8 Strategies for Recovery from Severe Burnout
Takeaway: As you probably know firsthand, severe burnout can be totally debilitating. The emotional and physical symptoms can be intense, and there can also be negative effects on your relationships. While it might not feel possible right now, recovery from burnout is possible. In this post, I share my top tips for bouncing back from burnout and regaining a sense of balance in your life.
Feeling utterly exhausted, mentally drained, and unable to meet constant demands? If these sentiments resonate with you, you might be experiencing severe burnout. Burnout is a serious issue that affects millions of people worldwide. It's more than just feeling tired or stressed; it's a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that can leave you feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, and unable to cope.
Recovery from burnout requires understanding its roots and recognizing its symptoms, which often blur with those of other mental health challenges. In this article, we'll explore some effective strategies to help you regain your energy, restore your balance, and rediscover your passion for life.
We'll delve into topics such as prioritizing self-care, seeking professional help, rebuilding your energy reserves, and creating a sustainable lifestyle. By the end of this post, you'll have a clearer understanding of how to navigate the road to recovery and emerge stronger than ever.
Everything you need to know about burnout
Ever wondered if you're experiencing burnout? You might be surprised by how common it is. While many of us may speculate about what burnout is, it's important to understand the underlying causes and symptoms and how it differs from other mental health conditions. Let's dive in and explore what burnout truly means.
What is burnout?
Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that often happens because of prolonged stress or overwhelming responsibilities. It's characterized by feelings of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced productivity. While it may seem similar to depression or anxiety, burnout is a distinct condition with its own set of symptoms and causes.
It's important to note that burnout is not a medical or mental health diagnosis but rather a phenomenon related to occupational consequences. However, if left untreated, it can significantly impact one's overall well-being and personal health problems (and possibly lead to diagnosable mental health conditions).
Common burnout symptoms
Healthcare professions have one of the highest rates of burnout, with the rate of burnout being around 52% among all healthcare workers. Recognizing the signs of burnout is the first step toward recovery. Here are some common symptoms to watch out for:
Emotional Exhaustion
Burnout syndrome can leave you feeling emotionally drained, irritable, and unable to cope with daily stressors. This can manifest as feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or even resentful. You may snap at loved ones, feel easily irritated, or struggle to maintain a positive outlook.
Physical Exhaustion
Feeling persistently tired — physically, emotionally, and mentally — is a hallmark of poor work-life balance. This isn't just about feeling sleepy; it's a deep fatigue that doesn't improve with rest. People experiencing job burnout often feel drained of energy and find it difficult to engage in any activity, losing enthusiasm for tasks they once enjoyed. This exhaustion can make everyday tasks feel insurmountable, affecting productivity and overall quality of life.
Physical Symptoms
Symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, or muscle tension are frequently associated with burnout. These symptoms affect a staggering 57.2–95.0% of adults with serious burnout. These may be accompanied by changes in appetite or sleep habits. Ignoring these physical cues can lead to more severe health issues, emphasizing the need for timely intervention and stress management techniques.
Cynicism and Detachment
Too many responsibilities and overwhelming circumstances can make you feel emotionally detached from your work or personal relationships. You may feel indifferent, apathetic, or even resentful toward your job or the people around you. This can lead to a loss of interest in activities that you once enjoyed.
Decreased Performance
Burnout specifically affects everyday tasks at work or at home. You might notice a significant drop in your ability to get things done, and/or done well. It becomes a cycle where decreased performance leads to lower personal satisfaction and self-esteem, which then contributes to deeper feelings of burnout.
Cognitive Problems
Burnout can affect your ability to concentrate and pay attention and this is actually quite a common symptom. People experiencing burnout often report problems with focus, suffering from a foggy mind, and making more mistakes than usual. This cognitive impairment can be frustrating, leading to inefficiency at work and in daily activities, further exacerbating overwhelm and feelings of incompetence.
Increased Absenteeism
You might find your stress levels are so high that you're taking frequent sick days or feeling the need to avoid work. You may call in sick more often than usual or feel the urge to avoid work altogether. This can be a sign that your body and mind are struggling to cope with the demands of your job.
Negative Thoughts
Experiencing negative self-talk, self-doubt, and feelings of hopelessness can occur when you're feeling stressed. You may start to question your abilities, doubt your worth, and feel pessimistic about the future. These negative thoughts can contribute to a downward spiral and make it difficult to see a way out.
What’s the difference between burnout and stress?
While both stress and burnout can affect your well-being, they are distinct experiences with unique characteristics and implications. Understanding these differences is key to managing your health effectively. Let's break down how burnout diverges from everyday stress.
Intensity and Duration
Stress is often a short-term reaction to a challenging situation and can actually be a normal and even healthy part of life when managed properly. In contrast, burnout is a state of chronic, excessive stress that leads to physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. Stress becomes burnout when coping mechanisms begin to fail, you feel you have little or no control, and the feeling of overwhelm becomes constant.
