Are You Suffering From Burnout?

Burnout is a term that is closely related to stress. Burnout occurs when your body and mind are continually stressed to the point when you begin to develop emotional and physical fatigue. If you have been continually subjected to high levels of stress over an extended period of time it can bring feelings that eventually have an effect on every aspect of your life, you are then said to have “burnout”.

While burnout is related to severe stress, it is different from just being excessively stressed. Many people live for years with long-term stress without “burning out”. While signs and symptoms of burnout can be very similar to those felt when stressed, when you “burnout”, you have the symptoms of stress but along with this also feelings of emotional exhaustion and negativity.

The signs that you may be heading for “burnout” include the following symptoms, lower down the scale indicates symptoms you may feel the closer to “burnout” you become.

• You begin to have problems with your digestive system
• Your blood pressure starts to rise
• You begin to suffer severe headaches
• You start grinding your teeth consistently
• You begin to feel extremely fatigued
• You may suffer from heart problems or even heart attack
• You may suffer from stroke
• You begin to feel increasingly hopeless and powerless
• You begin to feel dissociation
• Satisfaction from work and life in general deteriorates
• Feelings of deep resentment build up
• You feel in a rut and there is no way out
• You become withdrawn and totally isolated
• You feel incompetent and a total failure

The end result of these symptoms show one as suffering from “burnout” due to continual and unrelenting long periods of stress, they are nothing more than the result of an extremely tired body and mind. At the time of actual “burnout” you will be experiencing problems not only at work but also with relationships and almost every aspect of what you used to know as “normal” life.

In order to prevent burnout it is important that you recognize the symptoms and try to eliminate as much stress as possible from your life. Stress management is essential to prevent burnout and using stress management techniques can prevent many of the symptoms. To reduce burnout or prevent it you can take the following precautions by making changes to your physical, mental and social well-being.

• Have a complete physical with your doctor
• Make sure you eat a health diet
• Make sure you are getting enough daily exercise
• Make sure you get enough sleep
• Learn relaxation techniques to deal with stress and stressful situations

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