Burn-Out

The term “Burn-Out” literally means the exhaustion of the body’s ability to deal with stress. In its basic form Hans Seyle defined stress as the response of the body to any demand placed upon it. Stress can be perceived as good as in a promotion at work or in inheriting a good deal of money or stress can be perceived as bad as in the loss of a job or a death in a family. Stress normally comes and goes and most of us can tolerate the ups and downs of different points in our lives. Consider burn-out as the result of a long term depletion of the essential resources a person needs to “bounce back” from these events. Even a vacation, as enjoyable as that may be, requires a recovery period. I have even heard individual’s remark that they were glad that their vacation was over so that they could get some rest.

Selye has called the stress response the General Adaption Syndrome. The first stage is the Alarm Reaction. This stage is where the body first recognizes that there is a stress demand being placed upon it. Consider holding a good size book at arm’s length directly in front of you. The alarm reaction is where you first begin to take notice of the book’s weight and the strain it takes to keep the book in that position. Following the alarm reaction the second stage of the General Adaption Syndrome is called Adaptation. This is where the body makes physiological and hormonal reactions to try and meet the body’s demand to compensate for stress. This strategy works for a while but over time the bodily functions that are meeting the stress demand placed upon them become overwhelmed and can no longer meet the stress demand. This then is the third and final stage that Selye calls Exhaustion. No matter how strongly a person wants’ to continue resisting the arm muscles lose their strength and the outstretched arm containing the book falls. With rest and a recovery period the body’s systems will reenergize themselves but this takes time.

The effects of long-term stress are cumulative and build up slowly over time depending on the intensity and duration of the stressors in the work environment. If you have a job with a high stress environment like a hospital emergency room, stock brokerage, emergency services worker, police officer or firemen then you could be more prone than others to suffer from occupational burn-out. Remember that stress is individually selective and that each individual can perceive stress in a different way. Certain people can deal with high stress environments for decades without effect while others can become susceptible after only a short time. Certain personality types are especially vulnerable particularly “workaholics” or highly neurotic individuals. Type A behavior defined as being driven on the job can over time result in burn-out caused by extreme fatigue of exhaustion. The key point to remember is that over time anyone can be susceptible to burn-out.

One way to conceptualize burn-out is to visualize your capacity to deal with stress as an empty bucket with a fixed capacity. As we go through life our stress bucket becomes filled with the stress of ordinary life. Included could be old resentments, new challenges, fears, past guilt, money worries, relationship problems and many other strains of living. Through the years residual stress builds up and eventually reaches the top of this conceptual stress bucket. When a person reaches their stress capacity and there are no more resources with which to deal with stress then stress overflow manifests itself in symptoms that are often mental but can be physical as well.

Common symptoms of burn-out include:

- Powerlessness
- Hopelessness
- Emotional exhaustion
- Detachment
- Isolation
- Irritability
- Frustration
- Anger
- Despair
- Depression
- Apathy
- Feeling of being trapped


Some of the ways a person can set themselves up for burnout include poor time management, setting unrealistic goals, trying to do too much at one time, working in a high stress environment under harsh conditions, or working too many hours without adequate recovery time. The cumulative nature of stress often means that the situation will not get better over time.

Stress is the trigger for most incidents of burn-out. As we learned with Selye’s GAS Syndrome when the body can no longer adapt to the demands being placed upon it, the exhaustion sets in, and the body can no longer deal with the stress. Burn-out typically begins on the jog, but the overflow symptoms typically show up in the home environment. A person may try to hide the fact that burn-out is happening on the job and may also deny that there is a problem but feedback from close friends and family can alert the person to this potential problem.

There are some things a person can do to deal with the negative consequences of burn-out. First and foremost is to allow sufficient recovery time between tasks and projects. Practicing good self-care including maintaining a proper diet, getting enough sleep, exercising your body, scheduling personal down time, learning to manage time and priorities, and keeping positive interpersonal relationships are important considerations. A regular review of the number of tasks undertaken along with a plan to use all available resources is a good benchmark in determining additional capacity to take on more work. If you have a hard time delegating work or sharing the load then eventually you will exhaust yourself by trying to do it all yourself. Sometimes you have to simply say “No”!

Stay well, work well, and prosper.

              - By Don Doherty, MA, Ed.S.

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