Burnout X Mental Health Monday

Burnout. It can feel a lot like depression. A serious state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, feeling defeated and even negative spiralling thoughts sometimes paired with uncontrollable crying. 

We all have a limit of how much we can do in a day, week or month and when we reach it your body and mind shuts down to the point where it can feel like a depressive episode but shorter lasting (anything from a day to a few weeks). It's your bodies way of protecting you, repairing the damage you've done from over doing it by forcing you to stop everything and sleep or chill out (even if you don't want to, it's not optional when burnout hits). It can also arise from long term stress and how often you experience burnout really depends on your lifestyle, how many stressors you have, exactly how much you task yourself to get done in short spaces of time and everyone's limit is different. 

Burnout is extremely common, the majority of people who experience it don't have mental health issues but if you do your probably more prone to getting burnout easily even if you haven't done that much; It's unfair but it makes sense as your body/mind is already handling a lot when you have mental health problems. 

So how do I fix burnout? Well firstly you listen to body when you're feeling tired before it gets to enough is enough, don't push yourself to do more just because you have done more previously and been "fine". Work to eliminate your stressors which isn't always possible but there are things you can do to better handle the fuckery so you're not experiencing the long term stress to cause burnout. Start by uplifting your mood, for me listening to music that makes me feel good in a morning really does work but you could also listen to affirmations as this interrupts the thinking cycle which can eliminate some of your stress. When your mood is uplifted your more able to deal with stress, it's less of a big deal versus if you're already low it making you even lower causing a depressive episode which can last months or years. The line between burnout and depression is very thin infact I think it overlaps in symptoms, burnout is like a warning of what's to come if you don't listen to your body or do anything about it to avoid it happening again. Depression is caused by thoughts, burnout is from handling too much. 

Recognise the red flags like losing motivation, change in eating habits and isolating yourself, among many other signs that you're about to burnout - the earlier you recognise what's going on the better. Recovery from burnout is possible if you listen to your body and burnout is somewhat avoidable in the future if you get the help you need to manage this serious affair otherwise it be ongoing for as long as your life is stressful which for most people is a fair percentage of the time. I've shared the knowledge I've been given and the wisdom I have on the subject so you don't have to suffer, that's what Mental Health Monday's is all about sharing tips for what I've struggled with (and overcoming) so you know you're not alone and don't have to struggle with it anymore.  

Are you on the road to recovery yet? Let me know in the comments what you're struggling with and i'll do my best to address the issue(s) in future posts. 

Till next time,

Stevie x