WEBVTT - It Takes 3 Years To Recover From Burnout 🆘 😡

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<v Speaker 1>Flex and Frooms Flex and Frooms. This is the Flex

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<v Speaker 1>and Frooms catch Up podcast. Have we ever experienced burnout?

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<v Speaker 1>Is it more than just a lot of stress at

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<v Speaker 1>a short amount of time? It, unfortunately is. I came

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<v Speaker 1>across this video from doctor Claire Ashley that details not

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<v Speaker 1>only what burnout is, but her personal experience with it.

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<v Speaker 1>And when we come back from listening to that, want

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<v Speaker 1>to talk a bit more about the difference between burnout

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<v Speaker 1>and stress and if we've ever experienced it.

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<v Speaker 2>It takes on average one to three years to fully

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<v Speaker 2>recover from burnout, so prevention really is better than cure,

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<v Speaker 2>and there is a known process, stepwise process into burnout

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<v Speaker 2>that most people are not aware of, myself included because

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<v Speaker 2>I didn't know what was happening to me until I

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<v Speaker 2>hit a mental health crisis. So bearing in mind that

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<v Speaker 2>prevention is so much better than cure if you can

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<v Speaker 2>get yourself before you hit a crisis point, took me

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<v Speaker 2>about six months to go from being fully functional, living

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<v Speaker 2>my best life, being really really functional at work to

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<v Speaker 2>being in a total mental health crisis. And despite the

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<v Speaker 2>fact that I'm a doctor with like twenty years now

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<v Speaker 2>with clinical knowledge and experience, plus a degree in neuroscience.

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<v Speaker 2>I had no idea what was happening to me until

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<v Speaker 2>I hit that crisis point, and it has taken me

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<v Speaker 2>the best part really of four years to get over this.

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<v Speaker 1>When I first heard that video, I was like, Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe some of us just handle stress a little bit

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<v Speaker 1>better than others. Maybe it's not that deep. But then

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<v Speaker 1>based on watching that whole video, the whole way through

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<v Speaker 1>my whole feed became like burnout top very quickly. And

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<v Speaker 1>there's this one girl who's documenting her experience of trying

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<v Speaker 1>to like unravel her way out of this spiral. And

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<v Speaker 1>she was talking about all these changes that she made

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<v Speaker 1>on her day to day life, and one of them

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<v Speaker 1>was decision fatigue. She was like, I made my life simple.

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<v Speaker 1>I wear the same shirt every day, I've got five

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<v Speaker 1>pairs of them, the same bottoms every day. I ate

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<v Speaker 1>the same food every day. Everything is simple. There's something

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<v Speaker 1>flavorful in my life, nothing colorful, nothing creative. Because my

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<v Speaker 1>mind just can't handle it. I put all of my

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<v Speaker 1>loved ones in one group chat my mom, my dad,

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<v Speaker 1>my friends, whoever, who needs to hear from me for

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<v Speaker 1>me to like speak outwardly to them like a bulletin

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<v Speaker 1>and for them to know that I'm fine, but no

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<v Speaker 1>expectation of this two way communication. I said, WHOA, like

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<v Speaker 1>what happened to you? That this would need to be

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<v Speaker 1>the length that you're taking. So there is a difference

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<v Speaker 1>between burnout and stress. Off the top, stress is more

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<v Speaker 1>like a sense of urgency, physical toiling, like you know,

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<v Speaker 1>my head is scrambled, like I'm making mistakes, I'm clumsy.

