Stress and Burnout

Stress and Burnout

The prefrontal cortex regulates decision making, judgement, planning, reasoning, and sense of self. Certain experiences such as work or study pressure, sleep deprivation, trauma, and substance abuse, can result in a disengagement of the frontal lobe of the brain. Over time, this can lead to a number of symptoms including stress and burnout. The subcortical arousal system – the thalamus, hippocampus, brainstem, and hypothalamus – mobilise the body for action, increasing heart rate, respiratory rate, and muscle tone. The nature of this system is to bypass the frontal executive functioning and trigger what is known as ‘fight or flight’ mode.

Stress is a normal reaction experienced in response to changes and challenges. The human body is designed to respond to stress. Stress responses help our bodies to adjust to new situations. Stress can be a good thing: ‘eustress’ compels us to study for exams, meet deadlines, fulfil expectations, and complete tasks. Stress also keeps us alert and helps us to avoid danger. When a person experiences long term stress, continued activation of the stress response can cause wear and tear on the body, leading to burnout: a state of complete mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion, leading to difficulty engaging in activities that are normally meaningful, no longer caring about things that are important, and experiencing an increasing sense of hopelessness.

Symptoms

Physical signs of stress and burnout include aches and pains, chest pain, racing heart, exhaustion, difficulty sleeping, headaches, dizziness, shaking, high blood pressure, muscle tension, jaw clenching, stomach problems, sexual problems, and a weakened immune system. Stress and burnout can lead to emotional and mental symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, depression, panic attacks, and sadness. Often, people experiencing high levels of stress and burnout may try to manage their symptoms with unhealthy behaviours, such as consumption of alcohol, gambling, overeating or undereating, compulsive shopping, internet addiction, gaming addiction, smoking, or drug use.

Management

Some strategies for dealing with symptoms of stress and burnout include engaging in exercise, meditation, breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, mindfulness, setting goals, eating well, practicing gratitude, positive thinking, letting go of things out of our control, saying no to additional responsibilities, establishing appropriate boundaries, staying connected with people for emotional support, seeking help from others, and seeking psychological therapy. In psychological counselling, clinicians seek to provide clients with helpful skills and strategies to be able to cope with daily life and to face challenges as they arise. Feelings of stress and burnout are uncomfortable and overwhelming. Psychological counselling can help relieve feelings of stress and burnout, improving mental health and wellbeing, and result in an increase in satisfaction with life.

At Brain Care, as well as offering psychological counselling, a number of neuromodulatory therapies are available to help address symptoms of stress and burnout. Neuromodulatory therapies are a variety of methods that target the nervous system, altering or modulating nerve activity, which may bring about relief and may deliver lifechanging results. The neuromodulatory therapies offered at Brain Care include biofeedback training, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), Audio Visual Entrainment (AVE), and Bio Acoustical Utilisation Device (BAUD) Therapy.