Reverse Thinking

What to do about burnout

Following up on the last article on this subject - Burnout or Boredom? Olaf, from Norway, asks what we can do about Burnout.

I am speaking largely here about Job Burnout but these comments apply just as well to Caregiver Burnout. Or even Pop Star Burnout.

The best possible strategy is avoidance as once you are in Burnout mode it can be hard to reverse out of the hopelessness trap that Headmind brings to the problem.

To avoid burnout you need to exercise Emotional Intelligence. Meaning that you act early when you notice emotions like boredom, frustration and disgust mounting up inside you.

There are also some advanced warning signs that are telling you take bale-out action straight away:

• Lethargic/low energy
• Loss of interest or pleasure, both inside and outside work
• Low tolerance with fellow workers and customers
• Continually moaning about your job
• Losing concentration and making more mistakes
• Isolated from other people
• Procrastination - even about essential jobs
• Seeing quite small tasks as overwhelming                   
• Easily distracted (e.g. you play internet games instead of getting on with it)
• Thinking you are trapped/helpless/out of choices

If you already have burnout then the first thing to do is snap out of the 'there's nothing I can do about it' style of thinking and start taking action:

• Take a Holiday (this will only work temporarily)
• Stop working overtime/bringing work home with you
• Delegate if you can - or learn to say 'No' and mean it
• Find some new area of interest/study/personal fulfilment outside your work
• Do more to raise endorphin levels daily
• Change your daily routine - don't keep doing things the same old way
• Ask the people around you to share responsibilities with you

If you have job burnout and your employers are not helping you to make things better then you will need to make some decisions and take action on your career.

The first step is to practice Reverse Assertiveness with your Manager. If you have tried that and got nowhere then you will need to look at other ways to earn a living. Just updating your CV and getting some professional advice - provided you are following all the tips given above - will make a huge difference.

Image by fyunkie

 

Burnout? Or Boredom?

Another stimulating email from a reader of this blog with  a great idea for an article (I seem to be lucky with my readers!).

Frej from Sweden writes

"What exactly is burnout? And what are the physical/neural changes in the body when this occurs?

It would be interesting to discuss this because many CFS sufferers are (mistakenly) diagnosed with 'Burnout' before they are diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome."

As, I hope, my readers have come to expect, I am going to take a slightly provocative line on this.

I am going to argue that 'Burnout' is in fact Boredom in disguise.

That Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, while it is commonly mistaken for Burnout, is in fact more like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Burnout happens when people who have previously been passionate and committed about something get disillusioned. Nearly every person with 'burnout' I have ever met have been cynics. They have lost their ideals, their passion and their hope and the place they have ended up in is a kind of hell.

When you are passionate about a Cause you give it everything you have. People on a mission work long hours. That gives rise to the erroneous idea that Burnout is simply exhaustion. But if that were true, someone like Nelson Mandela would have been dead long ago. But, as we saw him at his 90th Birthday party, he looked younger than some of the drug addicts who were performing for him.

Human beings, as Abraham Maslow told us, can only really be healthy when they are fulfilling a purpose in life. It doesn't matter much what purpose, so long as there is one. Having an important aim in life drives us along to extraordinary feats. And when Bodymind notices that we are totally authentic - and passionate - about what we are doing, it will supply us with all the energy we need. And, as I wrote before, we stay young and live longer too. Partly, that is due to the constant injection of endorphins we are going to get, which continually triggers peak experiences.

Burnout arises when other people take advantage of our passion  and  use us instead of honoring or intentions. The dedicated teacher, with a gift for helping troubled children is given yet another 'problem' class to teach. A GP, who already spends 100 hours a week actually listening to patients, is overwhelmed by still more patients running away from doctors who are peddling street drugs for the pharmaceutical companies. Or what about Social Workers who went into the job to help the underprivileged, only to discover that they are being scapegoated by the tabloids for human evil?

Now, this is where it starts to get a little complicated when we are explaining Burnout. Simply because Headmind tends to respond to the fact that we are being used with guilt rather than with healthy indignation. We think: 'I should try harder', ''I am letting people down', or 'I am a failure'.

What we should be saying is: 'I need to protect myself', 'I need to rethink my involvement in this', 'This isn't fair', 'There has to be a better way....'

Instead we work longer, harder, faster and more desperately in order to hold on to our Bananas about saving the planet. And then Bodymind starts sending us the emotional signal we know as 'boredom' to warn us that we are stuck in a rut.

