BURNOUT

DR SALLY JOHNCHRISTIAN MEDICAL FELLOWSHIP

WEEKEND – SEPTEMBER 2014

GENERALDEFINITION

• Depletion of spiritual, emotional and physical energy brought on by stress.

• Feelings of being exhausted and overwhelmed by other’s problems and one’s own.

• Feelings of diminishing accomplishment leads to feelings of personal inadequacy which further reduces accomplishment. And thus the vicious cycle of burnout is established.

• A loss of enthusiasm, idealism, perspective and purpose. • A bit of stress might be positive but too much can result in

burnout. Too much burnout, without learning and applying certain coping techniques, can lead to clinical depression.

KEYWORDS: faint, weary, weak, stumble, fall

KEYWORDS

faint, weary, weak, stumble, fall

GENERAL (CONT.)• Ranges across psychiatric diagnoses• ‘So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun

was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? …..even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless’

• Not classical depression: People with burnout stop ringing the bell, stop looking at the bigger picture

• Spiritual, occupational burnout• Fast pace of life? Always has been fast?• Mrs. Burnout and myself going on holiday

SYMPTOMS OF BURNOUT• Exhaustion• Detachment• Boredom and cynism• Increased impatience and irritability• A sense of omnipotence• Feelings of being unappreciated• Change of work style• Paranoia• Disorientation• Psychosomatic complaints• Depression• Major depression• Suicidal thinking

CAUSES OF BURNOUT

• The workaholic• The spiritual element• Unfulfilled expectations• Bitterness (the hidden root)• Causes of bitterness Jealousy Wrong response to irritations Wrong response to adversity Misplaced strife An unforgiving spirit

WHAT TO DO• Practice being relaxed• Practice forgiveness• Invest in family• Throw away unnecessary guilt for healthy self

perceptions• Rise up to your own expectations but not too

high• Respect your employees• Refuse to worry• Lift yourself up spiritually

CONCLUSION

• We all know and recover• Hold each other’s hands• My warning signs: I ‘run’ fast, I want my husband and elderly parents

to talk faster and get to the point, I do not get down to things but worry about them, I have a dull headache, I am extra sensitive about what others say, I don’t laugh as much, I stop seeing little signs of beauty around me

• My cure: Sleep, walk slowly, turn off radio and TV, cut out stimuli, cut out engagements, clear my calendar, spend one whole day at home mostly doing housework and listening to the birds and patting and brushing the cats.

FINALLY FOR DOCTORS

‘Burnout – the word evokes images of a final, flickering flame, of a charred and empty shell, of dying embers and cold, gray ashes…..Once fired up about their involvement with other people –e excited, full of energy, dedicated, willing to give tremendously of themselves for others….(burnout victims) did give……and give and give, until finally there was nothing left to give any more. The teapot was empty, the battery was drained, the circuit was overloaded –they had burned out’.

Christina Maslach, Burnout – The Cost of Caring, Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1982, p.3