Burnout

We often throw around the phrase ‘burnout’ to convey our tiredness and exhaustion – sometimes it even gets used as a badge of honour to show we’ve been working really hard.  Burnout is more than this though.  It’s a psychological and physiological condition, and it has to be recovered from.

Burnout was first defined in the 1970s in relation to workplace performance.  Psychologists identified three main features of burnout (Maslach and Leiter, 2016):

• Cynicism: detachment from or hostility to work
• Exhaustion: depletion of energy
• Inefficiency: declining competence and productivity at work

I think it’s also worth noting that psychologists came up with this theory not by looking at how paid employees navigated the world of work, but by looking at how volunteer caregivers were affected by their roles (Gérain & Zech, 2019).

Signs of burnout

While Maslach thinks of burnout in measurable psychological terms (and doesn’t distinguish between physical fatigue and mental weariness), people can exhibit a whole host of different burnout symptoms.  Some of these symptoms are psychological,

• Trouble remembering,
• Loss of confidence and/or increased negative thinking,
• Difficulty in decision-making,
• Reduced capacity for coping,
• Anxiety,
• Depression,

Some of them can be health-related:

• Insomnia,
• Aches and pains (e.g. Headaches, back pain, shooting pains),
• Tiredness,
• Susceptibility to getting ill,

Some of them can manifest in behaviours:

• Undertaking risky behaviours,
• Aggression or irritability,
• Withdrawal and avoidance,
• Loss of motivation and procrastination.

This is not an exhaustive list, but my aim here is to show that burnout emerges in different ways: we may be burnt out or showing symptoms of burnout and not even realise it.

Carer burnout

I mentioned earlier that the psychological concept of burnout derived from observations of how volunteer caregivers were affected by their work.  It may not surprise you to learn that since 1986, informal caregivers now have their own specific category of ‘carer burnout’ which has refined the earlier descriptors for the context of caring.  Carer burnout is characterised specifically by:

• Emotional exhaustion and being overloaded
• Emotional distancing from the person being cared for (as a means of self-preservation)
• The reduction of a sense of positive accomplishment through being involved in care.

Many things can make a difference to people’s likelihood to be burnout, such as the kind of caring they are doing, their family and support arrangements, and gender – women are more likely to get burnout from caregiving.

What can make a difference to burnout?

I’m going to focus in on two key things that can impact on people getting burnt out:

• Informal caregiver burnout is linked to having a reduced social life (Gérain & Zech, 2019)
• Likelihood of carer burnout is increased by caregiving resulting in having to give up things that are meaningful and important to the carer (Gérain & Zech, 2019).

If you feel burnt out, it is important to have/establish some kind of social connection.  For so many people I talk to, being able to discuss their circumstances with other people who understand is a really key resource: this might be family, friends, or a professional.  I’ve discussed elsewhere that when we are in survivor mode, caring, we often go into social isolation and hunkering down.  Evidence shows that the more social support you have, the more likely you are to protect yourself from emotional and physical stressors (Bruce, 2009).

The second point is that having things that are for you is really important as it also gives resources to cope and stave off stressors.  Carers often focus everything on the person being cared for, but in the long term this is not sustainable.  As a carer you can justify having things for you as these help sustain you: if you have sacrificed things that were for you to do your caring work, are there any small steps you can take to reclaim these (or other things) as part of your arsenal of resources?

Conclusions

In exploring burn out, I’ve been suggesting that a first step to tackle burnout is to recognise it for what it is.  The symptoms of burnout might look different for different people, but there are some common factors of overload, fatigue and feeling disconnected.

The second step is navigating burnout is to start to ask: where can you get (social) support? And how can you support yourself?

If you are burnt out or feel you are becoming burnt out and you would like some support, please reach out to us at info@careforyoucoaching.co.uk.