If you are starting to feel that life doesn't have the same lustre that it had before, or that you can't seem to find the energy that you once had, then you may well be suffering from burnout.
Burnout, which happens after prolonged periods of stress, can lead to inefficiency or worse. In the serious stages, prolonged depression and the inability to manage even the basic activities of a normal life can be the end result.
From the original article (PDF text)
May 2004
After the Flame Has Died The Dangers of Burnout
C H R I S L O N S D A L E & A S S O C I AT E S
After the Flame Has Died The Dangers of Burnout i saw him one night at the ferry pier, on off a precipice. Like Icarus, he had reached his way back home. He looked for the sun, but the heat melted his wings and strangely haggard, and seemed to be there was nothing left for him but to crash and walking with his body tilted back at an angle. burn. His skin was dry, and his eyes dull. He kept A number of business deals had gone wrong licking his lips like a cornered animal. From for Peter, putting heavy pressure on him to the color is his skin he almost looked like find money that he didn’t have. The pressure somebody who was already dead, but didn’t at work translated to poor relationships at quite know it yet. home, and his girlfriend decided to leave him. “Peter”, I asked. “Are you O.K.?” Through all of this he remained stoic, until He looked at me, his face blank for a moment, suddenly he crashed. A one-night binge on until recognition slowly reflected itself in his alcohol and uppers left him in a state that, to eyes. him, felt like terminal brain damage. He did not realize it at the time, but he had suffered “Chris,ÖI’ve got to talk to you”. His voice was from a serious case of burnout. rasping, almost inaudible. And we spent the next three hours getting to the bottom of what was wrong. What Is Burnout? Initially, I thought that he was on drugs or One of the official definitions of burnout is that something. But it wasn’t that. It was it is “a state of mental and/or physical something much worse, and much more exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged insidious. He had slipped from being in a state stress.” [Girdino, DA, Everly, GS, and Dusek, of serious burnout, into a cycle of deep DE, Controlling Stress and Tension, Allyn & depression. He couldn’t sleep, but was Bacon, Needham Heights, MA, 1996] addicted to sleeping pills. He was eating, but Basically, when you burn out your mind and the nutrients weren’t being absorbed. He tried body have reached a point where they can no to work, but found that he couldn’t. His work longer respond to the demands that you put required him to be creative and he no longer on them. You need energy to get things done, could find that spark of creativity inside himself. but that energy is just not available to you. What had happened? It turned out that life You need your body to respond, but it won’t. had become overwhelming, and a previously You need your mind to generate ideas and energetic and motivated individual had fallen options for you, but it refuses to do so.
C H R I S L O N S D A L E & A S S O C I AT E S
After the Flame Has Died The Dangers of Burnout
How Do You Know When You Are almost detail for detail, and burnout seemed Experiencing Burnout? to be a more likely explanation of what had happened to her. The symptoms of impending burnout can be subtle, or not-so-subtle. They tend to be She had a history of long hours of work, often different for different people, but there are winning against unfavorable odds. She patterns worth watching for. When you are claimed to have been a positive, happy, and already in a state of burnout, the symptoms outgoing person. However, during a period are clear. of holding down an old job while simultaneously setting up her own business she suffered a sudden crash. In response Sadness and Depression she took a mild overdose, and then suffered from subsequent depression and sadness. Depression and sadness are clearly very strong The depression, coupled with a history of signals that you may be suffering from burnout. intense work pointed to burnout. This is especially true if you have historically been a happy and outgoing sort of person. The diagnosis of burnout was strengthened The daily feeling of depression and sadness when she decided to go on “sabbatical” from can be shocking for someone who, for most the normal social demands of her life. This of their life, has been motivated and happy. created the space she needed to begin to regain her energy and excitement for life. When I first met him several years previously Peter was outgoing, happy, motivated and busy. He had an optimistic point of view, and The Heavyness of Life always felt that he would prevail. A very different person to the one I met on the ferry Over the course of my career I have personally that night. That night, and for many months experienced burnout, or something close to previously, Peter had been suffering ongoing it, on a number of occasions. I know that sadness and depression. He had spend I’m there when life just seems too heavy. months obsessively and repeatedly going over There is a growing sense that, as you look and over all the things that went wrong in his around and you see all of the demands on life, wishing for a return to the “good old days”. your life, you know that you can never do all The realization that the “good old days” could of what is required. And that feels heavy. not be recaptured simply added to the You vaguely remember that once you had felt sadness and depression that he was already excited by the things that you wanted to do. feeling. Now, just thinking about all the requirements Recently I was introduced to Wendy, a lady of your job just makes you feel like it’s just too in her late thirties who was also suffering from much. You know that you need to move, to “depression”. The note from her psychiatrist do something, but even that seems indicated that she was taking anti-depressant impossible. It’s like you’re trapped in a field drugs, and that a period of “cognitive therapy” of foggy mud, and the fog weighs down terribly would be necessary for her to improve. Her upon you. Even getting up in the morning story, however, seemed to match Peter’s can, at times, feel like a monumental task.
