The burnout syndrome is a serious mental illness with complex causes and symptoms. Stress, mental exhaustion and the feeling of being "burnt out Being burned out has not only become a common word in professional but also in private life, but for many people it has become a burdening constant companion in life – as well as the justified concern that a burnout syndrome may develop from it. Not everyone can cope with the permanent prere of having to achieve predefined or self-imposed goals.
Symptoms and complaints of burnout How to recognize a burnout syndrome
Do you sometimes feel a strong physical or mental exhaustion?? Doubts about being able to cope with the high demands of work, or feels diminished ability to perform? If tension, nervousness or even poor sleep become increasingly noticeable as complaints in your life and there is a constant discrepancy between the demands and your actual possibilities, this can lead to a burnout syndrome. However, you have to distinguish between a temporary phase of exhaustion and a phase of burnout. Distinguish a burnout syndrome: A short-term exhaustion is not yet a burnout. Only if this condition lasts for at least six months and there is no end in sight, nor do the short recovery phases lead to a regeneration, one can speak of a burnout syndrome
Important: If you suspect that your persistent complaints could be the signs of a burnout syndrome, please contact your family doctor or a therapist immediately. A burnout syndrome should always be treated professionally. The sooner you seek help from a doctor or other therapist, the better your chances of recovery and successful therapy.
The main symptoms of the burnout syndrome
Basically, a distinction is made between three classic main symptoms of burnout:
1. Severe physical and mental exhaustion 2. Negative feelings and cynicism toward work, colleagues, or clients 3. Ineffectiveness of professional action and loss of professional competence
Important: For a correct burnout diagnosis on the basis of these symptoms, one must take into account the duration of the stress on the one hand, and on the other hand the fact that the affected person was previously healthy. It must be excluded that the exhaustion is caused by a serious mental or physical illness.
Up to 50 percent of the risk for depressive disorders is genetically predisposed or acquired in early childhood. In addition, in the course of life there are further stresses that can trigger depression. Unfavorable working and living conditions also increase the risk of depression.
Burnout or depression? Burnout syndrome and depression are easy to confuse
Often, pretty much everything that is associated with stress, fatigue or loss of motivation at work is equated with burnout. But from a medical-scientific point of view, this is not true. Not every state of exhaustion or overload in the job can be associated with an incipient or advanced burnout syndrome. And not every burnout syndrome is in turn synonymous with a depressive episode. Depression and burnout are different clinical pictures with their own symptoms, even if some of them are similar or overlapping, which are treated and treated individually after an appropriate diagnosis has been made.
On the other hand, in society, especially in the media, burnout syndrome is already described as a disease with symptoms such as melancholy, suicidality, concentration and memory disorders, d. h. more or less as a synonym for depression, especially among managers.
– The equation of a burnout syndrome with mental crises and illnesses that occur in temporal connection with a work overload is incorrect. – Burnout, on the other hand, is not synonymous with depression or other mental illnesses. – Burnout is currently not considered a mental illness in its own right, but rather a stress consequence in connection with processing stress in school, training, studies or at work. – Burnout is a condition with a greatly increased risk of mental illness, especially depression or anxiety disorders. – Many sufferers of "burnout syndrome" have already developed a depression or anxiety disorder by the time they take help from a doctor or therapist. – Burnout consequences, v. a. depressive and anxiety disorders, are partly responsible for increasing sick leaves and early retirements.
Nevertheless, there is a difference between the symptoms of There are numerous overlaps between the burnout syndrome and depression, for example, listlessness, lack of interest or leaden fatigue. Both clinical pictures also frequently lead those affected into social isolation by withdrawing or turning away from friends, acquaintances and even relatives. For a medical differentiation and diagnosis, it is therefore elementary to record the symptoms and complaints precisely in order to identify the underlying clinical picture and to determine the subsequent therapy or treatment. Psychotherapy to be tailored to individual needs.
A Constant irritability coupled with cynicism is symptomatic of a burnout syndrome. In contrast, symptoms and symptoms of depression. Complaints that go beyond the clinical picture of burnout: These include reduced self-esteem and self-confidence, but also suicidal thoughts. And while people who suffer acutely from burnout syndrome often long inside for "something they used to love to do," depressed people, due to the perceived exhaustion or. Illness often neither the desire nor the energy to do anything at all.
Causes of Burnout How does a burnout syndrome develop??
The triggering Causes for a burnout syndrome are so individual as the people who develop it. There is neither one definition nor one model that describes the development of burnout in a universally valid way, but there are mostly several factors, that only after a longer period of time, the affected person is able to perceive and assign different symptoms and complaints. Mostly Too much workload as a critical risk factor for the development of a Burnout-Syndrome called.
Individual factors as causes of burnout syndrome
However, it is also certain that individual factors contribute to the development of a burnout syndrome. For example, characteristics such as perfectionism or excessive ambition favor the impairment of mental health. Also our Self-perception, the self-assessment of our resources and competencies as well as high own demands can contribute decisively to the triggering of a burnout. A common pattern is, for example, when we doubt that we can cope with particularly high work demands with our existing resources. Tension, nervousness or poor sleep are the typical symptoms and stress reactions of our body.
More and more people call in sick because of psychological problems
Occupational physicians are sounding the alarm: the number of Sick days due to psychological complaints more than doubled between 2007 and 2017. Men had significantly more psychologically induced sick days than women. Older employees are more likely to call in sick for mental health reasons than younger ones. The highest number of sick days in 2017 was among men between 60 and 65 years of age (434 sick days per 100 insured persons), and the lowest among women between 15 and 20 years of age (21 sick days per 100 insured persons). These cases are not automatically a diagnosed burnout syndrome, but they are. Nevertheless, the recognizable trend is clear.
