What is stress?

Do you feel stressed?

Are you suffering from burnout?

When you feel stressed or burn’t out it can be increasingly difficult to work at the standard ‘normal’ rate of performance that you usually expect from yourself. Being stressed out or burned out is obviously not good good for you, either mentally, physically or spiritually, in fact when you feel as though you are stressed out to the maximum, it often becomes impossible to function as you normally would.

So first let’s explore what stress burnout actually is.

According to H Freuden-Berger in the mid 1970’s he came up with this definition of stress related burnout, which today is just as fitting as it was back then perhaps, “a state of exhaustion resulting from involvement with people in emotionally demanding situations.” Further we could add to this with the assistance of the American Heritage Dictionary, also “a physical or emotional exhaustion, especially as a result of long-term stress or dissipation.”  There are however depending on the researcher you ask or model depended upon , many shades of difference in the definition of the term ‘burnout’.

It can be said that burnout does not in itself have a true or fully precise medical definition, victims are identified by bouts of short or long-term fatigue, a certain lack of enthusiasm , overwhelming feelings of helplessness or hopelessness and commonly too, malaise. The burnout victim often reacts out of the ordinary even when small things don’t go completely according to plan, responding out of character when going through feelings of burnout. Accompanying stress or burnout the victim often feels extremely tired, irritated and isolated, unsure and indecisive about exactly how to combat these feelings.

Burnout stress also causes procrastination, putting off tasks that otherwise under normal circumstances the stress victim would have no problems at all in getting on with. All efforts expended in the home or workplace may seem to the stress victim to be pointless.

Stress or burnout can affect just about anyone, from school age to those more mature in years, from busy high flying executives to just about anyone you could bump into on the street.  Stress costs not only the individual afflicted with burnout a great deal, but it also affects family relationships and colleagues in the workplace.  In short, stress and/or burnout steals from you, your enjoyment of life and your normal rate of productivity.

Some symptoms to look out for, keep on the watch for include:

* Depleted energy reserves
* Lowered resistance to illness
* Increased dissatisfaction
* Feelings of pessimism
* Increased absenteeism
* Inefficiency at work
* Increased irritability

If you notice any of the above in your work ethos or in relationships either working life or family life, you could be starting to feel the effects of stress or burnout. The time to take action is NOW!