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After the Flame Has Died The Dangers of Burnout
Often, the heaviness is accompanied by the In Peter’s case, he needed to decide on total inability to think. It is as if your brain certain courses of action to get out of the won’t do what is needed. You know that, if predicament into which he had put himself. you could just put some ideas together then There were things that he could do, and you could find your way out of your those things would help him. However, predicament. But even thinking for the most part, he looked at his just feels like it’s too hard. Your choices and his mind either went brain refuses to give you an blank, or he began to panic. idea and, even if you can Even when he had chosen drag one out of your head, a particular course of action, the second idea to connect he was unable to act. He to the first just never would say to himself, “I appears. should do this”, and then he Peter needed to think. In would start to feel heavy, the fact, his job required it. As a fog would descend over his landscape architect he needed brain, and he would sit there in to put ideas together and present a daze. them to his clients for approval. Even though, The sense that you just don’t know what to in the past, he had hundreds of ideas after do, or what to decide, is a good indicator he burned out he was unable to think of even that burnout is upon you. Even more one idea at all. It was as if his head had been drained of every ounce of creativity or memory that he had ever been gifted with. It was like Physical Symptoms his brain had been burned to a crisp, and it Burnout is frequently accompanied by chronic would no longer do what he asked of it. physical problems of one sort or another. Chronic stomach or bowel problems are very common, as are chronic headaches or Inability to Choose; Inability to Act migraines. The burnout state also brings with it a chronic In Peter’s case he suffered a whole range of inability to choose, or to act. The times when physical problems from impotence to sudden I was burned out I remember looking at all sharp chest pains, to scaly skin and sores of the tasks on my task list and feeling lost that just would not heal. and helpless. There was no way that I could do them all, not in the time available. But I The message is clear. Burnout is dangerous, couldn’t choose any one of the things to start and if it goes too far it can probably kill you. with. Logically, there were one or two things that I needed to start with and complete, but I was unable to think well enough to decide The Early Warning Signals what those should be. So, for hours I sat The section above talks about what can and looked at the list, feeling more and more happen when you are deep into the burnout panic as my lifted flowed past. process. What’s important to remember
C H R I S L O N S D A L E & A S S O C I AT E S
After the Flame Has Died The Dangers of Burnout
about burnout, however, is that it doesn’t just procrastinating, and avoid taking decisions happen overnight. Rather, it is a process that today that you can put off until next week or takes some time. There are three main phases next month. You become adept at ignoring to the development of stress. requests from others, and at coming up with excuses as to why things haven’t been done. Being with other people can seem too much, Stress Arousal and you begin withdrawing from friends and The first stage of developing burnout is known family. Often, even though talking through as Stress Arousal. Your mind perceives problems with others could help solve them, danger in the environment, and responds the energy involved in communicating seems with normal physiological reactions. You start beyond you and so you keep your problems to feel irritable, or anxious. Sometimes your to yourself. You are basically “hiding” from blood pressure will rise, or you might people, decisions, and action. experience heart palpitations. You may find Even though you are hiding, you still feel tired. your teeth getting worn because you are And, the more tired you feel, the more likely grinding them in your sleep. you are to turn to drugs like nicotine or caffeine A really good sign that you are in the stress to maintain your energy levels. Sometimes, arousal phase is that your memory will start people turn to alcohol to alter their mood for to weaken. For me, I know that I’m getting the better. Any change in the pattern of using overly stressed when my short-term memory these types of drugs (alcohol, caffeine, starts to disappear. I find myself walking into nicotine, uppers, etc.) is a good indicator the next room looking for something, but find that you may be on the pathway to burnout. that I have already forgotten what it was that You may also feel strong emotions like anger, I was looking for. or resentment, or both. You feel angry that people are asking so much of you, and resentment that, somehow, your needs aren’t Energy Conservation being taken care of. And you start thinking The next stage, energy conservation, happens to yourself that it’s not fair that they don’t when you have been stressed