Burnout, rather than just acute stress which we’re all pretty used to experiencing these days, seems to have become quite pronounced and affecting higher numbers of people than we’ve traditionally expected to see.
2022 was a fairly overwhelming year in different ways to the previous couple. Many people arrived in the clinic with a range of presentations such as exhaustion, stress and trauma, and we supported a lot of nervous systems. Lots of people out there were also still dealing with family rifts over the issues during the past couple of years and some were dealing with awakening to the facts about what they had entered into, particularly if things had not gone according to the mainstream narrative.
I got to the point towards the end of last year when I stopped writing blogs and newsletters and just had to focus on managing day to day in the clinic and the dispensary. After a month off work over the Christmas/New Year period I felt duly refreshed and recovered. But viewing a variety of posts and podcasts from around the place, it’s become clear that there are many people out there who are only just now recognising they have burnt themselves out, not just from overwork, but from the emotional burden of what has gone before.
Having spent a month walking on the beach, gardening, sewing and meditating, it felt like a good time to put something on paper (figuratively!) and write a little bit about managing your way through burnout.
Many of us have periods in our lives when we know we have completely burned out, but we can navigate our way through this with changes in our lives and in our self-care. This is hopefully only a passing phase. Unfortunately, if unacknowledged and left untreated, for others this can become a more chronic state, and this could potentially require support from your homeopath and maybe even support from your GP, along with medication and psychologist or counsellor visits. The reduction in government support for these visits certainly seems to have shaken up a storm in the mental health community as they bear the brunt of all this arising from the last three years.
The exhaustion, which is a common factor, manifests itself both on the physical and mental or emotional level and can no longer be resolved even through taking a break, relaxing, exercising – the things that may have worked for us in the past. The stress and exhaustion have taken on a life of their own and become chronic.
“Burnout” isn’t actually a medical diagnosis. Some experts think that other conditions, such as depression, are behind burnout and other individual factors, such as personality traits and family life, influence who is likely to experience burnout.
The WHO has declared stress to be one of the most significant health hazards of the 21st century, where every third person (in Germany in this particular statement) is under permanent pressure.
Obviously, there are many reasons for someone to burn out, but generally you’d say there may be the risk of burnout when we are exposed to physical, mental and emotional strain over an extended period of time. In a work situation this might be a period where we are required to go beyond our performance limits for a long time, where unreasonable expectations are put upon us, or we are subjected to a challenging work environment generally.
Certainly through 2020 and 2021 the work situation was a big factor, with imminent loss of work/income being a huge factor for many; perhaps income was affected, and financial stress became an issue where it hadn’t been before, or it became much more of a stress, then affecting the family dynamic and relationships.
Sometimes the starting point for burnout is not so much in our work life but within the family. Ongoing family or partnership conflicts, problems in raising children, financial worries, and similar can lead to feeling chronically overworked and overwhelmed with no end in sight.
Why do we burn out and not that other person?
From a homeopathic perspective our constitutional type and particular susceptibilities can also provide the soil for the potential to burn out. In particular, people with a tendency to set excessive goals, who are the carers and those who always want to do everything perfectly are in a state where they want to achieve permanent peak performance and may make extreme commitment to their work, life or family.
These inherited or environmental factors are often based on specific ideas and beliefs developed due to previous experiences with similar situations. Beliefs such as “I need everyone to like me” or “If I say ‘no,’ I will disappointment them,” usually go back to childhood and become deeply ingrained on a cellular and soul level. These beliefs continue to influence much of our behavior and actions in adulthood, often without us being fully aware of them.
Everyone reacts differently to sustained levels of stress and overwhelm, so two people can respond entirely differently to the same situation
Regardless of the trigger, burnout and overwhelm, if left unaddressed, pose a future threat if we continue on the same path without making changes. Not only can we suffer acute burnout which can lead to a chronic state of burnout, we can potentially push our system to manifest physical illness in order to get our attention and get us to change things!
Questions to ask yourself
If you think you may be suffering from burnout, whether work related or due to some other personal situation, eg being a fulltime carer to a loved one, have a look through the questions below from the Mayo Clinic
Many people will feel that they can no longer cope with the daily demands of life – and this can go on for a long time. They feel burnt out and chronically overwhelmed, but somehow they just keep going, living off adrenal energy and adding to the potential for future health issues.
The questions below are more work related but can also be applied in your personal life.
- Have you become cynical or critical at work?
- Do you drag yourself to work and have trouble getting started?
- Have you become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients?
- Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive?
- Do you find it hard to concentrate?
- Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?
- Do you feel disillusioned about your job?
- Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel?
- Have your sleep habits changed?
- Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, stomach or bowel problems, or other physical complaints?
- Are you unable to recover your energy following a weekend, a week or a month off?
What symptoms can be experienced?