Impact on Performance
Under stress, individuals may still be productive and perform effectively; stress can even motivate you to meet deadlines and push through challenges. Research has found that low to moderate stress can help develop resilience.
However, with chronic stress that brings you to the breaking point and your performance often decreases. Tasks that were once manageable or enjoyable can become overwhelming, leading to diminished productivity and avoidance of responsibilities.
Emotional Response
Stress typically generates a sense of urgency and hyperactivity, whereas burnout is characterized by emotional blunting—feeling numb or detached. People experiencing stress know that if they can just get through a tough period, there will be relief. However, those experiencing burnout often feel hopeless and see no end to their despair, which negatively impacts emotional wellbeing.
Physical Symptoms
While both stress and burnout can have physical manifestations, such as headaches or fatigue, the symptoms of burnout are more severe and longer-lasting. Burnout can be very detrimental to your health and lead to problems like depression, anxiety, and heart disease and other physical health problems, making it crucial to address it early. Pay attention to these physical signs and take them seriously!
Recovery Process
You can often relieve stress once the stressor is removed or addressed. But burnout recovery often requires you to address the underlying causes, seek support, and prioritize self-care. Finding your way out of serious burnout usually requires assistance from a mental health professional.
Understanding the differences between burnout and stress is crucial for identifying and addressing the root causes of your symptoms. While stress is a normal part of life, burnout can have a significant impact on your overall well-being.
Why does burnout occur?
Burnout doesn't just appear out of nowhere; it develops from specific scenarios and lifestyles. Here are some of the most common causes of burnout, each contributing in its own way to this complex condition.
Micro- and macro-aggressions
Microaggressions are thinly-veiled insults, gestures, or other forms of discrimination that convey a bias towards a historically and systemically marginalized group based on race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, body size and more. Often subtle, the person exhibiting the microaggression may not realize that they are engaging in this behavior. As a result, the person who is on the receiving end may feel like they have to educate the other person. Macroaggressions are the larger-scale systematic oppression of marginalized groups by larger institutions: education, government, culture, etc. Being on the receiving end of this kind of racism, ableism, sexism, etc. can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout.
Excessive Workload
One of the most common causes of burnout is an overwhelming workload and job pressure. Constant heavy workloads with unrealistic expectations/deadlines can leave you feeling helpless, leading to burnout. This is particularly common in jobs that demand a high output level or in environments where staffing or resources are inadequate.
Lack of Control
Feeling powerless over your work schedule, workload, or the resources you need to do your job can lead you to experience burnout. This lack of control can be particularly frustrating when you feel unable to influence decisions that affect your job or professional growth, leading to feelings of helplessness.
Hustle Culture
There is a belief that it’s necessary to "hustle" if we want to be successful. “Hustle culture” normalizes working high hours, seven days a week and relying on black coffee to get you through the day. It banks on relentless productivity, which is dangerous and leads to serious burnout. It is an unsustainable way of being and comes at a price to one’s mental health.
Insufficient Rewards
Working hard without adequate recognition or reward, whether it’s financial, institutional, social, or personal, can contribute to feelings of burnout. Recognition, rewards and personal fulfillment can buffer the effects of stress, and without them, dissatisfaction and apathy increase.
Work-Life Imbalance
Failing to balance work and personal life can lead to burnout, especially if all your energy is consumed by your job. This leaves you with little time for social activities, family, or hobbies that can help relieve stress. While the burden is often placed on the individual to achieve work-life balance, it's critical to emphasize that there must be larger-scale change in the unhealthy societal, systemic and workplace values and environments that breed burnout in individuals.
Mismatch in Values
A discrepancy between personal values and what is expected of you at work can cause internal conflict and dissatisfaction, leading to burnout. This is particularly evident in environments where the culture clashes with personal principles or ethics.
Toxic Work Environment
A negative or hostile work environment characterized by conflict, bullying, or a lack of support, insufficient support, tools, or resources to do your job effectively, and a lack of clarity or alignment regarding the company's mission and objectives can leave you feeling exhausted and put you at a higher risk for burnout.
While some of factors that create burnout-inducing environments can be outside of your direct control, understanding these triggers can help you develop coping strategies to avoid burnout or manage its symptoms effectively. By recognizing and addressing these factors, individuals and organizations can take proactive steps toward creating a healthier work environment and sense of well-being.
Your guide to recovery from severe burnout
Ready to take the first steps toward healing from burnout? While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, this section will provide you with practical strategies to support your recovery journey. By incorporating these techniques into your daily life, you can gradually rebuild your energy, restore your balance, and rediscover your passion for life.
