How to Know When You're About to Burnout

Burnout.

It’s when you experience chronic stress, resulting in extended exhaustion and lack of interest. Lately, burnout has become a common phenomenon. A 2018 Gallup study showed that nearly 23% of employees report feeling burnt out at work most or all of the time. And you know what? I’m one of them.

It makes sense. We’ve been working too hard, we’re tired.  We’ve been pushing ourselves too hard, burning the candle at both ends, and our bodies have decided that enough is enough. If you won’t slow down, it’s saying, I’ll make you.

But how do you know that what you’re experiencing is really burnout and not regular stress?

After taking a look at my own symptoms, I’ve noticed a few signs that keep coming up every time I start to burn out. Of these, there are five red flags that you must look out for if you’re worried that you’re about to burn out:

1 You Have Trouble Sleeping

You might have heard of some successful people surviving on ridiculously few hours of sleep. Rumor has it that Margaret Thatcher, one of the U.K.’s greatest prime ministers, used to survive on only four hours of sleep. Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. What is for certain is that such little sleep will not work for the rest of us. 

The amount of sleep we need really depends on our age, gender, and several other factors. Some people need more sleep than average, others less. However, the general recommendation—and the best guide to go by—is about seven to nine hours of sleep. If you are having a hard time staying asleep for this long, getting quality sleep, or falling asleep in the first place, it could be a sign that you’re at risk of burning out. I know that I can’t sleep through the night when I’m particularly stressed out.

When you have trouble sleeping, it’s often because you have too much on your mind. Your brain just keeps trying to process everything from your waking hours, and before you know it, your waking-hour thoughts and concerns rob you of your sleeping hours. A lot of people recommend having a notebook by your bedside so that you can write these thoughts down and get them out of your mind long enough for you to settle down. That’s a great short-term solution, but it won’t really fix the problem. If you have too much to think about, it’s probably because you have too much to do. So, if you cut down on what you have to do, you’ll have less to think about at night, and you might get your first good night’s sleep in a while—and be on your way to treating your burnout.

2 You’re Grinding Your Teeth

About four or five years ago, I was on holiday with family when my daughter pointed out that my front teeth had tiny chips at the bottom and was like “What is with your teeth?” Of course, this worried me a bit, so I went to my dentist, who’s also a friend of mine. At the appointment, he told me, “Yeah, you’ve been grinding your teeth in the night.”

What?! I didn’t even know that was a thing!

Basically, I had gotten so stressed during the day that I was clenching my jaw and grinding down my teeth in my sleep. (Yes, it’s just as unnerving as it sounds.) Came to find out, it’s actually a common stress response. If you’re waking up with an aching jaw every morning, odds are that you are also doing it as a result of too much stress.

There are a couple things you can do to protect your teeth against the wear and tear of grinding. In my case, I was told to wear a grind guard every night. Honestly, though, I’ve only worn it five or six times. It’s just way too uncomfortable. You’re instead better off addressing the source of your problem: burnout.

3 You Chronically Have Colds, Sore Throats, and Other Illness

Do you get sick a lot, especially flu-like symptoms and illnesses that start in your throat? Do you catch colds and get sore throats often? Lose your voice out of the blue? This could be a sign that your body is being worn down from too much stress. Your immune system is shot. You keep getting sick, including losing your voice, because your body is so tired from being overworked that it can’t take care of itself anymore. 

If you’re sick a lot, obviously you need to do the usual Vitamin C and lots of fruits, vegetables, and liquids. If you can, check in with your doctor to make sure it isn’t something more serious than just constantly getting the cold, flu, and/or sore throats. However, you also need to take this as a red flag that you’re burning the candle at both ends and need to start delegating tasks to others and overall lightening your workload.

4 You’re Breaking Out

This one was the inspiration for this post in the first place. If your skin breaks out a lot, it might mean that you are burnt out. While acne can happen with this symptom, that’s not all that I’m talking about here. By ‘breaking out’, I mean that you’re experiencing any number of dermatological issues: rashes, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, acne, and many others. Even breakouts related to allergies can flare up when your stress levels are too high. It’s another reaction from your weakened immune system. Your body is so stressed that it feels under attack, so your immune system tries to fight back.

The problem? The only thing there is to fight is your own body, and that’s exactly what it attacks. Hence, the physical irritation of your skin akin to contact dermatitis.

I personally break out in hives when I get stressed. In fact, i almost called this article, ‘Running With Hives’ :) For me it’s a fairly mild form where I get hives for a few minutes if there is extreme pressure on my skin, but it’s annoying as all hell. Once they start, the only thing that will really get them to go away is for me to take a holiday. You know, yoga on the beach with my phone turned off, anything that helps me relax and detox from all the stress and anxiety. Again, though, if you really want to make this symptom stop, you must get to the source of the problem and adjust your load until you can carry it without floundering. Still, a holiday should do the trick. In the meantime—if it doesn’t, you’ll again want to see a doctor. 

5 You need a Holiday…Right After You HAD a Holiday

This red flag is the biggest one of all. If you just got back from holiday, just turned off your ‘out of office’ notice or just stepped through the office door, and you already need another holiday, you are BURNT OUT. Trust me. This happened to me some years back. I went on holiday thinking that it’d help with my stress. When I got back home, literally the minute I got back to work, I felt my stress levels shoot through the roof again.

Part of my problem was that I waited until the last second to make sure everything was in place, and I was still, right up to setting up my ‘out of office’ mode, scrambling to get things done and asking for someone to cover me while I was gone. So, naturally, there was still a lot to do when I got back, and it only made sense that my stress levels climbed so high so quickly. You might not have this exact problem, but you might still return from holiday and become so overwhelmed that you feel the need to go back on holiday the second you sit down at your computer. This is a sure sign of burnout, and you need to delegate your tasks before you’re so overwhelmed that your work starts to suffer.

Burnout is a miserable condition. You have no energy, no interest in anything, and nowhere near the productivity level that you typically do. Once you catch yourself having one—or even all—of the above symptoms, you need to address the problem immediately. Balance your workload, get help with the tasks you can’t handle on your own, and take some time to relax. In the long run, your work and your sanity will be much better off.