Burnout is a state of mental, emotional and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged, unmanaged occupational stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, it’s easy to lose the interest and motivation that led you to your work in the first place.
Burnout robs you of productivity and energy, leaving you feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you have nothing left to give.
The negative effects of burnout spill over into everyday life, too. Not only can it put the brakes on your social life but it can easily lead to long-term changes in your body. Due to the higher levels of cortisol and blood sugar that come alongside stress overload, weight gain and hormone imbalances are common in burnout.
How Burnout Affects Your Body
Mental Health: Similar to complex PTSD, burnout can lead to depression, anxiety, and brain fog due to chronic stress.
Hormonal Imbalance: Continuous stress affects your adrenal glands, disrupting cortisol levels. This imbalance can affect other hormones (including thyroid), disrupt sleep, change appetite, cause mood swings, and lower sex drive.
Gut Health: Being in fight-or-flight takes your nervous system out of rest-and-digest. This means that burnout can lead to a number of digestive issues; including morning-nausea, reflux, bloating, and IBS.
Weakened Immunity: The ongoing stress can also weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to every cold and flu that comes your way.
Burnout Self- Assessment
Think you might be dealing with burnout? Check all that apply to see for yourself.
- I often feel tired, even after sleeping or taking a break.
- I find myself feeling disillusioned or cynical about my job/work.
- I have noticed a decrease in my job performance or productivity.
- I often feel irritable or impatient with co-workers, clients, or family.
- I have difficulty concentrating on my tasks.
- I no longer find enjoyment in activities that I used to enjoy.
- I experience physical symptoms like headaches, stomach issues, or muscle tension regularly.
- My sleep patterns have changed (difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or oversleeping).
- I feel detached from my work and/or personal life.
- I have been using food, drugs, or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel.
Scoring Your Quiz:
- 0-2 Checked: Unlikely to be experiencing burnout. Normal stress and fatigue are likely.
- 3-5 Checked: Moderate risk of burnout. It’s important to address the symptoms and consider lifestyle changes or seeking professional help.
- 6+ Checked: High risk of burnout. It is advisable to seek professional help and consider significant changes to reduce stress.
Note for Readers: This questionnaire is a self-assessment tool and not a substitute for professional advice. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms severely or persistently, it is important to consult a healthcare or mental health professional.
Natural Recovery Options
Recovering from burnout takes more than stress management. To get your energy level up, drop the unwanted pounds and take back your body, it’s best to use a holistic approach:
- Calm Your Stress Response: Use somatic-based stress reduction techniques (i.e. Trauma Release Exercise) to complete the fight-flight response. Do 1 thing every day to calm your mind and relax your body.
- Balanced Eating: Create routine around meal times to nourish rest-and-digest functions. Make sure you get enough protein while limiting sugar to keep blood sugar stable.
- Healthy Movement: Look for the Goldilocks effect on exercise. Too much cardio and high intensity exercise will make matters worse. Daily yoga is fantastic for building strength while keeping cortisol low.
- Restful Sleep: Schedule 7-9 hours for sleep every night. Get away from the blue-light of screens and wind-down 1-2 hours before bed.
- Mental Health Support: Counseling can be a game changer in processing the emotional fallout of being burnt out. A good therapist can also help you establish boundaries for a healthy work-life balance.
- Targeted Supplements:
- Essentials: I’m a fan of multivitamins because most of my clients turn up with deficiencies, even on a picture-perfect diet. Getting all of your essential vitamins and minerals will quickly build energy and make you more resilient to the effects of stress.
- Adaptogens, like Ashwagandha or Rhodiola, help the body adapt to stress and rebuild endurance.
- Brain food, like antioxidants, omega-3 fats (i.e. fish oil) and targeted nootropics (i.e. choline, carnitine, PQQ, huperzine, etc), can directly address brain fog and improve cognitive function.
- Body Balancing: Once the above foundations are in place, consider a whole-body reset. For my own clients, this includes adrenal recovery, gut cleaning, cellular detox, and hormone balancing. Taking a holistic approach like this takes you off the yo-yo and ensure more lasting results.
Ultimately, the best plan is one that you can fit into your life with ease and flow. Because, consistency is the key for getting your energy back.
Remember, full recovery is going to be a gradual process and it may require you get outside support. As a functional health expert, I’ve helped hundreds of women in overcoming burnout, proving that recovery is not only possible but also attainable with the right changes.
You’ve got this and you’re not alone.
xx
Dr. Chelsea