Your brain on burnout Chronic stress has long been known to contribute to mental and physical diseases, and now researchers are able to capture what happens to the brain. “One of the most striking (effects) is thinning of the gray matter of an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex,” Arnsten said.
A separate research review that looked at 15 high-quality studies on the cognitive effects of burnout found "executive attentional and memory systems appear to suffer in association with burnout, and cognitive functioning is impaired in burned-out individuals," APS also notes.
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.
“You notice things like being more irritable, more destructive, less motivated, less hopeful,” said Amy Arnsten, a professor of neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine who studies the neural mechanisms of burnout.
Burnout doesn't go away on its own; rather, it will get worse unless you address the underlying issues causing it. If you ignore burnout, it will only cause you further harm down the line, so it's important that you begin recovery as soon as possible.
Persistent and chronic occupational stress and burnout are considered predictors of post-traumatic stress [17,18].
It can lead to personal and professional dissatisfaction; social isolation; relationship problems; depression; substance abuse; and, in extreme cases, suicide. Therefore, it's important to learn how to prevent burnout and to seek professional attention if it occurs.
Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by chronic stress at work or in other areas of life. Burnout can affect your personality traits, which are the patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that make you unique.
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.
Indeed, studies have found that individuals experiencing burnout typically also display symptoms of depression and often meet the diagnostic criteria for a depressive disorder [7,83,84,85].
Burnout involves three distinct symptoms: energy depletion and exhaustion, depersonalization and cynicism, and reduced efficacy.
There are many negative consequences of job burnout, including but not limited to increased sick days, loss of productivity, and strain on your overall health—mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. "Burnout can cause you to lose a sense of balance in life and lose passion for your work,” Halliday says.
Burnout was positively and significantly associated with PTSD symptoms (r = 0.335, P < 0.001). Social support and psychological resilience were weakly positively correlated; however, this association was statistically significant (r = 0.094, P < 0.001).
If you're burnt out, it is not your fault
All of us have certain resources, and all of us have certain demands. Burnout occurs when the demands of a specific situation are too high for too long — your environment or situation is overpowering you and any resources that you have.
Brain fog occurs when the brain is overworked or under strain. The most common symptoms are feeling dazed and confused, headaches, thinking more slowly than usual, an inability to remember things or even tasks just completed, mental fatigue, and mood swings.
The negative effects of burnout spill over into every area of life—including your home, work, and social life. Burnout can also cause long-term changes to your body that make you vulnerable to illnesses like colds and flu. Because of its many consequences, it's important to deal with burnout right away.
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.
Moreover, burnout can lead to unrelenting stress, leading to relapse risk. When you feel that you have things under control, you are more inclined to motivate yourself physically mentally.
Physical and mental exhaustion, a sense of dread about work, and frequent feelings of cynicism, anger, or irritability are key signs of burnout. Those in helping professions (such as doctors) may notice dwindling compassion toward those in their care.