When Busyness Turns to Burnout
How do you recognize the early signs of burnout? For those of us that are used to getting things done - you are busy making everything happen whether for work or family - it's easy to think that burnout can't happen to us.
At least that's what I thought when I was experiencing unrelenting fatigue. I thought I could research my way out of it. I was doing most things right - at least I was doing the things I knew how to do: getting good sleep, eating what I thought was a pristine diet - having cut out alcohol and sugar and food reactive foods that I had learned don't work for me - daily yoga and meditation, and taking basic supplements. I doubled down and worked harder at getting it right. But, I didn't know what I didn't know and my brain fog and exhaustion were not getting better. So, I reached out to a functional health practitioner who was able to run some stress and hormone tests, which uncovered that the delicate synergy of hormones was in dysfunction. On the internet, this is sometimes referred to Adrenal Fatigue, but the more recognized term in function health is Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis Dysfunction. Also known as: Burnout.
Here's a good but incomplete list of what to watch out for from the Healthline article, How to Identify and Prevent Burnout :
Drive, Ambition, or Type-A Personality
Pushing yourself to work harder
Neglecting personal care
Denial
Withdrawal
Inner emptiness
Mental or physical exhaustion
Additional signs of burnout from my experience and research including, the article Prevent and Recover From Burnout from The Health Insider :
Disrupted sleep
Irritable
Feeling drained and tired
Issues with focus or foggy thinking
Annoyed with job or family and don't know why
Aches, pains, gut issues, headaches, and others
Feel the need to compensate with alcohol, drugs or food
Withdrawal from social life and/or work
Reduced performance or lack of satisfaction from achievements
Want to change mindset but feel stuck
Increased illness
If you've been told you have thyroid issues, that can also be a warning sign, or clue, to look further upstream for root causes. The thyroid is sensitive and any thyroid hormone levels whether borderline out of range, or obviously out of range, can be a cause or effect of upstream imbalances.
While burnout many times is presented in the framework of workplace mental health, from personal experience I know that it can go beyond just work and seep into every aspect of your life. Notably, according to Mayo Clinic, burnout is not a medical diagnosis.
If you think you might be on the verge of burnout, or recognize some of the early signs in yourself or others, there is hope for recovery. Recovery from burnout can start with self-care like a healthy diet, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, taking mini rest breaks throughout the day, daily mindfulness activities like meditating, yoga or walking in nature, stress-relieving exercise, and consistent routines for bedtime and and waking.
In this article from Workplace Strategies for Mental Health, in questioning participants at a roundtable discussion entitled Recovering from burnout, participants said that their recovery took from 6 weeks to 2 years, with an average of 6 to 9 months. With most describing it as a life-long journey.
From my own experience of trial and error, this timeframe is spot on. However, once I sought help and got functional lab testing to get to the bottom of what was causing my symptoms, my recovery accelerated and I was able to find relief within 6 weeks after consistently implementing the recommended diet, rest, exercise, and stress-reduction lifestyle practices along with recommended targeted supplementation. I think of it as self-care to the Nth degree. You might be thinking its selfish to invest so much time, effort and money into self-care. Yet, think about that often used analogy of the flight attendant instructing passengers to secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others, in case of emergency.
I would posit that when you're in the depths of burnout working hard to claw your way out, it seems like an emergency every day that won't stop. You must put your own oxygen mask on first, or risk the consequences. And, I'm guessing you've already experienced or are experiencing the consequences. It's no fun!
And, now to appeal to the vanity in each of us. Burnout is aging - it is making you look and feel older than you are. By addressing burnout, you can slow or even reverse aging inside and out. Thus, self-care means aging well.
The only way that you're going to be able to show up in your life and your work for the people you care about, to be able to do the things you are meant to do to make this world a better place, is to get hyper-focused on regaining your equilibrium.
If you feel like you've tried all-the-things, and you're still stuck, let's talk. Or, if you'd like to accelerate your healing journey, let's connect to see if I can help. As a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, I am now able to order those stress & hormone labs along with looking at immune system, digestion, detoxification, and hidden food intolerances, that may be contributing to the chaos you're feeling. By getting to the bottom of what is making you feel poorly, we'll be able to work together to design a personalized self-treatment program so that you can find relief and learn lifelong skills to keep the chaos at bay.
