It can be challenging to define burnout. Not considered to be a medical condition, the definition of burnout, as stated by the APA Dictionary of Psychology, is “physical, emotional or mental exhaustion, accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance and negative attitudes towards oneself and others.”

What is burnout?

Typically, burnout is brought on by drawn out or chronic stress, resulting in mental, physical or emotional fatigue. You know that it is happening when you experience emotional exhaustion, feel overwhelmed and are not able to handle ongoing responsibilities. Consider all of those responsibilities that you have in your personal and professional life. Although issues at work are the primary cause, it can also affect other facets of life including parenting, caring for others, and intimate relationships.

Burnout is a type of fatigue brought on by a constant feeling of being overwhelmed. It can occur when you are emotionally depleted, overburdened, and unable to keep up with life’s daily demands. Burnout has a detrimental impact on all aspects of life, affecting your home, job, and social life. It can drain your energy, leaving you feeling like you have nothing left to give.

Is it burnout or stress?

Stress is a normal reaction to regular or unusual stresses. It can occasionally last for a prolonged period and develop into a chronic condition. Burnout could result from this, although not necessarily. Being under constant stress doesn’t necessarily indicate that a person is being burned out.

People who lead stressful lives may experience enormous strain to the point of feeling drained, burned out, and not able to cope. Mental, physical and emotional difficulties might also be caused by stress at work. Possible contributing factors include feeling constantly overworked, continually dealing with deadlines, or having disputes with coworkers. A strong commitment to the job to the point of disregarding their own needs can also be to blame.

Many people use the words “stress” and “burnout” interchangeably. Although they can be similar, there are some significant differences. For example, stress related to a specific incident is something we all experience occasionally in life.

In contrast, burnout is a reaction to prolonged, extreme stress and results in a person feeling emotionally and physically exhausted, disillusioned, disengaged, and less effective. Burnout can lead to mental health problems including severe depression if it is not treated.

Burnout is the result of unmanaged and accumulated stress over time. Consider burnout to be the bigger, meaner big brother of stress. Generally, burnout needs stress to be present, but stress can exist without being burned out.

How is burnout different from depression?

Depression has some of the same symptoms of burnout, including fatigue, being despondent, and poor performance. Depression frequently manifests as a low sense of self-worth, feeling hopeless, and having suicidal thoughts. These are not considered to be the normal signs of burnout. Depression does not always accompany burnout. However, burnout may make someone more susceptible to developing depression.

Are you at risk for burnout?

Let’s take a reality check. Some predictors of burnout are if you:

• Feel as though you never have a good day
• Share an opinion that what you are doing is not worth the effort
• Suffer consistently by being too tired to do anything
• Consider the tasks you have to complete at work are mind-numbingly boring or overwhelming
• Think that nothing you do is worthwhile
• Sense that no one appreciates all the work that you do
• Are experiencing a loss of motivation

Burnout symptoms

It’s no secret that getting out of bed in the morning is not the easiest task of the day. Most of us experience days when we struggle to get out of bed. Although your pillow may be filled with down and your comforter is warm and cuddly, the effort could be due to being overwhelmed or unappreciated, whether at home or at work.

Burnout develops gradually. Like obesity, vision problems or back aches, it can take time to develop as it slowly sneaks up on you. At first, the symptoms and signs are minimal, but they get worse over time.

Consider the early signs as warnings indicating something is wrong and has to be remedied. You can avoid a serious breakdown if you pay attention and properly manage your stress. Ignoring the signs can lead to burn out.

Emotional symptoms

• Feeling of failure and insecurity
• Feeling defeated, stuck, and helpless
• Feeling alone and detached from everything
• No motivation
• A more pessimistic and cynical view
• Diminished sense of accomplishment and life satisfaction

Your emotional wellbeing can be impacted contributing to an increased likelihood for depression, anger, irritability and anxiety.

Physical symptoms

• Most of the time feeling worn out and exhausted
• Sick often, weakened immunity
• Pain in muscles, recurring headaches
• Change in eating habit
• Change in sleeping habits that bring about fatigue

 Physical wellness is impacted by burnout due to the excessive stress in your body. Your physical wellbeing can be impacted contributing to an increased likelihood for heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, respiratory issues, and likelihood for death before age 45.

Cognitive symptoms

• Difficulty paying attention when someone speaks
• Difficulty concentrating on a task
• Impaired short-term memory
• Impaired judgement

Your cognitive wellbeing can be impacted contributing to an increased likelihood for making mistakes at work and poor motor coordination.

Behavioral symptoms

• Withdrawing from personal and professional obligations
• Excluding significant others from your life
• Putting things off or taking longer to do them
• Using coping mechanisms like alcohol, drugs, or food
• Taking frustration and anger out on others
• Not going to work or working shorter hours

Your behavioral or social wellbeing can be impacted contributing to an increased likelihood for alcohol or substance abuse, isolation from friends and family, irresponsibility with finances, anger towards family members and inability to fulfill responsibilities. Professionally, you may experience a loss of job satisfaction, an inability to do your job well, or withdraw from colleagues.

