Burnout – Suffering In HD:

Sadly, we are not talking about the racing game. Partly because I’ve never played it and partly because my racing knowledge is extremely limited, so the article would have as much motorsport commentary as the staff working the Legoland Driving School. Instead, we are talking about the negative mental state known as burnout. Otherwise known as emotional exhaustion, burnout has become increasingly more common nowadays as we put greater and greater pressure on ourselves. Those in high-pressure, stressful jobs are at a greater risk of this, especially those with existing mental health conditions.

So, what is burnout? The International Classification Of Diseases (IDC-11) describes it as:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterised by three dimensions:

1. Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
2. Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
3. Reduced professional efficacy “

Now more than ever, we tend to work ourselves in search of a far-off goal. However, often those goals are unreachable. The easiest comparison that I can make is the following scenario: You’ve just started going to the gym again and you decide that by the end of the month you should be able to fifty miles in one go. Although it is “possible”, the level of sole dedication that you would have to devote to your exercise regime would be ridiculous. You’d have to give up relaxation, social time, heck, even your day job. The amount of physical, mental, and psychological exhaustion that you would put yourself through for the sake of a goal, would be insane.

Naturally, when someone suggests to you that they’re going to achieve this insane physical feat in such a short span of time, you would question it. You’d even advise them against doing such a thing! Yet, for some reason, workplaces don’t bat an eye at overworking their employees. You feel guilty for falling behind on deadlines, you work later and on weekends in order to make up for it, you sleep less, you eat less, until you get to a stage of exhaustion where you just feel that you can’t cope anymore.

Obviously, there are a remarkable amount of similarities between depression and burnout. From the tiredness, to the lack of self-esteem and overwhelming guilt that arises from your inaction, I’ve often found that I struggle to differentiate between my bouts of depression and when I’m suffering from burnout. I’ve had a real battle with burnout and depression over the last twelve months, as my final year of university was kicking my ass. I made the mistake of trying to make up for the time I’d missed in my first two years where I was too anxious to really try anything new, to the point where I overburdened myself massively. Like, it was insane. It got to a point where my housemates wouldn’t see me for days because I’d leave the house before them and get back after them.

After years of dealing with depression and my other conditions, I’ve become good at handling burnout and working despite its impact on me. However, that’s not really a good thing, is it? Nobody should have to get to the point where they are so good at powering through emotional exhaustion that they could register it as a skill on their CV. Burnout also has a nasty tendency to become a habit, rather than a one off negative occurrence. You start to work yourself harder and harder, feeling guilty for not being able to maintain that level of intensity. It’s a difficult cycle to break out of.

In what is probably the first sensible choice I’ve made in a while; I’m going to stop writing this piece here. After all, wouldn’t want to burn myself out! Be sure to tune in this Sunday at 3pm to EGX Digital, as the panel that I recorded with some amazing guests is airing as part of the convention! Super excited!

Take care of yourselves:

CaitlinRC.

Tags: irl, mental health, mind games