The first signs of burnout may be unstable moods, lack of motivation and reduced performance, concentration problems, constant fatigue, and exhaustion.
The individual may experience a decline in performance, mistakes are made more and more frequently. It can become increasingly difficult to make decisions and show initiative. Self-confidence is frequently affected so the individual can become anxious and hesitant about trying new things, in new situations and just generally about life. Emotional resilience is often absent or declining and they can become very over-sensitive to everything.
At some stage it may feel that everything is exhausting, nothing is fun, and the affected person may become more and more indifferent to themself, personal care and their environment. Add to this the potential for brain fog, sadness, despair, hopelessness, depression and in some cases suicidal thoughts, and you’re not in a good space!
Just speaking to you personally, if you do get to this point please reach out and seek help. There are many groups that offer assistance. Your GP is often your best first point of call for guidance and referral.
It’s not always easy for the individual to recognize that they are affected by burnout. Unfortunately, this is often only identified when they are already standing on the brink of a crisis.
Below is a bit more of a list (quite a long one actually) of symptoms which may indicate burnout.
Symptoms are varied and you may have just one symptom or perhaps a handful. Sometimes sufferers can think it’s “just menopause” or “typical teenage behavior” but often if we look at lifestyle or life events, we can begin to understand that there is something bigger going on.
Emotional Symptoms
- Feeling over-emotional or depressed
- Sudden angry outbursts
- Not wanting to socialise
- Inability to handle stress
- Insomnia or some other form of sleep disturbance, eg nightmares, sleep apnoea
- Feeling tired even after a full night’s sleep
- Feeling tired but wired
- Feeling better in the evening or night hours and worse on waking
- Fatigue generally
Physical Symptoms
- Frequent or reoccurring illness
- Allergies worsening or onset of
- Digestive/gut issues
- Muscle, joint or back pain
- Thyroid symptoms (or worsening symptoms)
- Headaches
- Tinnitus
- Weight gain
- Fluid retention
- Craving salt or sugar
- Loss of libido
- Blood sugar swings
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Acne
- Hormonal imbalance
How can we manage burnout?
Strategies for preventing and managing burnout can include:
- Learning assertiveness techniques to help us feel more empowered and enable us to more easily speak up when we need to
- Learning ways to improve problem-solving and decision-making skills
- Re-identifying personal values and setting realistic personal goals
- Learning and using coping mechanisms to deal with emotions
- Ensuring adequate relaxation and recreation
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle
- Minimizing stressors at work and at home.
One of the things that is common in burnout is lack of self-nurturing, which is really much more than lifestyle and personal care. So not eating properly, forgetting to drink water, too much coffee, alcohol, drugs, burning the candle at both ends and never switching off.
But more than that is a loss of connection with ourselves and with nature and honestly if we need to be well and happy, we could all do with making some changes in the above areas.
My biggest moan is about mobile phones, which have become a scourge for our personal healthcare – and yes, I’m guilty too! We’re all too connected, we just have to check Instagram, FB, Telegram, TikTok, check our emails one more time just in case. We take exercise plugged in to music or a podcast or with our eyes on how many steps we’ve done or need to do.
So again, let’s schedule in some quality time to disconnect from all these man-made distractions and reconnect with ourselves.
Basics
Here’s a quick list of lifestyle changes which are fairly easy to implement. We’ll delve into some of them a bit more as we go along and no doubt many of you will already be familiar with these ideas.
Always eat breakfast (and don’t skip meals generally)
Many people will skip breakfast, dash out the door with a coffee, grab a pastry as they pass the patisserie or stop at the petrol station for a chocolate bar, starting out the day with unhealthy choices!
My Dad used to say that breakfast was the most important meal of the day and we always had proper breakfast before we headed off to school. Old fashioned maybe but it makes sense.
Intermittent fasting is definitely a good thing for many people, but if you’re not eating too late and you’re not snacking after dinner, you should find you have 12 to 14 hours before breakfast. Eating earlier dinner or a nourishing lunch is better than skipping breakfast and getting by on coffee until lunchtime. After all breakfast is about breaking our fast!
THEN you need to fuel yourself for the day
You need to eat proper food if you expect your body to carry out the tasks you are going to demand of it in a day. Many people skip meals, snack to increase their energy again, drink too much coffee or energy drinks to keep going, and then wonder why they feel more stressed and anxious or suffer palpitations or indigestion. If we want to lead busy, productive and successful lives we need to eat real food (not supplements or fast food) and we need to take the time to connect with what we’re eating, not just wolf it down as we dash from one meeting or appointment to another.
High protein healthy snacks can be great to keep on hand if you really have to miss a meal or suffer from low blood sugar but shouldn’t become “the meal”!
We’re all going to be different as to what works, so have a play around and see what suits you best.
