Professional burnout - does it fall on us suddenly?

Professional burnout

Burnout is a state of functioning that builds up over time, years. Once it manifests itself, and the burned-out person realizes it, it is already a disease. It's not some kind of "fatigue" - it's serious. The ICD-10 International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Problems, which is widely used around the world, developed by the WHO, classifies "Burnout" as an entity coded with the symbol Z73.0. In the description we find:

State of life exhaustion

Christina Maslach, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California at Berkley, has devoted her professional life to the study of burnout processes - she is the most important classic of the issue. Ch. Maslach distinguishes three components of professional burnout: (1) emotional exhaustion, (2) depersonalization, and (3) a lowering of one's evaluation of one's achievements. The excerpt from the Forum quoted at the beginning illustrates just that.

emotional exhaustion- feeling of draining strength and emptiness

("For the past few days I've been sitting at work and I can't focus on anything, I completely can't get myself to act.")

. In another part of his post, he points out the reasons for this condition

("No vacation for 3 years, working 7 days a week, a flurry of additional assignments, no sleep. On a previous assignment on the weekend I didn't sleep for 24 hours, now the same thing is preparing to happen.")

. Our hero describes with equal gusto the subsequent symptoms of burnout - depersonalization.

("all my professional ethos from the days when meeting a deadline and good quality were sacrosanct, has gone to love - I do everything on the back of my mind, as long as there is acceptance").

Depersonalization describes a reduction in sensitivity toward others, a cynical view of other people, a sense of callousness and impersonality. This is a very important symptom that, among other things, helps differentiate burnout from chronic fatigue syndrome (according to ICD-10, G93.3). Finally, our protagonist reveals a sense of wasted time and effort on his job, which is neatly called "

downgrading one's own achievements.

("I'd love to get fired right now, but I don't know what I'll do for a living. They don't want to fire me something, and maybe it would give me a kick to finally do something.")

A sad "confession"... All the sadder that our hero in other parts of his post does not rule out suicide... Oy, thick stuff....

Vulnerability to burnout

But why him? We don't know, because we don't know our hero, while a one-time forum post doesn't give us enough insight into him and his situation. What we can hint at, however, is that some people are more prone to burnout than others. These include people whose work involves constant, intense interaction with other people and involvement in their problems. In English, they are called

"human services"

and

"helping professions"

Thus, they will be teachers, white coat workers (nurses, doctors), people who chronically care for the sick and dependent, but also people who work in companies (front desk staff, call centers, customer service, sales representatives, salespeople, marketing staff, advertising agency employees, graphic designers, web designers, content managers, etc.)... All those who "owe someone something" and believe with the utmost conviction that this is the way it should be - that is, holders of Type A personalities. What is this "Type A personality"? Well, Canadian physician William Osler, who lived from 1849 to 1919, made the conjecture that there is a connection between a person's personality (type of behavior) and the occurrence of cardiovascular disease. Anecdotal is the experience of two American cardiologists (M.Friedman and R.Rosenman) who ran a busy doctor's office. They noticed that the chairs in the waiting room were wearing out quickly. The upholsterer who repaired them pointed out the unusual way the chairs were worn out - as if the patients were just sitting on the edge of the chair, clinging to the railing; as if they were restless and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. All the chairs were worn in the same way. This unusual "sitting style" of the cardiac patients drew Friedman and Rosenman's attention to the link between their restlessness and heart problems. This led to the formulation of characteristics describing

behavior type A .

(personality A, behavior pattern A), as characterized by unbridled ambition, the need for high achievement, impatience, competitiveness and a sense of urgency. Such people function in a constant rush, doing several things at once, constantly pondering the next items on the "to do" list, not infrequently presenting disapproval of even the slightest delays and untimeliness. They are also characterized by a striving for perfection, excessive ambition, high expectations of themselves and others, and a penchant for competition. Unfortunately - one of the main determinants of Type A personality is also hostility, aggression and aversion to the environment, which translates into a lack of healthy and stable relationships with other people. People representing this type treat competition as a challenge. They usually function under time pressure and in constant alarm (stress). Such people can be recognized, among other things, by the fact that they are energetic, often explosive, speak and walk quickly, gesticulate, during discussions very often interrupt the interlocutor. Tension of facial muscles is sometimes visible, and hands may be clenched. Such people were said to be unable to relax. In the past, they chose overtime at work instead of relaxation, and when they did decide to take a vacation, they suffered from guilt. Today things are a little different. With the fashion for work-life balance behavior, such people are happy to take vacations, but they can't relax - they have to conquer Kilimanjaro, or run the New York City marathon. They live under a compulsion to function at high speed.

