Recovering from burnout means helping your body rebuild its inherent defense mechanisms against oxidative stress, which over a prolonged period of ongoing stress or attack, or an acute large assault, renders your body depleted in these chemical responses your body has to manage daily funcitons.
Burnout
Burnout then, is an incapacity to maintain a balance of daily function or production of daily chemicals because even typical daily functions are too burdensome for the body to prevent it from creating fatigue.
While it is not officially seen as a mental health problem, is considered a work-related risk, for jobs that involve high-demand output over prolonged periods of time, such as service jobs and executive positions.
Stress management means understanding the fine-tuning of your body’s needs in repsonse to stimuli, in order to prevent it from becoming depleted. Some of this fine-tuning includes being aware of the present moment, taking care of yourself, staying active, maintaining good sleep habits, managing your time well, and having support from others.
Resilience
Resilience is your natural ability to absorb a stressor and not have it deplete your body’s stores or have it create a prolonged downtime in your body’s functionsBuilding stress resilience involves using techniques like deep breathing and spending time walking in nature. These practices can help you bounce back and handle stress better.
It’s like a skill that you can learn and improve. You can do this by trying different techniques, like changing how you think about things, learning problem-solving skills, and using relaxation methods to cope with stress.
What is the meaning of burnout?
Burnout is a state of extreme emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by ongoing or repeated stress. It happens when you face too much stress for a long time, leading you to feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to cope with constant demands.
Burnout is commonly associated with work-related issues, but it can also be caused by other aspects of life, including parenting, caregiving, and romantic relationships. It differs from stress, in its ability to recover. Once a person has reached a state of burnout, they usually require 1-5 years of having their main stressors removed, in order for them to recover.
Whereas, when someone is stressed, while they may experience similar symptoms, these can more quickly be resolved, within 1 day to 3 weeks, once their stressor has been removed.
Burn out symptoms
Burnout symptoms usually fit into three main categories:
- Feeling extremely tired and drained of energy.
- Becoming more distant, negative, or cynical toward one’s job.
- Experiencing a decline in professional performance and effectiveness.
Exploring the Path of Burnout Therapy
Burnout therapy is counseling that helps people who feel overwhelmed and burned out. One effective type of therapy for burnout recovery is called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It aims to help individuals cope with anxiety, and burnout and find ways to feel better and more balanced in their lives.
What is Cognitive-behavioral therapy?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that teaches people how to recognize and change harmful or upsetting thoughts that affect their behavior and feelings. It combines cognitive therapy and behavior therapy to identify unhelpful ways of thinking, emotional reactions, or actions, and then replace them with better ones.
CBT targets negative thoughts that can cause anxiety. Generally, CBT needs fewer sessions than other therapies and follows a structured approach.
How to help someone with burnout recover?
If you want to help someone with burnout, you can be there for them and listen. Make them feel heard and understood. Be patient and offer to help in areas of basic human needs: hugs, healthy meals, providing childcare so they can take a break, and any other support that would help someone have solid food, water, shelter, relaxation, or mental peace.
For someone going through burnout or trying to recover, it’s important to try to do what you can, including asking for help. Areas to consider finding support in are: talking to someone, getting enough sleep, and eating healthy. Book a free discovery call with the MAKE CARE HEALTH clinic.
To learn what this means and to find community support for people facing similar challenges to you, trying to eat well to impact their health), take breaks, don’t take on too much, consider finding a new job, or try mindfulness. These actions can help gently and slowly, restore your body’s natural reserves of energy and power to deal with daily funcitons.
Remember that not all stress is wrong, it’s only when you’re in a prolonged state of it, or you have reached burnout, that it becomes pathologic.
Here are the steps to manage stress:
- Recognize if you are feeling stressed.
- Identify what is causing your stress (stressor).
- Understand why that particular thing is causing stress.
- Find and use a suitable stress management technique to cope with it.
There are mindfulness activities for adults
- Yoga
- Walking
- Gardening
- Journaling
- Meditation
- Diaphragmatic breathing
- Dance
- Exercise
- Walking meditation
- Gratitude Journal
Burnout Recovery, Building Resilience, and Stress Management with Dr.Kaylee
Doctor Kaylee is a skilled naturopathic doctor who helps her patients understand stress management and how to know if they are in burnout, and how to recover, in Confident Hormone Club.
By joining the club you’ll get monthly health courses and open office hours where members can ask questions and seek guidance. Additionally, they have access to bonus intensive learning sessions with different experts in the community.