Keep up your fluids
Generally, this means water and it certainly doesn’t include tea and coffee in your daily fluid count!
Remember that black tea, coffee and alcohol are all quite dehydrating so it’s best not to make these your staple for fluids or you’ll find yourself dehydrated, even if you feel you’ve drunk plenty in a day. And one coffee a day should be everyone’s limit if you really can’t give it up!
Plain filtered water is best (and let’s all avoid buying anything in plastic bottles), fresh juices, herbal teas are all good. Coconut water is a good rehydrator as well.
I know some of us are not great at remembering to drink, but this is one of those things that will improve with practice, so have a go.
Exercise, but gently
Gentle exercise such as walking, stretching, yin yoga, gardening are always going to be great for your body. It doesn’t have to be hard-core cardio, just something to get your system going. Walk the dog or take the baby for a jaunt, but the point is to connect with the environment and with yourself, as much as work up a sweat. Find a park, sit under a tree, breathe in the (hopefully) fresh air and enjoy the weather regardless of what it has dished up for you!
Sure, you can exercise hard if you want to and if it feels good – find what works for you – but this suggestion is about going gently and connecting with self!
Acknowledge your emotions!
It’s important to connect with what is going on emotionally. Pushing down the feelings that come up for later is ok, if they are coming up at an inappropriate time. However, if you do it for long enough, those suppressed emotions are going to come back to bite you! Talk to someone if you need to. Organise an appointment through your GP, book privately or hop online and find someone you resonate with. There are some good support options available and you’re sure to find something that is helpful.
Learn to say NO…
This is a biggie!
So many people have trouble saying NO, and I have been that person myself!
We eventually crumple under the weight of always saying yes, trying to please everyone, keeping up with everyone, and generally having no boundaries to the outside world!
It is not wrong to feel you can’t take on something, can’t help out, can’t make that girls’ weekend. I find connecting with my gut is a good way to assess if I should be doing something. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it, just say no. People will respect you for being able to set boundaries to manage your life…and you shouldn’t need to make excuses for why you can’t do something.
Get sufficient quality sleep
Aim for 7 to 8 hours sleep a night. Yes, you may be able to cope on 4 or 5 hours now, but in the end you may find you really can’t!
And going to bed at a reasonable hour, say around 10pm, is always better than bed late/sleep late.
What do they say?? An hour before midnight is worth two after? An old wife’s tale maybe, but I think some of us might understand that feeling as we get older.
Let’s also remember to disconnect from technology and screens at least two hours before bedtime – and don’t take your phone to bed with you!
Learn to meditate & practice mindfulness
Lots of people (me included over the years) complain that they can’t meditate. I guess that depends on your definition of meditation.
Mindfulness has become a big focus in recent years and is about being aware of what is going on in your body and mind and in your environment. Really being in the moment…
Spotify and other similar podcast platforms have a lot of great free meditations and it’s easy to hop on and just search ‘Meditation Anxiety’, ‘Meditation Grief’, ‘Meditation Rejuvenation’. Be creative with your searches. There’s some really good stuff out there.
Yoga Nidra is another good one to search if you’re having issues with getting to sleep or staying asleep and we have our own free version on the website you can listen to and download.
Try building a habit to do it every day at least once, but honestly there are some great short 10-minute meditations that you could do at lunchtime, while the baby is asleep or just when you have time, that will restore your energy and your sanity. It really is a great and worthwhile tool!
Worth noting is that some experts say your cortisol levels peak an hour before you wake, which can result in waking with a rush of thoughts, busy mind and anxiety. Some ideas to help this could be to meditate as soon as you wake up – some of the stop your busy mind meditations on Spotify are great – then get up and have a glass of water, eat or go for a walk.
Spend time in nature
As in the Exercise, but gently above, time spent in nature can be one of the best ways to ground, relax and reconnect yourself. A walk in the park, at the beach, a dig in the community garden or getting your hands in a pot on the balcony. Make time to this on a daily basis in some form as this can be so rejuvenating.
Take up a hobby!
I know when you’re burnt out you feel you can’t possibly add anything else to your day, but managing burnout can be about rearranging your priorities and taking your mind off what your stressor is. So, people often tell me they’ve taken up a musical instrument, are taking singing lessons or have joined a salsa class. Yoga is of course great, running, some form of art or craft, even sky diving! Anything that takes your fancy, keeps you interested and brings you joy. It’s also about using the other side of your brain to bring balance!
Check-in regularly with yourself
And last but probably quite importantly and therefore not least, take time every day to rest, breathe, meditate and check-in with yourself.
You are never too busy (or you shouldn’t let yourself be) to take ten minutes for yourself. This is the biggest thing I learned managing my way through three crazy years of covid. That lunchtime ten-minute meditation or yoga breathing was my saviour. It picked me up, got me on track and helped me last the distance each day!
