Fit & Proper: Recognise and prevent a burnout

Sonam Paul, 42, was always a high achiever. She was passionate about her job, was a perfectionist and did not mind working from morning to night. But for the last few months, she seems to have lost interest in work. She is easily irritable and has found herself making mistakes in her job. Her colleagues and family have noticed this change in her and have pointed it out to her. Paul has finally admitted that she is facing a burnout.

A person facing a burnout loses his level of concentration and takes longer to finish his work. More than the person, it's the people around him who start spotting the signs and symptoms. For example, the person will be on a short fuse and get snappy over small things. Say, on not finding the pen where he left it the evening before, he'll snap at the office boy or maybe shout at the kitchen staff if the tea isn't the way he likes it. People in this stage also start losing control on their emotion-handling capacity. Their reactions become knee-jerk and disproportionate to the trigger.

Now the thing is that it's largely only intelligent people who face a burnout. Individuals with a low intelligence quotient (IQ) and non-achievers are unlikely to be this stressed out. Getting achievers and people with high IQ to admit that they are on a short fuse or that something is not quite right with them is far from easy. They will create their defences and justifications for their behaviour and it is then very difficult to penetrate those defences. So, they need to be taught to start introspecting. Such people will be convinced only by themselves and not others.

These are also people who worship work. For them, socialising is also restricted to spending time with their family. All other forms of socialising is work. Going for a pleasure trip is also a waste of time and they even feel guilty about it. I have seen people who plan a seven-day trip but are back at work on the third day. They'll tell you things like, "Oh, we had gone to Paris, but we managed to see everything in three days, so there was no point staying on."

These are the people who are more susceptible to experience a burnout which can have both physical and psychosocial fallouts. They could end up with hypertension, heart disease or even have a stroke. They could also face interpersonal problems with their family and colleagues or get into brawls with their neighbours. They are also more prone to addictions like smoking that are particularly difficult to get rid of. In extreme cases, if the problem is not prevented and cured, the person can become violent and even suicidal.

Women have a higher tendency to go into burnout stage because in our society men do not share the work responsibility at home. It gets worse because these women, since they are achievers, want their children also to be achievers. And if the child doesn't get top grades, the mothers go on a guilt trip.

  People across professions - designing, management and even tailoring - are susceptible to a burnout. But the pressure is more on people in management jobs. The higher the stakes, the higher the risks.

QUICK TIPS

• Introspect for about 10 minutes every day, either early in the morning or at the end of the day. Try to analyse your behaviour through the day.
   
• Stress is necessary. It helps us achieve our goals, stick to deadlines and strive to do better. This is called optimal stress. But if the stress is at a level that it's harming you, learn to recognise it and deal with it.
   
• Identify the triggers that evoke disproportionate reaction in you. Then start developing your defences on how to ignore these triggers. If left unresolved, these can become unmanageable beyond a point.
   
• Yoga helps. So does meditation. Learn some breathing exercises.
   
• Identify the emotional-handling methods that work best for you. It could be some form of music or a walk in the garden.
   
• Some people withdraw from work when they realise that they are not going to be as productive as they would want to be. They choose to retire and thus prevent a burnout. It is better to withdraw gracefully than allow life to spiral downhill.

Sameer Shrivastava
Director and head of department, non-invasive cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Delhi