for a period understand you or your needs. This just of time and the body can no longer keep makes you feel angrier. So angry that you responding with arousal. Instead, your body would never think of sharing with them as a tries to protect you in other ways. You either way of solving your problem. You become start to “hide”, or to “pump” yourself up. cynical and hard and non-communicative. And, whether you are “hiding” or “pumping Some of the real danger in this stage is that “yourself up, you really notice that nothing often you will find yourself desperately trying seems fun any more. It is quite likely that to come up with solutions to get you out of you used to think that your job was enjoyable, the situation you are in. From within the and challenging. By the time you are in the cynicism and anger you start making rash energy conservation stage it no longer feels decisions. You might decide to quit your job, like fun. It just feels like a drag. or sell out a position in a company. Made from a state of cynicism and anger these To protect your energy you start
C H R I S L O N S D A L E & A S S O C I AT E S
After the Flame Has Died The Dangers of Burnout
decisions will, over time, make your situation What is important is that you take steps to worse rather than better. change your physical and mental state.
Exhaustion Learn to Communicate The final phase is exhaustion. You can no One of the major sources of stress for a longer pump yourself up, and there is no person is to feel that you are alone, and that longer anywhere to hide. It has all become others don’t understand what you are going too much and, like Peter or Wendy, you start through. This sense of loneliness, often to suffer a breakdown. You feel sick, sad, perceived as abandonment, can feel terrifying. helpless and hopeless. By this time, you’re This, in itself, is stressful. The reaction to not much use to yourself or anybody else. this feeling can often be one of withdrawal, This is the phase of Full Burnout. and communicating less, which makes the problem even worse. To break the cycle, you have to communicate. Avoiding the Burnout Trap Find someone to talk to that can, if nothing The journey to burnout takes time. It doesn’t else, just listen to your situation. happen overnight. The way to avoid falling Recently I did some work with a lady in an into the trap of burnout is to recognize the Investment Bank. She was clearly suffering symptoms early enough, and take steps to from overwhelm, and was on the verge of change your situation. If you are experiencing burnout. I didn’t do much to help her, other any of the symptoms that I have highlighted than listen. She commented later that she above you must first be open to the possibility knew I couldn’t change the business situation that you are getting stressed out. You also that she found herself in. However, being need to understand that, if the stress able to talk to someone who understood her continues, you may well be on the path to situation was enough for her to release her burnout. stress and begin the journey back to balance. Once you realize that stress is an issue, you need to take certain steps. The three most important steps are: relax, communicate, Learn to Share the Load and share. The third thing that you need to do is share the load. Often, stress comes about because of the feeling that you “have to do it all Learn to Relax yourself”. Often, this is not true. There are Stress is both mental and physical, and people in your organization or social circle relaxation is the best way to combat it. There who can and will help you, if only you will ask are many different techniques for stress for that help. Asking for help is not a sign of reduction. You can take a short vacation, or weakness, but rather a sign of strength. learn to meditate. Various forms of exercise Knowing when you are at the end of your or breathing exercises can help a great deal. tether, and in need of help, is a sign of wisdom. It doesn’t matter what path you choose. So, be wise. Ask for help.
C H R I S L O N S D A L E & A S S O C I AT E S
After the Flame Has Died The Dangers of Burnout
Conclusion In the world today, with increasing demands and more and more rapid change, stress and burnout are more common than we probably like to think. If unaddressed, the personal consequences can be severe. If you happen to be in a leadership position for an organization, the consequences could well go beyond your personal situation. You may find yourself making bad decisions, or procrastinating on actions required for the health of your organization. Clearly, ignoring stress and burnout is not an option. If you suspect that you have stress levels in your life that could lead to burnout, you need to act rapidly to reverse the situation. The failure to do so will lead to higher levels of stress, and will take away your capacity to address the problem. The solution is simple. Be wise. Be courageous. Act while you have the ability to do so.
C H R I S L O N S D A L E & A S S O C I AT E S
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Originally published 2004-04-17 · Legacy CMS article #6566