As Singaporeans, overworking is ingrained as part of the work culture. In the 21st century, we are expected to do more than ever before. While it can be good to push yourself in order to attain your fullest potential, doing too much and not giving your body sufficient time to recover can backfire. You think that you’d know when your mind and body has had too much, but it’s amazing how they have a way of adjusting to the physical stresses that we put them through.
Before your health or sanity takes a crash, inform yourself of the warning signs that you are overworking yourself and headed for a burnout.
What Exactly is a Burnout?
More than just feeling tired, a burnout is a cumulative process of chronic stress. It is a medical condition that could potentially lead to other health issues such as anxiety, depression, low immunity, insomnia and other physical and mental symptoms. However, burnout doesn’t happen in a moment. You don’t just wake up one morning and are suddenly “burnt out”. It is more of a slow creep that gradually diminishes a person’s ability to function effectively on personal and professional levels.
What Are the Symptoms of a Burnout?
Chronic fatigue
It may start off as a general lack of energy and feeling tired on most days, but it gradually progresses to become a physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that you simply cannot get rid of, regardless of how much you sleep (that is, if you can even sleep at all).
Insomnia
Contributing to the fatigue, in the early stages you may have troubles falling asleep or staying asleep. As it worsens, it may become a nightly affair, with you tossing and turning in bed while your mind runs on a hamster wheel. You are exhausted, but you just can’t sleep.
Cynicism, pessimism and other negative emotions
You feel a sense of dread on most, if not everyday. You question your own abilities and it develops into negative self-talk.
This distrust in yourself can even extend to your relationships with your friends, family and coworkers. You also wonder why you do what you’re doing, and if it’s even worth it at all. As it worsens, you might even feel like nothing really matters and start to experience serious signs of depression.
You no longer live in the moment
You bounce between reminiscing on better, happier days from the past or you’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of the future. You may feel that you can only truly start living until you’ve conquered a certain milestone. Both of these say that you live outside of the present, which leads you down the path of overthinking and adds on more stress than what you already have.
Increased irritability
Things that never used to bother you are now annoying you to no end. The printer ran out of ink. You misplaced your stapler. Your colleague is talking a bit too loudly. All these things add up to make you want to pull your hair out.
You also find yourself snapping at people more frequently, be it waiters, family members, colleagues or friends. When you are perpetually tensed, even minor matters can set you off.
Decreased immunity
Stress can take a heavy toll on the human body, especially your immune system. Your health may deteriorate in several ways – you might be getting the flu more often or taking a longer time to recover. You may also lose or gain weight, depending on if food is a stress reliever for you or if you lose your appetite altogether when you are stressed.
Loss of interest
The things you used to enjoy no longer appeal to you. You may feel too tired or just not in the mood to engage in your hobbies anymore.
Other symptoms may include passing up on an opportunity to be out with your friends or not wanting to head out. With time you may even start to isolate yourself and go out of your way to avoid interactions, no longer wanting to build or maintain your relationships with family and friends.
Brain fog
You may have trouble remembering or concentrating on things. Where did you leave your notebook? What did your manager just say? If simple matters become hard to remember and you find yourself drifting away with your thoughts way too frequently, it could be a sign that your brain is overworked and needs some serious rest.
Decreased productivity
Despite the long hours that you are putting in, the long-term stress keeps you from being as productive as before. You don’t feel like the work ever ends, be it at the end of the day, week or month. In fact, you might even have more things on your to-do list at the end then when you first began. No matter how long or how hard you work, you just can’t seem to get things done as quickly as you’d like to.
With some of the symptoms listed out, we should also mention that burnout can only get worse with time and it doesn’t go away by itself.
What Do You Do If You Are Experiencing a Burnout?
Take an extended leave or vacation
Although the problems you experience at work might still be waiting for you when you get back, it is crucial to take time off from the workplace to relax and gain better insight on how you can deal with your stress more effectively.
If you are someone that is, by now, used to overworking, you might be tempted to fill in your vacation time with tons of activity such as meeting up with your friends, catching up on all your favourite tv shows, go to the gym and take that new language class that you’ve always wanted to.
People who overwork are likely to view inactivity as something to be frowned upon, and find themselves to be just as exhausted as ever even if they are “taking a break”. In order to fully unwind it is crucial to remove that perspective, and reinforce the fact that sometimes doing nothing is okay. Resting does not mean that you are not being productive. You are just taking time to regain your productivity.
Take relaxation seriously
Everyone has their own idea about relaxation. Whether you take up meditation, a yoga class, go on a holiday, read a book or listen to music, take time to seriously think about what you would do to relax and commit to that process.
Don’t do work on your phone or laptop when you are out with family. Don’t reply to work emails when you are supposed to be watching a movie. If you are going to take a break, then really take a break.
Recognize external and internal factors
Burnout can be caused by internal factors and also external ones. Ask yourself “What is causing this?” so that you can identify the different stressors in your life. Are you going through some drastic changes in your personal life such as a break up? Is it because of some personal goals that you have for yourself that you are working so hard?
Or perhaps your employers have taken steps to cut costs such as layoffs and increasing hours? Once you’ve identified the different stressors in your life, come up with at least one way to relieve or eliminate that source of stress.
Catch up on sleep
A person going through burnout is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.
In order to get back to a healthy and fulfilling life it is essential to catch up on your sleep debt. Think of sleep like money – deficits add up to become debt, and debt needs to be paid off eventually. Recovering from chronic stress requires you to recuperate and recover your internal resources, and sleep is one way to achieve that.
Practice positive thinking
Burnout causes a person to slip into negative ways of thinking. To recover from this, you will need to rewire your brain to a default setting of seeing positives instead of negatives. Celebrate small achievements. Think of something that you’re grateful for at the start and end of everyday.
It doesn’t have to be anything big. It could be something as simple as, “I’m thankful to still be breathing today”. When you’ve been stuck in a negative cycle for so long, it can be hard to spot the good in your everyday life. So start small and take baby steps.
Recognize your warning signs
Tune into the initial signs and precursors that you are facing too much stress, whether these are physical symptoms such as headaches or stomach upsets or mental factors like feeling anxious and/or depressed. Knowing your body’s warning signs will tell you when you are headed for the edge of a cliff and pull out of the situation before it gets too late.
Know when to get help
Many of us may feel too prideful to open up, but there are some things in life you just can’t do alone. Your family and friends care about you, so talk to them and lean in towards their support. If you constantly have destructive thoughts and the issues that you struggle with are not getting any better, you may need to seek professional help.
Today’s society has taught us to be ashamed of admitting that we need help when in truth, there is nothing shameful in that. If anything, acknowledging that we need help shows that we are attuned to our own needs and are taking ownership of our own well being.
Know when enough is enough
Consider talking to your HR staff or manager on how to improve the work environment. Share your thoughts on how making certain changes would enable you to be more productive and serve the company better. However, there are times that no matter what you do or say, the organization is adamant on their stand and they might be unwilling or unable to make the changes that you desire. In these cases, you might need to consider if it is time to move on.
Just as it takes time to get to a point of mental exhaustion and burnout, it takes time to recover as well. Jumping right away back into your regular work habits is not helpful in any way to recover from the months or years of chronic stress and overworking yourself.
Some of us may need to take an extended time off, switch to a part-time position, or even leave the job altogether. No one is responsible for our health except for ourselves.
So make the changes and do the things that would nourish your body, mind and soul. Because if you don’t do them, nobody will.