The above description of a person with behavioral pattern A, evokes the image of the familiar "workaholic", who is professionally fulfilled in an environment similar to his (e.g., a corporation) and believes he is likely to succeed. However, constant tension, irritability, and conflicted behavior can lead to lower productivity and may actually make it harder, not easier, to climb the career ladder. The highest price Type A pays for success, however, is loss of health. Unfortunately, Friedman and Rosenman have proven that the incidence of heart disease is twice as high in people who are focused on the pursuit of perfection and live in a constant rush. Today, thanks to the tremendous advances that have been made in cardiology, we are dealing significantly less often with the "disease of directors" of heart attacks. We use prevention, we have at our disposal an excellent system (one of the best in Europe) of interventional cardiology. People are dying less often - very rarely - from heart attacks. So, people's attention to A persons shifts from the heart to mental functioning. Since such people die later and from other causes, they have time to demonstrate to themselves and their surroundings the ailments that "in those days" had to give way to a heart attack and did not manage to manifest themselves. Here appears, among other things, the field of observation of long-term stress and one of its effects, namely burnout.

Preventing burnout

However, before burnout gets you... You'll experience something else.... First, you'll struggle to cope with the increased load, then (after a while) you'll feel overloaded, and finally, exhausted. There will be tension, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, irritability, inability to focus, minor (for the time being) memory problems. Later, sleep disturbances will worsen (multiple awakenings, premature awakenings with inability to fall asleep again). As a result of sleeplessness, you will feel tired(-ish) and without energy. You will notice that your head hurts. You will experience so-called health problems: gastrointestinal, strong heartbeat, shortness of breath, dry mouth, feeling of "noodles" in the throat, muscle tension and back pain, sweating, cold hands or frequent urination. You will think that these are ailments of the body, but your body is only expressing what the "soul" cannot directly say.... It is not for nothing that it is said that depression hurts - it is the "soul" that suffers... In Psalm(42,6) we read:

Why do you despair my soul and why do you tremble within me?

If you overlook what your "soul" is saying to you by expressing itself through the body (here: the various aforementioned symptoms), you will reach the end of the journey - you will experience burnout... Young Werther confides in us:

I have no power of imagination, no understanding of nature and all books are distasteful to me

Ultimately, he commits suicide. In doing so, note that burnout is not necessarily related only to work. It is said "occupational burnout", but burnout is influenced by a variety of reasons, not just occupational. A person who takes care of another person, such as a chronically ill person, burns out, or a person in intense love (here's a folk adage:

Sudden love the hotter, the faster it cools down

If a person functions in a certain situation, in which he or she is subjected to intense, chronic pressure, and has no way to compensate for this pressure, he or she is at risk of burnout. The work situation, in turn, illustrates the burnout phenomenon perfectly, and - indeed - occupational burnout is the most common type of burnout. However, our hero, quoted at the beginning, confides in us: "

I'd love to get laid off right now, but I don't know what I'll do for a living."

He further writes: "I've always been good, and maybe I'll still ride on this opinion for a while, but sooner or later the consequences will catch up with me, if only losing my job, and then I won't be able to cope with anything at all and will have to jump from the window." So how to avoid such a "collision with the wall"? How to prevent burnout?

First.

- don't deprive yourself of social support.

"(...) A person receives a message that informs him or her that he or she is given affection, that he or she is loved, valued and considered a valuable person, and that he or she is an accomplice in the system of interpersonal communication and mutual obligations."

Anecdotally it is said - why is the stool depressed? Because it has no support.

Second.

- Learn to recognize how you react to different situations. Know your emotions, name them, learn to distinguish them from each other. A psychologist can help you do this.

Third.

- Learn how to increase your resistance to stress, recognize stressors and reduce them (plan), use tension-reduction techniques (e.g., deferrals and perspectives), reduce the rank of problems to their appropriate level. A variety of reading and training or professional coaching will help you do this.

Fourth.

- Learn to recognize the early signs of stress. Don't be ashamed, and don't hesitate to reach out for help - advice from a psychologist, psychotherapy, or even treatment from a psychiatrist. Early intervention means less havoc in your life.

Fifth.

- if it already "happens" and you realize that you have just run out of resources to continue - with the rest of your strength, but run to a psychiatrist. It could be a matter of life or death. It is worth living. I end this text with the hope that this will never happen to you. If it happens to someone around you - react, bring such a person to a specialist. And in general - take it slower....

Victor Buczek