Burnout, or professional exhaustion syndrome, is a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion due to frequent work-related stress, characterized by symptoms such as lack of energy, negative feelings and decreased productivity.
Burnout syndrome is more common in professions that need to deal with a lot of pressure and responsibility, such as teachers or healthcare professionals, and more competitive, committed people who need to maintain constant control of their tasks.
If burnout is suspected, it is important to consult a psychiatrist. Treatment typically involves seeing a psychologist to learn how to develop strategies to help deal with constant stress and pressure.
Burnout symptoms
The main symptoms of burnout are:
1. Constant feeling of negativity
Burnout can cause a constant feeling of negativity, making the person feel incapable, hopeless, helpless, dissatisfied with the results of their work and unmotivated to face difficulties.
2. Physical and mental fatigue
It is common for people with burnout to feel constant, excessive and difficult to recover from tiredness, which can cause difficulties with planning, memory and reasoning, for example.
3. Lack of motivation
A common characteristic of burnout is the lack of motivation for non-work-related activities, such as watching television, reading a book or being with other people, due to tiredness and depleted energy.
4. Difficulty concentrating
People with burnout may experience difficulty concentrating on work, school and daily tasks, for example, due to physical and/or mental exhaustion and difficulty sleeping.
5. Feeling of lack of energy
The feeling of lack of energy is common in people with burnout due to frequent tiredness and/or stress and difficulty resting.
6. Drop in productivity at work
A drop in productivity at work is a common symptom of burnout, due to a lack of energy, physical tiredness, mental exhaustion and emotional changes, especially the feeling of negativity, caused by frequent stress.
7. Difficulty liking the same things
It is also common for a person with burnout to feel that they no longer enjoy the same things they previously enjoyed, such as their work and the leisure activities they used to do.
8. Mood changes
Mood changes are common in the case of burnout, which can lead to irritability, sadness, anxiety, anger and exaggerated reactions.
9. Feeling of indifference
People with burnout may become indifferent to the tasks they perform, the people they work with or even important people in their lives, such as friends and family.
Furthermore, due to indifference, the person may have excessive absences from work, frequently arrive late and experience a drop in productivity, for example.
Online test for burnout syndrome
Take the following test to find out if you are likely to have burnout syndrome:
This test is only a guidance tool and is not intended to provide a diagnosis or replace consultation with a psychiatrist.
How to confirm the diagnosis
The diagnosis of burnout is made by the psychiatrist taking into account the symptoms present and their impact on daily tasks, in addition to the characteristics of the person’s work, especially the difficulties they face.
If you want to make an appointment, you can find the psychiatrist closest to you using the tool below:
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Furthermore, consultation with a psychologist can help the doctor identify possible causes for excessive stress and problems such as anxiety or depression, which can sometimes be confused with burnout.
The doctor or psychologist may also use the questionnaire Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which aims to identify and quantify symptoms, facilitating the diagnosis of burnout syndrome.
How the treatment is carried out
Treatment for burnout syndrome involves psychotherapy sessions to develop strategies to deal with stress and/or negative feelings and increase the perception of control over tasks performed at work.
In the case of burnout, measures such as reducing excessive work or studying, creating more realistic goals, reorganizing the priorities of objectives and, when possible, avoiding situations that worsen stress in the workplace are also important.
Depending on the intensity of burnout symptoms and problems identified by the psychiatrist, such as anxiety and depression, antidepressant medications, such as sertraline or fluoxetine, and anxiolytics, for example, may be indicated. Understand better how burnout syndrome is treated.
Possible complications
Burnout can have complications such as depression, alcoholism, use of illicit drugs and, in the most serious cases, suicide, when not identified and treated appropriately, due to interference in different areas of the person’s life.
Furthermore, people with burnout have a greater risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, muscle pain and headache, for example.
How to avoid burnout
To avoid burnout, it is important to focus on strategies that help reduce stress, such as:
- Set small goals in professional and personal life;
- Participate in leisure activities with friends and family;
- Do activities that “escape” from the daily routinesuch as going for a walk, eating in a restaurant or going to the cinema;
- Avoid contact with “negative” people who are constantly complaining about others and about work;
- Talk to someone you trust about what you are feeling.
Furthermore, doing physical exercise, such as walking, running or going to the gym, for at least 30 minutes a day, also helps to relieve pressure and stimulate the production of substances in the body that increase the feeling of well-being.
Therefore, even if the desire to exercise is small, it is important to insist on this activity, inviting a friend to go walking or cycling, for example.