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<v Speaker 1>That's stress. Burnout, however, is like lost motivation, feeling helpless, down,

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<v Speaker 1>et cetera. The difference between burnout and stress when you

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<v Speaker 1>put them side by side in a little diagram you

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<v Speaker 1>might do then your head or on a paper. You

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<v Speaker 1>realize that for the most part, when we say that

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<v Speaker 1>high school was stressful, I can see that right. You

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<v Speaker 1>get over engaged. You want to do a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>everything at once. It's creeping up on you. You feel

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<v Speaker 1>really reactive or overreactive when your parents are like why

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<v Speaker 1>haven't you studied? Your teachers like stop talking you like

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<v Speaker 1>you arc up? You are animated in your frustration. There's

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<v Speaker 1>a sense of urgency, What am I going to do

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<v Speaker 1>when I finish? Like no one's telling me should I

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<v Speaker 1>go to the counselor what's happened. Then you might have

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<v Speaker 1>like anxiety about it. But all of this is kind

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<v Speaker 1>of like it's a response to your environment, an obviously

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<v Speaker 1>stressful situation. You're responding accordingly. However, burnout is being in

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<v Speaker 1>these obviously stressful environments or not and disengaging. It's like

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<v Speaker 1>the apathetic response. What would have inspired you previously to

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<v Speaker 1>engage in conflict or to sort it out, or to

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<v Speaker 1>be proactive, you no longer do that. You're disengaged. Also,

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<v Speaker 1>you become quite stifled and distant in your emotional expression.

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<v Speaker 1>So instead of being the person who's like, oh, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>gonna do something about it, you don't do anything about it.

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<v Speaker 1>You can feel helpless, you can lose your motivation, which

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<v Speaker 1>can lead you to feeling depressed, and it becomes emotionally toiling.

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<v Speaker 1>So stress physically toiling a lot reactive, burnout emotionally toiling, introverted, introspective,

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<v Speaker 1>like in a cave, vibes in a cave. Oh my word,

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<v Speaker 1>do you think you've experienced it? Absolutely? I'm always burnt out.

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<v Speaker 1>But there are times when I feel like, because I'm

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<v Speaker 1>not really good at like checking my mind body connection,

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<v Speaker 1>i can't figure out where it starts to end. Kind

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<v Speaker 1>of like a dream. You just end up in one

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<v Speaker 1>and you're like, oh that, oh that's so whoa, And

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<v Speaker 1>then you wake up and you're like, was that even real?

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<v Speaker 1>Because today I feel fine? So what's the what's the deal?

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<v Speaker 1>What I was trying to figure out is like, is

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<v Speaker 1>burnout on the same spectrum as stress? Like you like

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of stress leads to burnout? How does that work?

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<v Speaker 1>And then I found out that burnout isn't necessarily separate

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<v Speaker 1>from stress, but on like the furthest end of the

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<v Speaker 1>stress continuum. So like, it's fine and normal to experience

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<v Speaker 1>stress regularly, a bit of anxiety that is responding to

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<v Speaker 1>a scenario, but the repetition of that and the intensity

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<v Speaker 1>of that leads you to a far right place that

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<v Speaker 1>can cause burnout if you don't, like, I don't know,

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<v Speaker 1>resolve it. And then it says when chronic stress leads

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<v Speaker 1>you to experience more intense and severe symptoms of stress,

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<v Speaker 1>it appairs your ability to function, and that's called burnout.

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<v Speaker 1>It's like when your ability to function is impaired, I

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<v Speaker 1>mean you cannot do the things you used to do

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<v Speaker 1>with varying levels of ease anymore because of the level

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<v Speaker 1>of stress you're under. Now, I look back and I

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<v Speaker 1>think about parents and you observe them being so stressed

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<v Speaker 1>they can't do anything, and you're like, Oh, that's wrong,

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<v Speaker 1>what's happening? You know when you I remember, like on

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<v Speaker 1>one occasion, if I didn't take like the chicken out

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<v Speaker 1>of the freezer and then my mom didn't get mad.

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<v Speaker 1>I was like, Oh, that's strange. What's that about? Burned out?

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<v Speaker 1>And I found out from this article. It was more

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<v Speaker 1>like a research paper, but it was saying that the

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<v Speaker 1>three main features of burnout are overwhelming exhaustion, cynicism and

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<v Speaker 1>detachment from the task, and a sense of not being productive,

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<v Speaker 1>accomplished or effective babes. And that's going to take you

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<v Speaker 1>one to three years to recover. Get out. Get Out.

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<v Speaker 2>You've been listening to the Flex and Frooms Daily podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>For more, tune Indicater on DAB or stream it on iHeartRadio.