The 7 major burnout symptoms
Burnout isn’t just being very tired. It’s a medical condition that leads to a host of serious health issues. Burnout is the last stage of chronic stress and it occurs when all your resources -emotional, physical and mental -have been all use up. You feel you have nothing left.
1. Severe exhaustion. You have no desire to do anything that involves effort. The very thought of work makes you physically ill. You have a hard time getting up and going in the morning.
2. Depersonalization. We become detached from others when we are in burnout. The mental and physical exhaustion of burnout brings on cynicism and detachment from others. A classic burnout symptom is that we withdraw from our colleagues, friends and even family members. This creates isolation making it even harder for you to get the help and support you need to overcome burnout.
3. Catastrophic thoughts. Our primitive brain doesn’t know how to deal with the current stressors of our modern world. In burnout, we begin to have dire thinking and our whole world is colored dark with all will and effort to change our situation, stripped away. We tell ourselves things like “It won’t matter.” “I can’t do this job anymore.” “I won’t be able to make it.” We feed ourselves false believes when we say these things to ourselves, leaving us with no coping resources to fight off these dangerous thoughts.
4. Absence of positive emotions. What you used to enjoy outside of work feels meaningless. Negative emotions crowd out the positive ones that you need to recover from burnout.
5. Emotionally draining work. As hygienists, our job can be draining as we work with a new patient hour after hour. Our job is to meet them where they are emotionally and this can take a toll on us as we try to calm their fears and connect with them. Being a hygienist involves intense emotional resources. Meeting your patients where they are can naturally deplete any emotional reserves you have for yourself.
6. Excessive workload. Long hours drive stress and prevent the body from physical recovery and the mind from replenishing mental resources. Stress plays a huge roll in our health, and stress left unchecked can lead to sleep problems, a suppressed immune system, digestive issues, heart disease, etc.
7. Cynicism. The values that used to drive you no longer do -pride, service, money, ambition. Belief in the good you can bring to the world through your work has completely vanished.
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