Stress is probably the most familiar word for most adults. Though the terms ‘stress’ and ‘burnout’ are used interchangeably, they are different but related.
Stress can make a person more reactive and hyperactive whereas burnout can lead to depression, detachment, disengagement, hopelessness, and feeling resentful and unmotivated. Burnout is the result of excessive and prolonged stress leading to emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion.
Stress can broadly be categorized into 3 categories:
This can result from facing new or challenging situations like exams, job interviews, annual general meetings, etc. Even positive experiences like planning an event, or trip, or going on a roller coaster ride can cause acute stress. This is generally short-lived and the body gets to return to its normal state relatively quickly.
This results from the situation when a person keeps getting exposed to acute stress on a very regular basis e.g. emergency workers, health care providers, or tasks involving strict timelines. Here the body barely gets time to return to its normal state and the stress keeps accumulating. The person may feel that they are constantly dealing with a crisis.
The person exposed to stressors for a prolonged period from rocky relationships, toxic workplace, shady living conditions, etc, may start experiencing chronic stress. They may feel that they have no control over changing their situation or getting out of it,
Cumulative stress can be further divided into 4 distinct phases depending on severity. It moves from phase 1 to 4 over a while (if left unattended). Early intervention is the key to recovery.
It may take over a year of exposure to stress before signs may be noticed. Signs are generally emotional like vague anxiety, depression, boredom, apathy, and emotional fatigue.
If phase one is ignored for 6-18 months, the symptoms become intense and fixed. In phase 2 physical symptoms like sleep disturbance, headache, cold, muscle ache, fatigue, withdrawal, and irritability are introduced.
Creating a work-life balance can help overcome this stage or short-term counseling may be considered.
Entrenched phase results when the previous stages are ignored. This stage can put the family, job, career, and personal happiness at risk.
Medical and psychological help is usually required.
It takes 5-10 years of ignoring previous phases to get to this stage. This phase may be termed as self-destructive with severe symptoms that can prematurely end careers. Intense treatment and interventions may be needed.
Burnout can lower productivity and motivation. It can be draining and make a person feel fatigued. Backache, headache, loss of appetite, erratic sleep, and feeling withdrawn and isolated are very common for people experiencing burnout. Missing targets, increased sick calls, feeling less confident, a sense of failure, and feeling stuck or helpless can be prominently seen.
Since we don’t control life expectations and occasionally feel helpless, for people experiencing burnout, this feeling of helplessness is amplified many times over. They may find their work overwhelming, demanding, worthless, or may feel undervalued, unheard, disrespected, and unappreciated for what they do.
There can be different subtypes of burnout. ‘Burnout Clinical Subtypes Questionnaire’ (BCSQ-12) helps in identifying different subtypes of burnout:
The person may feel ‘overloaded from work’ and may have a feeling that they are ignoring their needs to meet the demands of work.
People may feel stuck and not able to develop. They may feel their abilities are not used or are underutilized.
The neglect dimension may be prominent in this subtype. People seem to quit trying as they feel that things don’t turn out the way they expect.
There are two categories of burnout:
This is seen when a person is exposed to tremendous amounts of stress within a very short period e.g. healthcare workers exposed to tremendous stress during Covid -19.
This may be experienced by people exposed to stress for extended periods. The gradual onset category has more serious and long-lasting effects compared to the rapid onset category.
Coping strategies may be seen as cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioral responses to stress. People use different strategies to cope with stress. Coping strategies can loosely be understood as behaviors, cognitions, and perceptions people use to deal with life challenges.
Stress requires people to do 2 things - solving the problem and regulating their emotions (very similar to problem focussed coping and emotion focussed coping). It is important to understand that solving problems may also include avoiding problems. Problem focussed coping involves approach-avoidance coping whereas emotion-focussed coping involves emotional equilibrium-disequilibrium coping.
Approach-oriented coping involves understanding problems, accepting them, and finding solutions. Avoidance-oriented coping involves avoiding stress or distracting oneself from it. Uncontrollable emotional release, continuous worries, and suppressed emotions are indicative of emotional disequilibrium coping. Deploying strategies for emotional control, relaxation and calming strategies mark emotional equilibrium strategies.
Some people may resort to healthy coping strategies like:
Others may resort to unhealthy or ineffective coping strategies like substance use, or being in denial. They may seem disengaged, withdrawn or isolated. Cognitive avoidance like distraction (watching TV instead or working) or worry or thought suppression, etc is also common.
Stress and burnout can be handled more effectively by:
At Bloom Clinical Care Counselling and Therapy Services, we have a team of Psychotherapists and Social Workers who are experienced and qualified to help you with stress management. Our therapists can help with a wide range of mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, grief, couples therapy, child therapy, anger management, workplace stress, and stress management, to name a few.
We currently have two locations, in Scarborough and Mississauga, to serve our clients and families across the Greater Toronto Area. All therapists on our team also provide virtual therapy across Ontario via phone and secure video calls. Our collective goal as a team is to help you flourish in life, guide you to your important milestone, and provide unwavering support.
Our Scarborough Therapists are located at Third floor, 1200 Markham Rd suite 306 c, Scarborough, ON M1H 3C3 for in-person and virtual psychotherapy appointments.
Our Mississauga Therapist are located at 3024 Hurontario St #206, Mississauga, ON L5B 4M4 for in-person and virtual psychotherapy appointments. Similar to our Scarborough Psychotherapy clinic, the new Mississauga location also supports individuals, families, couples, and children seeking help with anxiety, panic attacks, depression, grief, couples therapy, relationship counselling, stress management, and child and youth counselling.
Bloom Clinical Care Counselling and Therapy Services located at Third floor, 1200 Markham Rd suite 306 c, Scarborough, ON M1H 3C3 offers psychotherapy services for a wide range of challenges such as Anxiety, Depression, Grief, Couples Counselling, Life Transitions, Trauma Therapy, Child Therapy, and Family Counselling. Our Scarborough Therapists offer appointments in-person at our Scarborough clinic and virtually.
Bloom Clinical Care, Mississauga located at 3024 Hurontario St #206, Mississauga, ON L5B 4M4 offers psychotherapy services to the residents of Mississauga and nearby areas such as Brampton, Milton, Etobicoke, and Oakville. Our Mississauga Therapists provide support to individuals, couples, and families offering Anxiety Therapy, Couples Therapy, Stress Management, Depression Therapy, Child Therapy, Trauma Therapy, EMDR Therapy, and much more.
