The Stigma of Occupational Burn Out - Nervous Breakdown

Psychologists have recently shown progressive interest in the study on phenomenon known as, burnout. Burnout, commonly known by the non medical term ?Nervous Breakdown? is an occupational stress related disorder that is defined as ?a syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism that occurs frequently among individuals who do people-work of some sort.?

An important element of the burnout syndrome that should make alarms go off is the increased feelings of emotional exhaustion. Another issue that people affected by this syndrome tend to ignore, or simply try to live with is the fact that during burnout emotional resources become depleted and as a result negative cynical attitudes and feelings about ones job and clients develop.

People who experience burnout are inappropriately viewed as weak individuals who have some sort of pre-existing mental condition that renders them more susceptible to such breakdowns compared to others. Though not 100% true people do need to fully understand that burnout is a serious multi-factorial syndrome that requires immediate attention. Many researchers have stated that organizations are held responsible for their workers who ?burnout?.

Some of the many causes of burn out include the presence of severe and improper working conditions at an organization, improper leadership style practices and marital status issues, (single or divorced).

Recent research shows that burnout can be caused by four factors:

• Excessive long-term stress of any kind.
• Stress followed by periods of rest
• Long-term illnesses, like diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis...etc
• Negative mental attitude, this includes people who are neurotic or have specific personality traits that are beyond this topic.
• Having said that, there is an actual physiological process the body and its hormones goes through to develop the burnout syndrome and here is a simple explanation of what is a complex process to say the least:

First stage

Is the alarm phase that occurs at the onset of the stress, this causes the adrenal cortex to discharge all of its supply of stored hormones into the blood stream.

Next stage

Is of resistance, where the adrenal cortex enlarges due to continued stimulation by ACTH (Adreno-cortico-trophic-hormone), which results in an increased ability of the body to manufacture and secrete higher levels of cortisol. During this stage there is a greater ability to deal with stress.

Is that of exhaustion, which eventually comes after continued stress exposure, and results in symptoms similar to the alarm phase. However, in this phase the adrenal glands actually shrink and the levels of cortisol begin to fall sharply, resulting in an inability to cope with stress.

In the end, detecting and recognizing the road leading to Burnout is of extreme importance. People who are not supported through this and who are not aware of the problem and how to treat it may lose much more than a job or a career. Unfortunately many organizations and work offices have no clue what to do or how to deal with an employee who is displaying signs of burnout.

I write this article because no one ever told me this. I remained on a long painful road that would lead to my complete breakdown mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I left a medical career and I felt like I was chewed and spit out due to lack of support. As I recover I find myself jaded that no one including me recognized what was going on. Instead I was treated like a mental case and people saw me as a stressed out person who just could not handle life.

I hope I have contributed a little to help the overwhelming number of people out there who find themselves on this road.You must seek help and ask for time off, you are not weak or crazy. You need to help yourself because in this day and age... no one else will.