Boredom is an emotion that warns us that we have replaced passion with duty, excitement with routine. The result? Frustration. Helplessness. De-pression. Apathy. Cynicism. Despair. And - eventually - Exhaustion and Burnout.

Next up, I want to write about the solution to Burnout and the difference between Burnout and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Please keep sending me your ideas for articles - I really appreciate them even when I can't use them.

Going mental

A very interesting email from Linda, in response to recent articles on Headmind, who writes:

Headmind solves problems. The problem is that it is so good at it, it doesn't know when to quit. And soon turns all kinds of things into problems that really aren't.

But it does solve problems. I used to have chickens and some goats. Even they solve problems, though chickens are pretty stupid and don't do such a good job. The goats, which I initially thought were pretty stupid, also solved problems. Some having nothing whatsoever to do with survival, but just for fun. One of my goats was absolutely determined to get all four hooves into a kitty litter pan, even though the pan was too small. She could get three in, but as soon as she tried to get the fourth in, she would lose her balance and could only regain it by catching herself from falling with a hoof back outside the pan. But for some odd reason, it was important to her to achieve this nonsensical task, so she stuck at it for the better part of an hour. Finally, she got all four hooves in the pan and stood there swaying with a look of absolute ecstasy on her face. Then calmly walked away and never did it again.

Headmind tries to solve all kinds of things. As a result we have Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, The De Havilland Mosquito Bomber (of WWII fame) and all kinds of other sublimely wonderful creations.

Headmind isn't a demon. It just runs amok. Then people like me get sick from it.

Why does it run amok?????

Good question!

And, being truthful, I'm not sure I have a good answer.

In general terms, something gets out of control when there are no constraints on it. Sometimes, this is because people don't see that there is anything wrong. For example, bullies get away with their aggression because those around them label their behaviour as 'masculine', 'being a good father/manager/leader', or 'that's my boy!'

We live in a culture that regards academics, scientists and medical doctors as intellectual heroes, regardless of whether their practices actually produce any worthwhile outcomes (only a minority actually do).

In the same way, we idolize the Intellect and fail to discriminate between Reason that creates, inspires and solves problems, and Reason that worries, obsesses and becomes engulfed in trivia.

The answer must lie in developing a greater suspicion of Rationality unless it is guided by worthwhile goals.

Traumatic treatments

About 10 years ago, when I worked for the National Health Service, we were all told off to go and get some training in the latest fashion in therapy - Critical Incident Stress Debriefing.

The idea was that anyone who had been through a crisis of any kind which could be labeled as a 'trauma' would get a 4 hour debrief in which they would be encouraged to talk through what they had just been through.

I seem to recall that quite a few hundreds of thousands of pounds were showered on these courses.

Then, a few years later, two studies showed that survivors who had received Debriefing were more likely to get Post-Traumatic Stress than those who had not.

Why? Because putting any experience into a disaster frame is going to produce a disaster movie. For example, if you recall a glorious afternoon spent with someone you loved and put it in the frame 'Our Last Day Together' (because he/she dumped you the following day) you will re-experience that day not as a pleasure but as a loss.

Readers may recall that in Traumatic facts I mentioned that only 20% of people who go through a disaster actually develop Traumatic reaction. And that's a high estimate - the real figure may be as low as 8%.

Here's what we know about people who do PTSD:

• They dissociate from emotions way too easily
• They tend to have a prior history of anxiety/depression
• They are isolated people who don't have a good network of family and friends around them
• They typically have a lot of other life-problems they are dealing with in addition to the crisis they have just been through (Vietnam Vets returning from the war are a classic example)

The result is something like this:

A stressful incident occurs. The person is unaware that they have emotions which prompt them to focus on positive experiences which balance the negative experience they have just had. Instead, Headmind focuses on the disaster movie and worries that they won't be able to get over it. Their social isolation means they spend too much time brooding on the problem rather than the solution. Anxiety (Stress) builds up because they act from the position of helpless victim rather than survivor.

The bottom line is that Post-Traumatic Stress is an abnormal reaction that happens to vulnerable people who are not equipped to deal with adversity.

People who handle disasters well acknowledge their vulnerability, draw close to their friends, engage in activities which provide balance and emotional reward, and get ready to move on. Naturally, their terrible experiences may lead to a deeper compassion for others and a renewed desire to help them.

What they don't do is spend 4 hours in an interview room rehearsing the possibility that they may get Post-Traumatic Stress.

     'Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.'

      Jose Ortega y Gasset.