8 Strategies to Help You Heal from Severe Burnout
Recovery from burnout is a personal journey involving significant changes to your lifestyle and mindset. While you might not be able to change the external circumstances that are contributing to your burnout, here are eight practical strategies to help you on your path to recovery:
1. Prioritize Self-Care
"Self-care" has become an overused buzzword - yet caring for yourself in the midst of burnout-inducing circumstances is important! The more you engage in self-care, the more you'll realize that it needs to be a non-negotiable part of your recovery. What are the practices, places and people that nourish your body, mind, and soul? Self-care is more than just pedicures and bubblebaths, so let yourself think outside of the box about the ways you can spend time tending to yourself. What gives you ease, pleasure and feels good? For some, practicing mindfulness, spending time in nature, getting enough sleep, or indulging in hobbies you enjoy.
2. Seek Professional Help
Burnout can really wreck your mood, disrupt your day-to-day functioning and overwhelm your ability to cope. Don't hesitate to reach out to a mental health professional for guidance and support! A therapist can provide valuable tools and techniques to help you manage your symptoms, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and address any underlying issues or personality traits that may be contributing to your burnout. Therapy can be a powerful tool for the care of yourself, so take advantage of it!
3. Rebuild Your Energy Reserves
The overwork, chronic stress and fatigue of burnout requires you to focus on replenishing your physical and mental energy. Incorporate balanced, healthy food/snacks into a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and prioritize sufficient sleep. It's ok to start small: one intentionally-healthy meal a day, taking a 5-10 minute walk, going to bed 15-30 minutes earlier. Gradually build on these changes in a way that's doable - remember, Rome wasn't built in a day! Ease up on excessive caffeine and alcohol (maybe try a half-caff latte next time, or substitute a cup of decaf tea), which can disrupt your sleep and contribute to fatigue in the long run.
4. Set Realistic Boundaries
If you are a doer, helper or giver, learning to say "no" to excessive demands and establish clear boundaries between work and personal time can feel almost impossible. Yet this is probably the biggest thing that will help you recover from burnout! Saying "yes" to yourself will help you manage your workload, lower stress, and prevent burnout from recurring. Protecting your time will help prevent overload and the accumulation of stress - and help you to be the best, healthiest version of yourself.
5. Practice Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques
Mindfulness practices like meditation, deep breathing, and yoga have been shown to help with job burnout. These techniques can help you calm your mind, lower your stress, and improve your overall wellness. You can start small and incorporate mindfulness practices into your daily routine to cultivate inner peace and resilience.
6. Connect with a Support Network
Reach out to friends, family, or support groups for emotional support and understanding. This might feel like a stretch, particularly if you are used to being the one people come to for support! We often fear that we are burdening others by reaching out, however we humans are social beings that do best when we are connected in healthy, supportive ways with others (this is irrefutable science). Sharing your experiences with others can help you feel less isolated and validate your feelings. These positive social interactions can provide comfort and help you feel less isolated and helpless.
7. Rediscover Your Passions
"Passions?? What are those?" you might think. I get it - when you're burned out, "passionate" feels like a faraway desert island. And (you know what I'm going to say) - reconnecting with that which brings you actual joy and fulfillment is the very antidote to the soul-sucking experience of burnout. You might start by re-visiting a hobby, exploring a new interest or pursuing something creative. Doing things you love can put you in the "zone" and help you rediscover your sense of purpose and motivation. Again, making time for things that make you feel good is a powerful way to say "yes" to yourself.
8. Practice Gratitude
Gratefulness might be far down the list of things you're feeling when you're burned out. However, there is actual science which shows that gratitude can can help shift your perspective, reduce stress, and improve your overall well-being. Take a moment each day to reflect on even one thing that you are grateful for or appreciative of - even if it's that cozy cup of hot tea in your hand or the sun on your skin. Jot down the small and bigger things you are grateful for on a sticky note or a gratitude journal. Reflecting on that which you are thankful for triggers the brain to release neurotransmitters and hormones associated with happiness, including dopamine and serotonin (yes, please!). This can help reduce stress and foster a more positive outlook.
Recovery from burnout is a process, and it may take time. Be patient with yourself and celebrate small victories along the way. Remember, progress is not always linear, and setbacks are a normal part of the healing journey.
Get the support you need to fully recover from severe burnout
Remember, you don't have to go through this alone. Seeking professional help can be a powerful step toward healing from burnout. A therapist can provide you with personalized guidance, support, and evidence-based techniques to address the underlying causes of your burnout and develop healthy coping mechanisms to use in your everyday life.
My name is Elisa, and providing uniquely-individualized, one-on-one support for those struggling in the vicious cycle of burnout is what I love to do. I draw upon an array of provenOne unique approach to burnout therapy is Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT). This approach focuses on cultivating self-compassion, which can help you break free from negative self-talk and develop healthier ways of relating to yourself and others. By learning to be kinder and more understanding toward yourself, you can create a more supportive internal environment and facilitate healing.
Don't hesitate to reach out to a mental health professional who specializes in burnout recovery. I can help you navigate your journey, develop personalized strategies, and become stronger and more resilient from this challenging experience.
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