You may be able to address burnout on your own with the support of friends, colleagues, and loved ones. However, if the burnout you are experiencing is leading to absenteeism, fractured relationships in your work or professional life, physical impairment or suicidal thoughts you should seek professional help.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for people who are experiencing burnout [14,15]. It can be provided as a one-to-one therapy, in groups, or alongside other types of help like career counseling or working with employers.
Therapists can also prevent burnout and recover by practicing stress management, cultivating a positive mindset, setting boundaries around their time and energy and getting support.
It takes an average time of three months to a year to recover from burnout. How long your burnout lasts will depend on your level of emotional exhaustion and physical fatigue, as well as if you experience any relapses or periods of stagnant recovery.
The final stage of burnout is habitual burnout. This means that the symptoms of burnout are so embedded in your life that you are likely to experience a significant ongoing mental, physical or emotional problem, as opposed to occasionally experiencing stress or burnout.
While burnout is not yet officially recognised by the NHS, Walker recommends heading to a doctor to talk about your symptoms as burnout can lead to high stress and also cause similar symptoms of depression.
If you believe you are suffering from burnout the best advice is to talk to someone. There are a number of doctor support organisations and helplines that can provide support, including the NHS GP Health Service for GPs in England.
If left untreated, burnout can become a part of your everyday life and eventually lead to anxiety or depression. You can also begin to experience chronic mental and physical fatigue that prevents you from working. Your job status may be put in jeopardy if you continue on this path.
When a person reaches a phase of burnout, they may be unable to complete their responsibilities at a job or at home. The inability to take care of day-to-day obligations will lead to increased stress and eventually to a mental breakdown.
While burnout is not a mental health disorder, it is closely tied to a few. Burnout can be a cause of a mental health disorder, but mental health conditions can also cause burnout. According to a study conducted by the University of Macedonia, burnout has an interconnected relationship with both depression and anxiety.
Burnout is not currently characterized as a mental disorder or medical condition in the DSM-5 [80].
You're Burnt Out. Is burnout and stress on your list of good reasons to quit a job? If your job has lost its luster and you feel like the long hours, pressure and anxiety aren't worth it anymore; you're not alone. Every day, people quit their jobs due to the emotional exhaustion and chronic stress of demanding roles.
Burnout is when a person reaches a state of total mental, physical and emotional exhaustion and it has some similar signs and symptoms to a nervous breakdown. Your doctor can prescribe medicines for many mental health conditions, and refer you to other healthcare professionals, such as psychologists or psychiatrists.
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be experiencing job burnout. Consider talking to a doctor or a mental health provider because these symptoms can also be related to health conditions, such as depression.
If you are feeling exhausted, both physically and mentally, and struggle to find the motivation to finish work or other responsibilities, you might be experiencing burnout. If you've been having trouble finding the right balance between your work and home life, this can be a sign of burnout as well.
Be honest and open. Focus on how you feel, rather than what diagnosis you might meet. Try to explain how you've been feeling over the past few months or weeks, and anything that has changed. Use words and descriptions that feel natural to you – you don't have to say specific things to get help.
Since burnout affects people differently, recovery time hinges on how a person experiences work-related exhaustion. Because of this variation, recovery time can take anywhere from a few weeks to several years.
If chronic stress has led to overwork, you can usually recover from it within a few weeks. If chronic stress has led to burnout, your body is exhausted. With exhaustion, recovery usually takes six months, a year or even longer. There can be a lot of variation in that.
Being burned out means feeling empty and mentally exhausted, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don't see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress feels like you're drowning in responsibilities, burnout is a sense of being all dried up.