Can you Ever Recover from Burnout?
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Can you Ever Recover from Burnout?
One of the most common questions I get asked—other than how did you end up doing this work?—is whether burnout ever truly goes away. And what a great question it is. But, if I’m being honest, I might have a not-so-great answer: it depends!
Whether or not burnout can be completely “cured” depends on the context and situation that led to burnout and whether or not you can get away from it. Some common contexts that can contribute to burnout are:
Your seasons of life
Your job
The people around you
For these people, burnout is absolutely something you can recover from. When burnout and stress are situation- and context-dependent, it can be overcome by remedying your situation or context. If you’re in a shitty, overwhelming season of life, the burnout will likely subside as soon as you take the necessary steps or time to get out of that situation. What might this look like? There are several answers to this question. For one of my clients, it was a period of intense loss—one after another. For others, it might be a period of needing to take of a chronically sick loved one or a first-time parent in a season with a new baby. It might be someone experiencing chronic illness and trying to get their feet back under them in that regard. Those are seasons of life you might need to get through.
It might be your job. Yes, burnout is not purely occupational—at least in my opinion, though the WHO disagrees. But, make no mistake, being in a shitty, toxic, or unrelenting work situation, can be remedied by getting out of the situation. For one of my clients, it was working for an uptight, micromanaging boss who didn’t seem to understand the human limits of her team. Despite boundary setting and stress leave, she was unrelenting. The only way for that client to start to heal was to get out of the situation. For another one of my clients, it was a toxic, bullying coworker. Even when this client informed her leadership, clearly communicated the issues, set boundaries, etc., her supervisor never took action, and the situation continued to spiral until, ultimately, she was “fired” and was able to move onto a substantially better position—pay increase included.
It might be the people around you. I think a lot of us have been in situations where the people around us aren’t truly giving us support. They’re merely providing passive-aggressive judgment that makes us feel worse. Having support networks, at work and in life, is crucial for overcoming burnout, and when we’re missing that support, it can leave us feeling stuck and emotionally exhausted, but it’s also a situation that can be fixed.
These are all fixable situations. Situations where our context needs to change, and the burnout will dissipate with it.
However, there are other circumstances where burnout may not so readily dissipate. Often, this has to do with personality types and characteristics that more readily lead to burnout, such as:
Perfectionists
High achievers or overachievers
People-pleasing
Perfectionists are particularly susceptible to burnout because enough is never enough for them. Their pursuit of perfection makes them unrelenting. They struggle to take breaks when they should because their work never feels like they’re done, constantly tweaking and improving, even on something that no longer needs improving.
High-achievers and overachievers are also susceptible to chronic stress and burnout. Why? Because, similar to a perfectionist, they’re unrelenting. They don’t know how to stop. I often think of the Enneagram type 3 when I think of these people. Enneagram 3s—of which I am—have such a deep-seeded belief that they’re not enough that they constantly seek to overcompensate through their achievements and accomplishments. They constantly feel the need to do more. Be more. And as such, they don’t know how to slow down, let alone stop.
Last, but not least, people-pleasers. This one can’t be surprising. People-pleasers have incredible difficulty putting boundaries in place, whether it’s with others or with themselves. They over-identify with their need and desire to be there for others, so much so that they completely forget about their own needs.
In all 3 of these situations, these characteristics are deeply-rooted parts of these people’s personalities in all three of these situations. That’s why they tend to be people with cyclical, recurrent burnout because the patterns, behaviors, and mindsets that create their burnout are so ingrained.
If you identify with any of these, my recommendation for you would be to get incredibly, ruthlessly self-aware. Pay attention to the situations that create emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion in your life. Pay attention to what’s working and what’s not working. Mindfulness is going to be your best friend. Only through having a mindful, ruthless self-awareness of what you need and what’s pushing you over the edge can you make the necessary changes.
Once you’ve identified and started implementing these things, the work doesn’t stop. You have to have a next level of consistency because the work will never stop. You’ll always be at a higher risk for burnout coming back.
That’s where I’m at in my life. I’m a high achiever. I’m a recovered perfectionist and a recovering people-pleaser. And I have to constantly pay attention to my life's patterns, mindsets, and behaviors. I have to be constantly monitoring my self-care activities. I must constantly ask myself if I’m taking enough breaks, pouring into myself enough, and giving myself ENOUGH self-care. And in those seasons where the good habits have fallen off track, the burnout and overwhelm can and do come seeping back in.
For me and for so many others like me, overcoming burnout is about redesigning and redefining my lifestyle. It’s about shifting my mindsets and revamping entire behaviors. And having the self-awareness and mindfulness to maintain those changes in my life.
It’s creating sustainability in my life. And it will be the same for you too.
So, can you recover from burnout? Yes. Absolutely. You can get through and out of the context and situation that might be burning you out, OR you can undertake the lifelong work of breaking through your most engrained mindsets and personalities; it’s work, absolutely. But it will be the most rewarding and most gratifying work of your life.
Because don’t we all deserve to work less and live more?
