Psychiatrist Jesse Gold of Washington University in St. Louis knows it on the way to Burnt The moment you wake up and feel instantly irritated about what you find in your email inbox, and you don’t want to get out of bed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a health care professional trying to combat the rise in fatigue can sometimes feel exhausted. After all, this phenomenon is now ubiquitous in our culture.
at A survey of 1,500 American workers in 2021More than half of them said so They feel overwhelmed by the demands of their joba huge total of 4.3 million Americans They quit their jobs in December, an event known as “The Great Resignation”.
When people think of fatigue, mental and emotional symptoms such as feelings of helplessness and cynicism often appear. But fatigue can also lead to physical symptoms, and experts say it can be smart to look for signs and take action when a person notices them.
Lotte Derby, a medical scientist who studies burnout at the Mayo Clinic, explained that burnout, by its usual definition, is not a medical condition — it’s “a manifestation of chronic and ongoing stress.” World Health Organization (WHO) Describe Burnout as a work phenomenon characterized by feelings of exhaustion, pessimism, and reduced effectiveness.
“A person starts not working well, misses deadlines, gets frustrated, and may show annoyance with colleagues,” said Janet Bennett, a researcher who studies the effects of stress on health at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Bennett said stress can have wear and tear effects on the body, especially when it doesn’t ease up after a while — so it stands to reason that it can cause physical symptoms as well.
When people feel stressed, their bodies go through changes that include producing higher than normal levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine and norepinephrine.
These changes in the body are beneficial in the short term – they provide a person with energy to overcome difficult situations – but over time they begin to do damage to the body.
Our bodies “were not designed for the kind of stressors we face today,” said Christina Maslach, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who has dedicated her career to studying burnout.
Here’s how to recognize fatigue in your body and what to do about it.
what do you want to watch
A common symptom of fatigue is insomnia, Derby said. When researchers in Italy searched for a case Frontline health care workers who have been suffering from Burnt In the first peak of the epidemic, they have found That 55% said they had trouble sleeping, and nearly 40% reported having nightmares.
Research indicates that chronic stress interferes with the complex nervous and hormonal system that regulates sleep. It’s a vicious cycle, because lack of sleep further disrupts the system. If you find yourself unable to sleep at night, it could be a sign that you’re exhausted, Derby said — and insomnia can make the problem worse.
Physical exhaustion is another common sign. Gould said that one of the main symptoms of his fatigue is fatigue. She said, “I found myself falling asleep every day after work – wondering what hit me. What’s wrong is fatigue.”
Changes in eating habits — eating more or less than usual — can be a sign of fatigue.
In the study of Italian healthcare workers, 56% of participants reported changes in their eating habits. Bennett said people might eat less because they’re too busy, or distracted, or they might start craving “that comfort food we get when we need something that makes us feel better.”
There are studies that also indicate Stress hormones can affect appetite, causing people to feel less hungry than usual when they are very stressed, and hungrier when the stress is gone.
Headaches and stomachaches can be triggered by fatigue, Gould said.
A study of people in Sweden suffering from burnout disorder – a medical condition similar to fatigue – 67% of them were found to have nausea, gas and indigestion, and 65% had headaches.
It is also important to realize that a file Fatigue can develop along with depression or anxiety, two conditions capable of causing physical symptoms. Depression can cause muscle aches, stomach pain, sleep problems, and changes in appetite. Anxiety has been linked to headaches, nausea, and difficulty breathing.
what should be done
If you experience physical symptoms that could indicate fatigue, consider consulting your GP or mental health professional to determine if these symptoms are due to stress or caused by other physical conditions, Derby says. Don’t ignore symptoms and assume they are insignificant.
“It’s really easy to ignore your symptoms, especially in our culture where we are taught to work hard,” Gould said.
If there is already fatigue, the best solution is to address the root of the problem. Burnout is usually recognized when it is caused by work, but chronic stress can have a variety of causes — financial problems, difficulties in relationships, the burden that caring for others can place on a person, among other things.
Think about those “rocks in your shoes that you have to deal with all the time,” Maslach said, and find creative ways to remove some, at least occasionally. Maybe you can ask your partner More help when putting children to bedor ordering outside on the days when it gets especially busy, so you don’t have to worry about dinner either.
Maslach said that despite the issue being covered in popular culture, burnout cannot be “fixed” with better health care. In fact, this implication only exacerbates the problem, as it places the blame on people who are exhausted and implies that they have to do more to feel better, which is not the case, she says.
But even so, some lifestyle choices can make fatigue less likely. Social support can help, for example, according to Gould. This can include Talk to a therapist Or get together with friends (even if via Zoom). Another thing that can help you is take advantage of mental health or fitness benefits that your employer may offer. Getting more sleep is another thing that can be beneficial — so if you suffer from insomnia, talk to your doctor about possible treatments, Bennett suggested.
when Fatigue is caused by work-related problemsA request for better working conditions may be a positive thing.
Maslash suggested talking to co-workers and offering the employer ideas that might help – such as creating quiet areas for breaks and personal phone conversations, Adopting “no-meeting days” so workers have more time to stay focusedOr, make sure you always have coffee in the room to use on breaks.
Even small changes like these can reduce the risk of burnout a bit, if you succeed in solving a problem people face every day. “Chronic stressors at work are what really drive people crazy after a while — they don’t have the equipment they need, they don’t have the things they need, they don’t have enough colleagues to take on the workload they face.” Maslash said.
Gould said taking time off work can help, too, but it is likely to be a temporary hiatus. She likened the technique to trying to prevent a ship from sinking by removing water from the inside of the hull using a bucket. “The ship is going to keep sinking, isn’t it? You have to do more than just draw water every now and then,” she said. But it is still important for a person to have regular vacation days.
What you want to ensure is some freedom and independence in your job, Gould said at the end. “Anything you can do to regain some measure of control can be really helpful,” she said. This could mean doing your least favorite things at work right before the break, so you have some motivation to start the task and time to recover from afterward. Or try swapping out a task you don’t like with a colleague, and in return doing the one he hates the most, but might not be that difficult for you.
Finally, while you may not want to add more commitments to your schedule, try to make time each day for something you love, Dyrbye says. in your searchhas found that surgeons who dedicate time to their hobbies — even just 15 to 20 minutes a day — are less likely to suffer from burnout than surgeons who don’t.
“You need something outside of work that helps you reduce stress, helps you focus and helps you relax,” she said.
Translated by Paolo Migliacci
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