Burnout complaints: this is how you recognize them

Are you lying awake for hours, have no desire to do fun things, and have to drag yourself out of bed to go to work? Mmm... That doesn't sound good. ‘What do I have then?’ I can hear you thinking. That could indicate a burnout. But when do you really know that you have one?

You are tired and sleep poorly

Stress can do a lot to your body. Just think back to how you felt right before your driving test or an important exam. Not pleasant, right? So just imagine what happens if this feeling persists for a long time. You will naturally sleep worse: you toss and turn, worry about everything you've experienced, or just stare into the darkness. Because of that poor sleep, you are tired every day – whether you have a busy day or just watch a movie on the couch.

Your emotions are all over the place

Due to poor sleep, you can manage your emotions less well. You get angry more quickly and fly off the handle over every little thing. Your favorite cookies are gone? Crying. Your partner speaks in a slightly different tone? Yelling. The lack of sleep makes your prefrontal cortex less active – exactly the brain area that helps you process emotions. As a result, stimuli come in harder and stress flows in. You are essentially mopping with the tap open.

Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video
Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

It feels like you have no control over anything anymore

Every little setback is too much. Everything is happening around you, but you feel like you have no grip on it anymore. Your friends are meeting up with other people, your groceries are running out, the train is delayed again, you are submitting worse work, and your supervisor is addressing you. Everything feels overwhelming. And while it seems like everything is collapsing, you feel frozen. You know you need to solve things, but you can't. No matter how often someone says, “Go to bed earlier,” or “Drink calming tea,” or “Work one less day.” You know the solutions, but it feels like you can't implement them and are on pause.

You remember less and can hardly concentrate

All those symptoms naturally accumulate. Poor sleep, not taking care of yourself, feeling anxious. All of that affects your health. By constantly being stressed, your body produces a lot of cortisol. Prolonged excess of this stress hormone can overload your hippocampus (which regulates your memory) or even cause it to shrink. Wow. No wonder you forget where your keys are and whether you actually bought cooking cream yesterday. And that is the reason why you can't read a book for more than fifteen minutes.

You can't manage daily tasks anymore

When you don't feel adrenaline from your daily routine, you start to realize that you suddenly have no energy for simple things. Taking the container with old paper outside, replacing the bag in the trash can by the toilet. It's already overflowing with empty toilet rolls, and yet you can't get yourself to take it out. Responding to messages feels like too much effort. Those kinds of situations that you used to do without thinking are suddenly different.

You feel tension in your body

As I said: stress can do strange things to your body. Look at your posture now: are your shoulders leaning forward? Are you frowning? Are you perhaps on your toes? With a burnout, you feel this times three. Your muscles are tense, you get headaches from the tension, the little sleep, and because your neck and back are stiff. You often feel dizzy, may even have chest pain. You quickly have stomach issues or abdominal pain. These are all signals that you are not okay. Even if you might pretend otherwise. If you feel this for more than six months, day in and day out, then that's not good.

But where does that burnout come from?

Okay, you now know the symptoms, but where does that burnout actually come from? Everyone gets stressed sometimes, right? Certainly. But there is a difference between being stressed and having a burnout. With a burnout, you can even burst into tears over a newspaper article. You sit on the couch, waiting for a meal while you have no idea what and when you are going to cook. The supermarket is around the corner, but you have no energy to go grocery shopping. And ordering is too complicated.

It takes an enormous amount of stress to end up in that place. This often comes from the situation you are in. Too many work hours, unpleasant colleagues, a relationship that isn't going as well as you thought, or other personal circumstances. Because you don't set boundaries and keep going, you gradually slide deeper into the pit. Before you know it, you're stuck in the pit.

Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video
Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC

What can you do about a burnout?

Of course, there are millions of things you can do about a burnout. We could dedicate an entire article to that (and we have!), but let me summarize it briefly for you. Then you don't have to take an extra step.

• Set your boundaries. It's very difficult, but if you can't do something, then you can't. You are apparently sensitive to it, so it's better to be on time than to end up in a burnout again.
• Remember to take breaks. During your workday, you often take a lunch break, but really take more moments like this throughout the day if you can. Sit down more often and have a cup of tea. Read for ten minutes in your book, take a short walk. Walk your dog. It doesn't have to take much time, but it can reduce your stress.
• Don't go crazy and fill your schedule. You have become overstressed for a reason, so it's not the intention to schedule eighty appointments when you feel a bit better. Alternate this with rest days; you really need them.