How to Recognise and Recover from Burnout

This post is going to be a little different from my usual. This time around I want to talk about something so many of us are suffering from in today’s fast-paced world. Something insidious which can creep up on you without you even noticing. Something which can and will stop you in your tracks.

I’m talking about burnout. 

Whilst not a medical condition itself, burnout is an epidemic of the modern world. Burnout happens when someone experiences extreme stress and overwhelm for a long period of time. Symptoms can look similar to depression or anxiety and be completely debilitating.

According to MentalHeath UK, 91% of adults have experienced extreme or high levels of stress. And Forbes reports that in America, 41% experience work-related burnout after taking time out. The true numbers are likely even higher if you consider the people who don’t even realise they’re suffering from burnout. 

Left untreated, burnout can affect every area of your life including family, work, and social. It can even make you more likely to catch illnesses and prevent you from performing everyday tasks. 

Until recently, I found myself in the exact same situation. Unable to write, to cook meals that you didn’t shove in the microwave, or to read long content. For me, reading and writing are like my life blood, so it filled me with despair when I couldn’t. I even feared I was ‘going off’ writing, even though I’ve been writing since childhood. 

Of course, that isn’t the case. And now that I’ve recovered somewhat, I see how ridiculous that fear was. 

Some symptoms of burnout are: 

• Extreme exhaustion 
• Inability to carry out usual tasks
• Frequent emotional outbursts
• Frequent illness
• Feelings of overwhelm
• Substance abuse (to cope with the symptoms)
• Difficulty concentrating
• Procrastination and trouble completing tasks

There’s no end of advice out there on coping with burnout. Some says that the only way to get through it is to be kind to yourself but carry on regardless. That if you don’t, it will be almost impossible to get back to what you were doing before. Especially if that thing is something you actually loved doing.

For example, some articles say to cope with writing burnout, not to stop writing whatever you do. 

Through experience, I’ve found that kind of advice does more harm than good.  Trying to push through burnout can prolong recovery and worsen symptoms. The best thing to do if you’re experiencing symptoms of burnout is pure, hard rest with no time limit. 

That might mean taking a long break from tech (especially news and social media), taking time off work, getting help with housework or childcare, and leaving your schedule as empty as possible. You may need to consult your GP if symptoms are severe. 

Recovering from burnout is a process and can take a long time depending on the severity. Once you’ve recovered, it’s important to look at the cause so you can take steps to prevent it. 

Common causes of burnout are:

• Long work hours
• Pressure to perform
• Comparison on social media
• Information overload
• Overstuffed schedules
• A stressful home life.

Conditions such as autism and ADHD can also lead to burnout (like with myself), as can having an underlying mental health condition. 

As human beings, we still have the same brains as our ancient ancestors thousands of years ago. We simply aren’t meant to be managing with and coping with the things the modern world demands of us. 

We aren’t meant to be working ourselves to death, filling our schedules to bursting, buying endless crap, and compulsively checking the news for threats to our survival (which is what we’re really doing).

No. Just like our ancestors we’re still wired for nature, for rest and play, for social, and for basic survival. For good food, adequate shelter and a tribe. Modern humans are increasingly disconnected from those things, too fast and burnt out to even realise it.

This is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about minimalism. I see it as a valuable tool to combat the pressures of the modern world and to walk a simpler path. Because the cure to burnout is always less. Less work, less shopping, less information, less priorities, and less conforming. 

Recovering from burnout requires slowing down enough to connect with our most basic human needs, especially nature and human connection.

Contrary to what companies will have us believe, we’re not simply a cog in a machine. Neither do we have to play our expected roles in society, especially if those roles are harming us.

We’re human beings with human limitations, and those limitations are different for everybody. What’s mostly the same are the awful things that happen when we ignore the warning signs and continue to push.

So let’s slow down and beat burnout. Let’s ignore the hustle culture. Let’s stop performing, comparing, and competing. Let’s start listening to ourselves.