I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever experienced burnout. I ‘m going to say no, because I’ve never found myself so strung out from chronic stress that I’m unable to scrape myself off the floor. It’s hitting a wall you just can’t scale. It’s reaching that final straw. It’s utter exhaustion, right down to your bones. It’s your body physically refusing to cooperate, with a relentless headache or exploding bowel. It’s being completely unable or willing to take the next step forward...

To be honest, I have always felt like burnout was really for finance-types who have to stay at work until 2am or doctors, soldiers and police officers, who never get the time to process on-the-job trauma or even sleep that much. And who do really (really) important work. But what I didn’t realise is that while I haven’t actually burnt out (even though I have talk about it a lot), I am further along the burn out scale than I realised.  Burnout is defined as a state of mind that comes with long-term, unresolved stress that can negatively affect your work and your life. And it’s a word we bandy about all the time. I but like “coping” or “anxiety.” 

According to a well-respected study on burnout by Winona State University, there are five stage to burnout. The last two are the worst: stage 4 is burnout (retreating socially, not coping at all, chronic headaches, behavioural change) and then stage 5 is all that, but worse because it describes a phase where you have been in burnout for so long that it has (shudder) permanently changed you. 

Neither applies to me or anyone I can think of in my immediate vicinity at work or home. What caught my eye, however, was stage two on the burnout scale. This is one step away from the kind of chronic stress that easily tips into“Burnout.” The researchers called this one“Balancing Act” in the study, and it includes job dissatisfaction (sometimes tick), inefficiency, described as “losing” things among other examples (alarmingly familiar to me), a general feeling of fatigue (tick), and escapist activities, including zoning out in front of the television and drinking alcohol (tick and double tick). This phase could also be described as “A snap shot of Brooke’s life on any given day.” Does this mean if I don’t take care, I’m vulnerable to burnout? Sounds like it.  

In a new book called Burnout: A Guiderto Identifying Burnout and Pathways to Recovery by Professor Gordon Parker, Gabriella Tavella and Karrie Eyres, certain personalities are also more likely to burnout - the conscientious, the perfectionist, the sensitive and introverted, the kind and the caring. The mental load women carry at work and home also makes us more susceptible  to leaving the comfort of the balancing act and moving into full-blown legit burnout. Interestingly, most people who think they are in burnout aren’t there - they are still burning out (which means your close to the edge, but there’s time to change your trajectory)

The good news is that the authors also share ways to heal yourself. It’s well worth a read (or listen to this podcast interviewing the lead author), because different approaches will work for different people, depending on circumstance. But some takeaways include the importance of setting small goals, addressing your perspective on success and perfection, finding things that make you feel connected to something larger, and taking a holiday. All of which sound like very good ideas from over here in the balancing act phase, where I lose stuff without losing my shit altogether.