What is burnout?

Burnout is not a medical diagnosis, but it can impact your physical and mental health. Burnout can lead to hypertension, sleep disturbances, depression and substance abuse. That’s why it is critical to have a good self care plan and boundaries.

According to the American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology, burnout is defined as “physical, emotional or mental exhaustion, accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance and negative attitudes towards oneself and others.”

So what are some of the symptoms? exhaustion, fatigue, apathy, headaches, feeling incompetent, and cynicism. The driving forces behind burnout include:

  1. Not having any input on your schedule, assignments or workload

  2. Not having what you need to accomplish your work on a daily basis

  3. No clear expectations from your boss, remember “clear is kind”

  4. Feeling alone at work and in your personal life

  5. Work takes up so much time that you do not have anything left for your friends or family

The news on burnout is not all bad. In our next blog post, we will talk more about how to tackle burnout. Our approach starts with small changes, think 5 minutes.

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Who has time for self-care . . . and what is it anyway?

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Challenging negative thinking to boost your mood