Maybe your usual routines feel harder to manage. Perhaps you’ve started to hit that snooze button far more often than you used to. The Sunday scaries have morphed into an everyday occurrence, and those work emails now feel like an unrelenting burden.
Sure, it could just be one of those mornings – but if you feel like this all sounds way too familiar, you may have been running on empty for far too long. Keep reading to find out what could be causing this feeling of burnout, who it affects the most, and whether a burnout break could help ease the symptoms.
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What is burnout?
Over the last few years, the word “burnout” has become part of our everyday vocabulary. Most often, the term is attributed to workplace stress, accompanied by exhaustion, feelings of negativity, lack of motivation, depersonalisation (or distancing yourself from work and loved ones), lower productivity, loneliness and increased feelings of incompetence. Researchers have found that it can occur when your personal and professional expectations don’t align, and studies also link burnout to increased social media usage.
Whatever the cause, burnout isn’t fun. According to research from the Future Forum, the condition has been at an all-time high since 2021. In a poll of 10,243 full-time office workers across six countries (including the UK and the US), over 40 per cent reported that they suffered from burnout. The same study found that workers under 30 might be more prone to the condition, with experts citing that the pandemic and economic uncertainty have played a part in causing burnout for Gen Z. A huge 80 per cent of Londoners feel burnt out, and women also reported higher levels of burnout than men, which could be due to a wide range of gender inequalities; women are still, frustratingly, less likely to be promoted and more likely to take on unpaid labour.
Burnout can also be more common for those with autism and ADHD. Additional symptoms of the condition for neurodivergent people can include longer periods of burnout, reduced tolerance to sensitivities and a decreased ability to focus. In the last year, I’ve felt all of the above but kept pushing through – which meant the burnout slowly worsened. In my case, anxiety, noise sensitivity, a tendency towards perfectionism and working memory function all gradually deteriorated, plus the ADHD traits I struggle with have felt magnified, as well as my ability to keep boundaries – which is a key contributor to burnout. The following steps might help with your burnout recovery…
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