Are You Burned Out?
Hi, everyone. Let's talk about burnout. What it is and what are some questions you could ask yourself to see if you are burned out.
Diagnosis
I just want to take a small detour into diagnosis. I am a licensed psychologist able to see folks with my online practice in Pennsylvania and Florida, so I learned how to diagnose and use the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual from the American Psychiatric Association). For some folks it's very important to know the diagnosis to inform where to start treatment. I know sometimes that diagnosis/label can bring a lot of relief to folks if they're not sure what's going on. But at the same time, labels can be very stifling and can be stigmatizing. So I just wanted to put that out there that my personal philosophy is I understand that it, that diagnosing, has a purpose. It can be beneficial, but for the most part I'm not in love with doing it.
Burn Out or Stress?
So with that being said, let's talk a little bit about burnout. It's not in the DSM but I know that there has been some movement with making it an official disorder though in mostly with work with work-related burnout. So kind of saying like related to your job or your career or per your profession, you can be burned out, but nevertheless, I feel like folks can take stock in what's going on in your life and how you're feeling and use the questions I'm getting ready to share to kind of take a look and see what is going on. Burnout is very similar to depression. In some ways it's very similar to anxiety disorders in some ways. And of course, a lot of us are stressed, right? And it feels stressed out. And that term is absolutely you know, a good way to describe feeling overwhelmed and just having too much going on. And of course with everything in the world, you know, the last year, but even beyond that, right, it's kind of like who is not stressed out? And so I want to share some questions to maybe help tease apart. Is this stress, is this daily life or is this maybe more burnout?
Questions to Ask Yourself
Are you feeling tired or exhausted? Almost always. Even if you've had a full night sleep, even if you had six to eight hours or more of rest, are you still feeling exhausted?
Are you feeling guilty that you aren't spending enough time with your friends or with your family or even just with yourself? So is there guilt that you're not spending your time and energy in the way you would like to?
Do you find yourself becoming really emotional, like more than how you usually experience emotion? So feel like getting really angry, really fast crying more often than you, usually you, then you personally usually cry, shouting feelings, tense, and you can't immediately figure out why you feel tense like holding your breath, maybe not even realizing you're holding your breath. And then suddenly you're like, oh, you know, I've been tensing my shoulders or I've been holding my breath and I didn't even realize it.
You've been more often becoming angry or resentful about your work or about your colleagues or about your clients, depending on what your career is.
Have you on sick more often, have you been having stomach aches, headaches, getting a cold, sinus infection?
Do you find yourself like dropping the ball on some of your commitments or like forgetting things you don't usually forget? So small things of like, did you write that in your calendar or, Ooh, I forgot to call that person back or kind of the small things falling through the cracks.
Have you been being kind of short or rude with people more often, or maybe you didn't usually do that?
Have you been feeling distracted or disconnected especially from things that you used to love, hobbies or things that used to feel really fun and exciting, maybe they just feel blah or like too much of a hassle right now?
Are you constantly working or overworking? And again, I know that is totally rewarded in our society and you know, rewarded whether you're an entrepreneur or you work for someone else overworking is typically absolutely rewarded, but do you find yourself doing that working way more than usual or what you're contracted to?
Are you finding it hard to switch off and take regular breaks? Your mind is just still running through the to-do list or running through what you need to do, whether it's at home or at work.
Are you really not really wanting people to know how overwhelmed you're feeling? Is there kind of a sense of shame or sort of wanting to hide it? And kind of say like, no, I got this and then kind of put on that tough I can handle it, I can handle it. Or are you kind of like I'm overwhelmed and yes, maybe everything looks good on paper to the outside world, but I'm exhausted, I'm crying, I'm feeling crushed inside.
You Deserve to Feel Better
So if any of those resonate with you or a handful of those resonate with you, then it could be that your experience is leaning more from regular daily stress of just living in the modern world to maybe being burned out. Definitely check out the other videos here in the blog area of the website. I talk a lot about self care and what can be done, but also where this came from and that burnout is not your fault. Take care of everyone.