I'm EXHAUSTED! What You Need to Know About Burn Out

Full episode available September 3rd!

Could understanding the role of cortisol be the key to preventing burnout? Join us as we unpack the intricate relationship between this crucial hormone and burnout, guided by the World Health Organization's definition of the condition. We promise you'll gain insights into the three dimensions of burnout: energy depletion, increased mental distance or negativity towards one's job, and reduced professional efficacy. We discuss how burnout extends beyond traditional workplaces, affecting high-demand roles in academia and volunteer positions. Delve into the science of cortisol's role in stress response, metabolism, inflammation, blood sugar regulation, and the sleep-wake cycle, and explore the ongoing debate over whether burnout is linked to high or low cortisol levels.

In this episode, we also share personal stories and reflections about recognizing and addressing burnout. Hear firsthand about the overwhelming challenge of returning to work after a four-month sabbatical. The physical and emotional signs of burnout, such as the intense fatigue from back-to-back meetings and the crushing weight of expectations, are highlighted to emphasize the importance of listening to your body and setting boundaries. Whether you're navigating a high-demand job or managing a packed schedule, these insights and the role of cortisol will equip you with the knowledge to maintain your well-being and professional efficacy. Tune in to understand better the physiological underpinnings of burnout and its implications for your overall health.

Your Host: Kimberly Beam Holmes, Expert in Self-Improvement and Relationships


Kimberly Beam Holmes has applied her master's degree in psychology for over ten years, acting as the CEO of Marriage Helper & CEO and Creator of PIES University, being a wife and mother herself, and researching how attraction affects relationships. Her videos, podcasts, and following reach over 500,000 people a month who are making changes and becoming the best they can be.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Connection Between Cortisol and Burnout
• 7:34 Recognizing Signs of Burnout

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So, according to the World Health Organization, burnout is a syndrome that's conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It's typically characterized by three dimensions. The first one is feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion. The second one is increased mental distance from one's job, feelings of negativity or criticism from one's job, feelings of negativity or criticism related to one's job. And the third symptom is reduced professional efficacy, so you just aren't being as effective as you used to be in the role that you have. Those are the three symptoms, and while it specifically says in that definition that it's a workplace related type of stress, I believe that it could be related to academia and even like super high level volunteer positions oh, 100%, 100%, absolutely, yes, anything where there's a lot of demands of you and it's taking a toll on you to meet all of those demands that you have. So, talking about burnout, what leads to burnout? Well, this led our research team to look into the cortisol. There's mixed reviews and mixed articles, journal, scholarly articles out there, deciding and kind of defining whether or not burnout happens from high cortisol or if burnout occurs because your cortisol was high for so long that your body ultimately stopped making enough cortisol. So actually, burnout may be more associated with low cortisol. There's not a standardized answer to that. There's definitely two camps. So the answer to that is we don't know, but we do know that cortisol plays into it in some way. So let's talk about how cortisol plays into it.

Speaker 1: 1:50

So we're talking here about the glucocorticoid hormone. Say that five times fast. I can say it once. Say it once Glucocorticoid, glucocorticoid. It's like when you're sitting in church and the pastor's like sharing their knowledge of a Hebrew word and everyone has to pronounce it. Yeah, you can't get past that part in the sermon until everyone has said the Hebrew word. Well, let me tell you they've advanced and I've never said, I've never repeated it. So you can move past. You can move past. I just wonder why they do that. I don't know, but it's like what all of them do. Anyway, and I just did it with glucocorticoid, glucocorticoid hormone is a type of steroid hormone and this is ultimately what ends. What leads to actually no, the other way, when we feel stressed, it can increase that glucocorticoid hormone, which is the cortisol, and it's produced by the adrenal glands.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Cortisol regulates your body's stress response. It helps control the body's use of fats, proteins and carbs and regulate your metabolism. It can suppress inflammation, regulate blood sugar, helps control your sleep-wake cycle. Cortisol is actually, when a healthy person is assessed. Cortisol should be highest in the morning when you first wake up. That is what actually prompts your body to wake up. It's kind of what's. I don't know if you would say it starts your circadian rhythm, but in your circadian rhythm your cortisol rises and that's what wakes your body up. And then through the day your cortisol should decrease to where it should be the lowest before you go to bed at night. And all of that correlates with melatonin production and all of those types of things. So then when someone has high cortisol, and especially chronically high cortisol, they can experience weight gain, they can experience muscle weakness, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, because cortisol when it's healthy, it regulates all those things. So then when the cortisol is always too high, it's like your body is always in fight or flight. It's always ready for the tiger to attack, if you want to think of it in more of that paleolithic way that people kind of always talk about it and so your body's not regulating itself as well and it takes a toll on your body. But then there's also symptoms of low cortisol, such as fatigue, unintentional weight loss, a poor appetite and even low blood sugar, so your body's actually not producing enough cortisol.

