Seeing burnout for what it is to dismantle the myths that keep it unaddressed

With many of us immersed in the working year, now is a good time to reflect on burnout: what it is, how it presents itself and, most importantly, how to prevent it.

Burnout has become one of the defining mental health challenges of our time. Accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, blurred work-life boundaries and an always-on culture, many of us no longer work from home – we live at work. Understanding burnout as more than simple exhaustion is essential if we are to identify, prevent and meaningfully address it.

The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition. It is described as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been managed and is characterised by three core dimensions:

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.
• Increased mental distance from one’s job, including cynicism or negativity.
• Reduced professional efficacy.

Importantly, burnout refers specifically to experiences in the occupational context, yet it is frequently used, incorrectly, to describe difficulties in other areas of life.

Burnout rarely arrives suddenly or unexpectedly. It is the result of a process, aptly captured by the pioneering endocrinologist Hans Selye, who said: “First things are difficult, then we get used to it, and finally we cannot stand it any more.”

Depletion and exhaustion

This goes far beyond ordinary tiredness and may include:

• Persistent fatigue and feeling depleted.
• Impaired concentration and cognitive capacity.
• Chronic insomnia.
• Loss of appetite and weight changes.
• Heightened anxiety.
• Anger outbursts and irritability.
• Symptoms of depression and hopelessness.

Mental distance

As emotional resources are drained, people often cope by pulling away:

• Pessimism and mistrust.
• Emotional detachment and disengagement from work.
• Withdrawal from colleagues, friends and family.
• Avoidance of communication.
• A pervasive loss of enjoyment in previously pleasurable activities.

Reduced professional efficacy

The final dimension of burnout strikes at identity and self-worth:

• Feelings of uselessness or incompetence.
• Declining performance despite long hours.
• Growing to-do lists and falling
  productivity.
• A sense that nothing will improve.

What causes burnout?

At a surface level, the answer appears simple: working too hard for too long. Yet the symptom overlap between exhaustion, chronic stress and depression reveals a deeper truth: burnout is rarely just about workload or weak work-life boundaries. It is often the expression of unresolved psychological and relational wounds.

Certain personality traits and life experiences that increase vulnerability to burnout include:

• Perfectionism.
• People pleasing.
• High anxiety.
• Type-A traits.
• Difficulty with vulnerability.
• Chronic anger or resentment.
• Lack of trust and emotional isolation.
• ADHD or ADD.
• Feeling unsafe, unsupported or gaslighted.
• Persistent imposter syndrome.

These traits are not flaws; they are mostly adaptive strategies developed in response to earlier life experiences.

Back to trauma’s roots

Trauma rarely begins with us. It often has deeper roots, which make some of us more prone to burnout.

Research into epigenetics shows that severe stress experienced by previous generations can influence how genes are expressed. This is the concept of intergenerational trauma. In very real ways, what our grandparents endured can shape our nervous systems, stress responses and sense of safety today.

Stress during pregnancy exposes the developing foetus to elevated cortisol levels, predisposing many individuals to anxiety from birth. Birth itself, particularly when complicated by prematurity, medical interventions or maternal trauma, can be our first experience of threat and dysregulation.

During the most formative period of human development (birth to about seven years), core beliefs about safety, worth and belonging are established, often through mirroring caregivers. Most of the beliefs we later struggle to undo originate in these early years.

Human beings are biologically wired for connection. Belonging is not a luxury, but a survival need. When belonging has been threatened, whether through family trauma, neglect or instability, many of us unconsciously overwork ourselves in an attempt to secure safety, approval and worth.

Unresolved trauma, whether intergenerational, prenatal, birth related or from early childhood, often manifests later as anxiety, perfectionism, emotional withdrawal, hypervigilance and exhaustion.

Over time, these patterns erode resilience and potentially culminate in burnout. In this sense, burnout can be understood as a maladaptive survival strategy, a tragic by-product of our need to belong.

Treating and preventing burnout

Prevention means addressing causes, not just managing symptoms:

• Therapy, with the resultant self-awareness, can help to identify wounds, triggers and emotional limits.
• It’s critical to have a framework of what appropriate “self-care” looks like. Bubble baths will not heal an activated nervous system; at best they may temporarily ease the symptoms.
• Sustainable nutrition and gentle, consistent movement assist the body’s resilience and calm the nervous system.
• Soul work, in the form of practising spirituality, searching for meaning and emotional intelligence growth, supports a stronger nervous system.
• Screening for post-traumatic stress disorder or complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which significantly increases burnout vulnerability, can bring awareness to existing risks, making identification and treatment more effective.

Recovery from burnout often requires revisiting earlier experiences and healing past hurts through approaches such as:

• Talk therapy.
• Inner-child work.
• Transactional analysis approach.
• Internal family systems application.
• Somatic therapies such as emotionally focused therapy, tension- and trauma-releasing exercises, yoga and craniosacral work.

We cannot effectively apply coping tools while we are still living with an earlier wound/wounds. Prevention and long-term recovery from burnout involve learning how to build healthier coping strategies, as well as new ways of living and working.

These include establishing and maintaining boundaries; rebuilding one’s self-esteem and self-worth; reflective journalling; practising authenticity and vulnerability; learning how to rest and relax (they are not the same thing); conscious time management, including forming and building routine; regular check-ins with oneself; and making use of support networks.

A final word

Burnout is neither a personal failure nor a badge of honour. It is often a sign of self-abandonment and a signal – a call to examine how we learned to survive in our earlier life experiences, how we belong and subsequently how we show up for work and life.

When we learn to listen to our bodies and nervous systems, we may not have to reach the point of burnout. Instead, we can become healthier and develop more integrated ways of being and living. DM

Freddie van Rensburg is a registered specialist wellness and addictions counsellor and recovery coach. He is also the author of two books, The First Layer: Work Through the 12 Steps in 21 Days, and Life Anon: a 12-Step Guide to Life.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.