice as hard for half the salary. Astronomical losses and the gain of lots of stress.

Then came the second wave of stress: the never-ending media coverage of public health notices, which vaccine to get and whether or not you even qualified. It has divided our communities, families and workplaces.

With the Australian population DELIGHTFULLY becoming more and more vaccinated, restrictions slowly lifting, borders reopening (and bras
re-clipping behind our backs), we’re all thrilled to be getting back to normal. But, the return to all of this ‘stability’ brings on a different wave of stress. 'Normal life’, as it turns out, was pretty fucking exhausting.

People are massively reevaluating their lifestyles and making huge changes (SEE: The great resignation). While burnout isn’t a new concept, it’s definitely super relevant and become way more prevalent these past two years. We’ve been at the mercy of bouncing in and out of lockdowns and are now collectively feeling the weight of societal pressure to ‘make up for the lost time’.

We are putting insurmountable pressure and expectations on the swift return to normalcy - on a hot vaxxed summer of social events! Hobbies! Working twice as hard to earn back losses! Gym! Sports! Family commitments! Travel!

This is 100% sending us ass over teakettle down the dangerous path to BURNOUT.

What is burnout?

Burnout is so much more than tiredness. So much more than stress. It’s serious. It’s being SO exhausted, SO stressed - emotionally, physically and mentally – that it causes long-term physiological changes to the body. Scary shit.

Prolonged stress has the power to alter hormones and attack our immune systems. To experience burnout is to have every ounce of energy sapped from all areas of your life.

You know the saying ‘red flags are invisible if they are blowing in your direction’?Burnout doesn’t happen all at once.

It can sneak up on you… you might not even know that you’re experiencing it until you hit absolute breaking point. We often bargain with ourselves in longer periods of stress: ‘things are REALLY crazy right now but will be so much better once [THIS THING] happens”.

But the reality is, our body doesn’t give two cahoots about that timeline. It’s doing its own thang, and it can only take so much stress before it goes ‘ok nope. See ya. Sick of you.’ So, it is beyond important to constantly check-in with yourself AND to be able to recognise the signs of burnout in not only yourself, but in your loved ones. Once your’e in a really low place, it can be incomprehensibly difficult to pull yourself out – we need to deal with burnout as soon as you spot it!

Here are 8 warning signs of burnout:

MOTIVATION TANK IS ON EMPTY

Physically and emotionally, you are running on empty. You may be feeling a sense of self loathing and failure - like you can’t do anything right. But, you also don’t have the energy to care or to do something to change the course.

The difference between burnout and a stock-standard tired day, is that burnout doesn’t discriminate. She’s good like that. Not only do you have zero motivation whatsoever to do the things you ‘need’ to do (work stuff, life admin), but burnout means you also cbf doing things you normally would want to do (catch up with friends! Exercise!).

2. YOU. ARE. SO. TIRED… BUT CAN’T SLEEP

Burning the candle at both ends? One of the most evil side effects is that your sleep cycle - the body’s circadian rhythm - walks out the door. Stress causes our nervous system to start pumping out hormones cortisol and adrenaline – which get the blood PUMPING, the mind racing and generally just put our bodies into a super alert and heightened state (aka, fight or flight).

I imagine in simpler times, this was so that when you saw your caveman pal being attacked by a wooly mammoth, you would be able to run away really fast. I don’t think it was designed as much for laying in bed worrying about a work presentation in the morning, or anxious 3am thoughts that all your friends hate you. But alas, here we are. 2021.

You’re battling stinging eyes and fighting yawns through the day, but when it’s FINALLY time for sweet, sweet sleep, your head hits the pillow… and suddenly you’re thinking about that thing you said to that person when you were 15, making lists, having the brilliant-est of brilliant ideas. Some ‘I’ve gotta remember to do that in the morning!’ and some ‘I should reply to that person’. Maybe just some spiralling, hypothesising some stressful social scenarios.

If you’re DREAMING about work, or the stressful situation? Yikes. Double red flag.

3. EVERYTHING = MEH

You’re feeling unfulfilled and cynical, everything feels hard and you honestly can’t be fucked. Sometimes burnout makes us really look inward. We begin to struggle to find meaning and joy in our day-to-day lives and interactions. Maybe things that used to bring you joy don’t anymore, you feel less excited to connect with friends and family, or you don’t find your work as exciting and rewarding as you used to.

4. TABLE FOR ONE

One of the key burnout warning signs is that you begin to want to isolate yourself from the people around you. Saying no to some plans in order to use that time for some self care is positive and a great step in the right direction. However, you can stray too far. On the other end of the spectrum, if we’re burnt out, we can find ourselves not wanting to share our time with others. Maybe you don’t feel like chatting to friends, like being ‘on’ is going to take a huge amount of energy – energy that you don’t have to give.

5. FEELING EASILY OVERWHELMED AND IRRITABLE

That feeling when every little thing just feels so much harder than it is?

Tiny things that would never normally phase you are driving you absolutely crazy or making you mad? Someone asks you for a tiny favour and it feels like they’re asking for the world? The waiter tells you they’re out of almond croissants and you start crying? You’re BURNT OUT, baby.

6. FAILING? FLAILING? BOTH.

Overcommitting our time and energy sometimes leaves us with our head juuuuuust above the waves. When really, we wanna be swimmin’. If you’re feeling like you’re failing yourself and everybody around you, your eyes may be too big for your stomach…

Dishing out apologies left, right and centre? Feeling like you’re not keeping promises you made to your friends, family, colleagues or yourself? BURNOUT.

7. BRAIN FOG

A massive part of being stretched too thin is that you have a very real inability to concentrate. You can’t properly absorb information or anticipate issues ahead of time. So you kind of stitch your future-self up. Maybe you’re extra forgetful lately? And maybe people are calling you out on it… contributing to the cycle and making you more anxious, apologetic and stressed. You may feel like time is flying by and you’re living reactively, dealing with tasks and interactions as they come and not having any energy to look ahead.

8. YOU’RE IN AUTOPILOT

Cruise control has its purpose, but it’s no way to live. Being overwhelmed and thinking about a million things at once means we’re NOT AT ALL present in the moment. Just flowing through the motions. You might arrive somewhere in your car with no real memory of the drive there. You go to send a text and realise you already sent it – three hours ago. An extension of being exhausted is often the very strange feeling that you’re a little bit outside your body.