How to Recover from Burnout

We have another article on this site that covers ways to recover from burnout when you are exhibiting some of the symptoms mentioned above. Briefly, they include:

• Addressing your mental health
• Taking breaks throughout the day, especially when you are at work
• Exercise on a regular basis
• Find things to do that you enjoy

It is possible to recover from burnout, even though you may feel completely overwhelmed. It takes some effort and planning to create healthy habits, a good daily routine, and maintain boundaries so that you can be successful both at work and in your personal life.

International Stress Awareness Day is the first Wednesday in November

Would you recommend your profession to others? High stress occupations are EMT, 911 operators, military, medical, firefighters, and police officers. No matter what your job is, your reaction to stress is a risk factor for the development of depression. Mental strain can make you feel unsafe both at work and at home. If you are a first responder, you know what the impact of stress feels like.

Stress, Pressure, and Anxiety

Stress is excessive pressure in your body. It builds up psychologically, physiologically, and behaviorally. As a first responder, you’re always under pressure. You chose a career that has moments of extreme stress. Although you try to find healthy ways to manage it, you may be stress eating, drinking too much, or isolating yourself. It may be impacting your marriage and the relationship you have with your children.

Perhaps you’re anxious. Anxiety is a feeling of tension and worry. You wind up feeling tired, shaky, and having palpitations. Although palpitations are usually harmless, they can cause you to feel constantly edge. You worry when you already have enough things to worry about. If your anxiety doesn’t go away, it can become an anxiety disorder and affect your physical health.

Causes of First Responder Stress

Imagine that you are in a room with other first responders. I ask you what is causing your stress. You raise your hand and tell me that your stress is due to, “financial issues, longer shifts, and an unhealthy relationship with your supervisor.” I then ask if your supervisor is in the room. You might be thinking about a million things at the same time, “poor management, a supervisor’s discipline style, workplace discrimination, being second guessed, frequent criticism, sexual harassment, lack recognition, denials of requested days off, or issues with confidentiality.”

Suppose the person sitting next to you raises their hand and says, “exposure to violence and personal injury.” Someone else shouts out, “organizational practices, bureaucracy, work schedules like long hours, shiftwork, night shift, and excessive overtime.” You might hear another first responder state, “dangerous job risks, violent confrontations with the public, or the possibility of being injured.”

I could imagine hearing someone reveal, “trauma, the way my body feels after a critical incident, serious accident, or when I’m exposed to suffering.” Maybe somebody would say, “co-worker relations or a lack of peer support.” Conceivably, with a smile, you could raise your hand again and share Reba McEntire’s quote, “To thrive in life, you need three bones. A wishbone. A backbone. And a funny bone.”  I’d chime in at that point and talk about having a sense of humor and gallows humor. A good laugh is a stress reliever. You can manage the symptoms of stress with humor!

Work-Family Synergy

Work-family conflict causes signs of stress within the family. Perhaps someone would raise their hand and mention, “being a single parent, last minute plan cancellation, and being absent from family functions.” Someone feeling brave at that point may add, “marital difficulties, a disrupted family life, my family feeling stigma, and having a second job.”

Acute Stress

Acute stress is a fleeting emotional or physical stress response immediately felt after an overwhelming event. Symptoms can happen minutes or even hours later. Acute stress is usually short-term, lasting less than a month. Symptoms can include intrusive memories, uncontrolled anger, irritability, elevated heart rate, difficulty breathing, sweating, headache, chest, neck, stomach, and jaw pain, nausea, and feeling numb. Acute stress can become episodic acute stress due to the frequency of symptoms. For the most part, symptoms may be due to daily unreasonable demands or not having the resources to get the job done.

Chronic Stress

Although acute stress goes away quickly, that is not the case with chronic stress due to unending stressful situations at work. Absenteeism, turnover, alcohol abuse, sleep disorders, and suicide are huge problems. Symptoms linked to chronic or long-term stress include cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. You might be on autopilot and not even realize the hold that chronic stress has on you.

 Advice to Leaders

First responders are dealing with personal issues, adverse childhood experiences that have never been managed, financial problems, failing marriages, unhealthy coping, and sleep issues. Departments and EAPs can update their agency policies on wellness while identifying best practices programs on safety and wellness. They need to ensure that any clinician recommended to provide mental health support is qualified to support a first responder. These clinicians need to understand unique first responder job-related stressors, the ways that they deal with them, and interventions that work specifically for them.

Jane Wagner said, “reality is the leading cause of stress for those in touch with it.” It’s time to get real and in touch with ways to manage stress. Many first responders have said to me that they are just doing their job. If that’s the case, they need to just find healthy ways to manage the stressors related to their job. It’s time to take control back. I recommend that you put your strengths into practice, live your values, make meaning of your role, and be grateful for what you can do serving others. Whether you speak to a peer, your spouse, or call 988, the bottom line is that you don’t have to struggle alone. Although International Stress Awareness Day is the first Wednesday in November, for all first responders, such as those who are Living Blue, it needs to be every day.