Speaker 1: 4:24

We can kind of think of cortisol like motivation. They're not the same, but I'm using this as an analogy. When we're motivated to do something, then we actually have like a hyper focus. We're more likely to get things done. We have this like a motor always kind of running beneath us that's keeping us going and keeping us moving toward what we need to do. So we can kind of think of cortisol like motivation. But when your motivation is too high and you're too ramped up, then you're doing way too much all at once. You're in a frenzy, you're not focused on the right things and you can end up getting burnt out that way.

Speaker 1: 5:05

You could also think about this like in athletics. If an athlete is training but they're over training, like they're too motivated, they have too much energy that they're putting into training on a day-to-day basis, then ultimately they're going to end up burning out. They're going to end up plateauing to where they can't actually even lift to the same amount that they're used to lifting or run to the same speed that they're used to running, because their body is on overdrive. But then the opposite is true If someone's motivation is too low, then they tend to be fatigued, they tend to not do the things that they need to do. And cortisol is the same here and, of course, in training. Again, thinking of athletes as a second analogy it can be the same If an athlete isn't doing enough to keep their body moving and keep training toward the event that they need to train at, then they aren't going to be able to compete at it at the level that they need to.

Speaker 1: 6:00

So cortisol is really important in our body, and cortisol is not bad, but too much or too little of it is bad. So then, how is cortisol connected to burnout? Well, like we said before, there's some studies that say that burnout tends to be linked to lower cortisol levels. So the thought behind that at least the thought that Jason and I have come to the agreement, and so it must be right is that when someone gets to the point of burnout, they have had so much high stress for so long that their body stops making cortisol. And there's a word for that, yes, which is hypocortisolism.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Hypocortisolism, which is an actual medical term that defines something that happens in the body, to where your body's basically trying to protect itself from having so much cortisol all the time it's already affecting your immune system and all of that that your body just stops making it because you have too much of it in your system. So that's not good, but that could be what leads to burnout in some people. But then in other people, their body may not get to the point of stopping making cortisol. It may just continue to produce that cortisol in overdrive and that leads to burnout as well. But both of them happen for the same reason. It's because your body is done and it needs a break, and your body probably gave you a lot of indications of that before you got to burnout and you probably didn't listen.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Ask me how I know. I was literally about to say did that happen to you? Did that happen to me? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think I'm more aware of it now that I've come back from being off for four months. The conversation that Jason and I were having before starting this.

Speaker 1: 7:53

So this is my first week back in the office as of filming this, and I'm filming this on a Friday, and my first day I had six hours of meetings. My second day back, I had eight hours of meetings. Honestly, I don't remember my third day Just a blur, it's all a blur, like yesterday, you know, and so it was just too much, like I ultimately ended up coming back in like full speed ahead the things that got me to the burnout state. So even coming in here this morning, I was like no more recordings on Friday, recordings on Fridays. I already feel burnt out after one week.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Not really, but I do start. I'm feeling drained and that's the feeling. It was a feeling during my sabbatical and I know the feeling within my body and it's this feeling of pressure and expectation within my chest that at the same time, I begin to feel really tired when I think about it. That's the feeling in my body that I have to be aware of. That was leading to burnout. But instead of listening to that, I just kept pushing through and kept pushing through for 12 years and that got me to where I was. If you enjoyed this clip from it Starts with Attraction, then click here to watch the full episode.