What Is Burnout, And How To Help Yourself Avoid It?

I’ve suffered from burnout quite a lot in my young adult life. The term millennial burnout was something I related to quite heavily. For a period of 5-6 years, I was pushing myself and my body far too hard, not treating it to the love and care it deserved. Like many other people, I was pushing myself to do a full-time job alongside additional work in my own time. But still socialising with friends- FOMO being very extreme alongside keeping up duties with family and the things I had to do.

It’s tough to live in a world where most people can’t afford to buy a house on the average wage without making additional money another way. Where the prospect of meeting a partner isn’t as simple as a friend of a friend with the millions of apps available and the fear of someone better coming along.

What is burnout and what causes it?

Web MD sites that “burnout is a form of exhaustion caused by constantly feeling swamped.”  It’s the result of excessive and prolonged physical, mental or emotional stress on your body. This can be caused by your job, caring for someone, pushing yourself too hard, anything that pushes you to feel overwhelmed. Burnout happens when you’re drained and unable to keep up with life’s incessant demands, unable to give your mind and body what it needs to function. If it continues you may lose interest and motivation in things and it can reduce your productivity. You may feel like you have no energy, helpless, hopeless, and resentful.

For me, it was caused by pushing myself too much and ‘burning the candle at both ends as my mum used to call it. Constant late nights, multiple gigs every single week, staying up late to work, and saying yes to everything on offer. My symptoms used to come where most months my body would have a day or so where it just collapsed. I’d spend the whole day in bed with a headache, unable to keep down food. And it was definitely my body’s way of saying stop doing things and relax, give me some downtime!

I’m sure most of us have experienced this feeling before, whether you called it burnout or not.

How to try and avoid burnout

Talk to people

Social contact and talking to people is great way to avoid stress and calm your nerves. Whether you’re heading towards burnout or there already you might struggle to take action on your own. The person you talk to doesn’t have to be able to fix your issues but just be a good listener. Make sure you surround yourself with positive people who will have a good impact on your life. And not those who you may consider a bad influence. If you work with other people be more social with your coworkers to help buffer you from potential job burnout.

Spending time with people you love will help you feel more positive and hopefully remove some of the stressors which can cause burnout. If you don’t think you have anyone to talk to think about joining a group to make new friends and find people with common interests as you.

Take a break from technology

Do you ever find yourself endlessly scrolling and realise hours have passed? Or that you struggle to differentiate between your online and offline line? If so it might be time to reevaluate your relationship with technology and take adequate breaks from it.

Tanya Goodin released a book called ‘My Brain Has Too Many Tabs Open: How To Untangle Our Relationship With Tech‘ and as soon as I read the title I connected with it. Sometimes when you have so much on it’s like your brain has so many things to remember, or so many things ‘on’ that it can feel overwhelming. Tanya is a digital detox expert and talks about common dilemmas around technology and actionable ways to help with them. The book is worth a read if you recognise that technology takes up a large part of your life.

To help avoid burnout you might want to take a day off every week or set yourself times you’re allowed to use it.

Help avoid burnout by reevaluating your priorities

Burnout is a sign that something in your life isn’t working so take some time to think about your priorities. Are you neglecting something that is important in your life? Are you spending too much time on something that doesn’t bring you happiness?

Try to set boundaries and don’t be afraid to say no sometimes. You don’t need to do every activity you’re asked to join or take on every task you’re asked to do. Make sure to set aside relaxation time for you to do what brings you happiness. Perhaps that’s meditation, having a relaxing bath and face mask, or watching a trashy movie. Self-care comes in many forms.

Look at your diet

The food you put inside your body can have a huge impact on your mood and energy levels. When I was going through burnout I wasn’t eating properly, opting for convenience food more often than not. Some ways you can help your diet is:

• Minimize sugar and refined carbs as they can lead to a crash in mood and energy
• Reduce your intake of caffeine (I remember trying to wean myself off of caffeine-filled fizzy drinks and I had constant headaches for weeks!)
• Eat more Omega-3 fatty acids for a good mood boost. You can find this in fatty fish and walnuts among other things.
• Drink alcohol in moderation as too much can cause anxiety
• Avoid nicotine as smoking can also increase anxiety levels

Help avoid burnout by getting a good amount of sleep

One of the most important ways to avoid burnout is to give your body all of the things it needs. And that includes sleep. When we’re busy sleep tends to be the thing we push to the side, staying up later to do work, chores, or activities. But your body needs a good amount of sleep each night in order to function properly the next day. And by depriving y0ur body of the downtime you’re not doing it any favours.

Try to make sure you get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, even if you don’t think your body needs it. If you’re used to sleeping less it might take some time to train your body to sleep earlier. But you’ll feel so much more refreshed and relaxed after.

Other things you can do to try and avoid or help with burnout:

• Make exercise a priority as it’s a powerful way to boost your mood
• Nourish your creative side and start a project or take up a new hobby
• Do breathing exercises

Have you ever experienced burnout?

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