Burnout and Its Ripple Effect

We live in a society where the topic of mental health is often misrepresented or associated mostly with psychosis and malady. In most cases, these perceived maladies and mental heath concerns are often regarded as the handiwork of witchcraft and machination of evil forces. Society in itself teaches us to bottle up our emotions so as not to appear weak minded and vulnerable before others. As a result of this misinformation, many individuals live their lives in hypocrisy, pent up anger and oblivious of the moment they'll snap.
This misinformation too has given rise to the prevalence of suicide, a direct result of depression, negligence and ignorance.

With suicide cases and poverty at all time high, an unlikely symmetry has been created. Therefore it has become imperative more than ever to increase awareness and proffer solutions in tackling the silent menace Burnout creates on its victim's; a thin line between laziness and reality disillusion.


In order to fully understand this thin line, certain questions have to be asked and parallels need to be ruled out.

Does it seem like you spend most of your time in bed, lying down and not doing much lately? Are you someone that easily gets tired and doesn't feel like doing anything? Do you label this kind of behaviour as mere laziness and nothing more? There's actually an overlap between laziness and burnout that can make it difficult to differentiate between the two.

Burnout is a negative state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion, caused by excessive stress and inability to cope with it. Few studies specific to Burnout exist, with most of these studies exploring its psychosocial issues like workplace stress, perceived failure to achieve personal goals, and job dissatisfaction.

With that said, here are 6 telltale signs that what you're experiencing right now might not be laziness but Burnout.


1) DISCONNECTION
Are you going through the motions of everyday as if on autopilot? Is there a persistent feeling of being detached from your own self? If you're suffering from Burnout, one of the things you might be experiencing but do not realize is Depersonalization. People who go through this report feeling numbness from within and just watching life from outside of themselves. They don't feel engaged by anything and constantly struggle with the overwhelming sense of helplessness and inability to take back control of their lives.


2) LOSS OF MOTIVATION
Laziness is a character trait and character traits tend to remain stable over time. A lazy person does not feel like exerting effort into themselves or anything. But if you used to be self motivated and high achieving and often excelling in certain areas and have only recently become exhausted, apathetic and unmotivated, then it's more likely you're suffering from burnout and not laziness as most people would think.


3) LOSS OF PASSION
A clear difference between sufferers of burnout and laziness is that the former had things they were passionate about but now can't find this sense of fulfilment in them. Whether its at your workplace, with your academics, sports or even with family and friends, you might come to resent these things because of how you feel you overworked and pushed yourself to the brink because of them.


4) MOODINESS AND IRRITABILITY
Do you often find yourself snapping and easily irritated? Do you suddenly but often feel emotionally out of control but just can't place the reason for these frequent outburts? These are common but often overlooked signs of burnout. If you start having troubles controlling your emotions especially when it was never a problem to you, then this could be the likely reason.
Lazy people on the other hand are a stark contrast to this because they're often very relaxed, laid back, placid and unaffected by things.


5) NEGLECTING SELF CARE
One of the most distressing warning signs that someone might be emotionally and physically burnt out is neglecting self care and socially withdrawing from others. This could also include concerning changes in one's eating or sleeping patterns. You tend to spend most of your time by yourself doing nothing and become exhausted so easily even by the most simplest of tasks.
The difference between being burnt out and laziness are starkly in the fact that you weren't always this way.


6) A GRADUAL DECLINE
Finally but most importantly, burnout develops in stages. This simply means the aforementioned points do not develop overnight. Studies have shown that there are five major stages of burnout, each with increasing degrees of severity. They are; The Honeymoon phase, The Onset of stress, Chronic stress, Burnout, and Habitual burnout.
Many people begin to experience symptoms as early as the second phase when there's a moderate amount of stress, but optimism, motivation and performance may already be declinig. By the fifth and final stage, burnout becomes so embedded in one's life that the persistent physical and mental fatigue becomes more intense and harder to treat thereby creating vulnerabilty for the development of depression and anxiety.


Spotting the signs of burnout early makes it all the more easier to get help and recover from it. That's why its so important to raise awareness about burnout instead of dismissing it as laziness like most people tend to do. If you or anyone you know may be suffering from mental or emotional Burnout, please do not hesitate to reach out to a mental health care professional today and talk to them about it.