Just ask yourself “how am I doing” and if the answer is “not so good”, then work out what you can do, change or drop to give yourself some space.
Remedies for Burnout
Homeopathy can be a good support if you suspect you are suffering burnout. However, we do always advise you also seek professional help in this situation, including working with a psychologist, counsellor or similar.
The remedies listed below are a very small selection of homeopathics which may be useful in these times to take the edge off symptoms, but a consultation with your homeopath will give you access to a wider range that may be more appropriate to your unique situation and bring deeper healing and balance.
Please note the remedies are listed in alphabetical order and not in order of priority. The notes are brief because some of the descriptions are quite succinct and they can be easier to resonate with in this way, but you can find more on our website or on the internet.
Aconite – can be really useful to have in your bag or kit for cases of acute panic, from overwhelm or fear. It may also be useful for insomnia or night waking with anguish and agitation. We dispensed a lot of Aconite through covid just because of the level of fear people experienced from too much exposure to social media and the news! The symptoms come on really quickly and often intensely and sometimes are accompanied with chest pain or palpitations. That’s the time to see your GP!
Argentum Nit – is a big anticipation and anxiety remedy. Thoughts can be crazy and impulsive, there may be phobias (flying, crossing bridges) and the person may feel that nothing can help them. They may get trembly or weak and crave sugar, but feel worse for it, eg diarrhea.
Arsenicum Album – these people are perfectionist, tidy, needy kind of people who get completely exhausted (prostration is how it is often described) but at the same time are restless and anxious. This anxiety and prostration can appear from the outside to be completely out of proportion to the situation. Their exhaustion and anxiety may come with diarrhea and lots of fears, such as fear of burglars, and they can be quite picky and irritable with their loved ones in this state.
Gelsemium – people who need this remedy will usually feel fatigued, sleepy and heavy, often with weak muscles or a feeling of weakness generally. They may even look a bit droopy (eg heavy eye lids) and can feel dizzy. They may be disinterested and detached from everything. They can prefer to be alone because excitement makes them feel worse emotionally and physically.
Kali Phos – this is a remedy for the nervous system. People who need the remedy are usually nervy, jittery, oversensitive and excitable. Life often feels too much for them; think chronic mental and physical exhaustion. They can have a sense that something bad will happen to them – this is often a low-grade feeling – and they can have trouble concentrating and relaxing.
You can use in either a 6x (tissue salt) or a 30c. Neither is better than the other, but 6x can be useful taken a couple of times a day over a period of weeks to tune up and support the nervous system.
Natrum Mur – these people are a lot like people who need Arsenicum but with less agitation. They feel depressed, angry or have unexpressed grief, and they generally want to be left alone to their feelings. Sometimes you won’t even know how they’re feeling because they bottle things up and they won’t often cry in front of anyone else. They are the people who will hear all your troubles, but if you think about it, they’re not good at sharing their stuff. They can feel closed or as if their boundaries are very firm, like a wall!
Nux Vomica – people needing Nux are the A-type personalities, who’ve worked really hard to get to the top of their game and now can’t wind down, needing alcohol, coffee, sugar, drugs or excitement to sustain them through their busy lives. It can be very helpful for people who have been wide awake at night, fall asleep in the early hours and then who start the day slow and sluggishly with low energy and in a bad mood! This remedy can help bring down cortisol levels at night to allow the person to fall asleep at an earlier hour. The person may feel overwhelmed, have an overactive mind, and be irritable and impatient.
Phos Ac – this remedy is often chosen if the person is experiencing nervous exhaustion or are overwhelmed mentally or physically. The person may seem apathetic and have trouble thinking clearly. This is a great remedy for adrenal fatigue and exhaustion linked to grief.
Phosphorus – may be an appropriate remedy when a person is oversensitive to things around them. They’re the social butterflies of our materia medica, usually extrovert and in the middle of a busy social life. However, in times of stress they can become tired and dizzy and worse for physical or emotional exertion. Often, they’ll feel better for a short nap.
Sepia – while we think of this as mainly a female remedy, anyone needing Sepia will feel totally burnt out, tired, depressed, unsociable and definitely not in the mood for sex!! You can see it needn’t just be thought of for any particular gender, but rather is a great remedy to consider where there is overwhelm and exhaustion from a life situation. Certainly taking care of family and children would be on the list here! This person is always tired, has too much to do, and is physically and emotionally cooked!
Triple A or AAA (Aconite, Arg Nit, Ars Alb 200c) – is a combination I started using in 2022 when anxiety levels were high and people needed something a little more robust. Can be a useful one to keep in your bag or pocket if your level of burnout has manifested as intense anxiety. Obviously connect with your homeopath or GP if things are tough, but may be useful to take the edge off. You can get Triple A here.
