Burnout & Exhaustion

Contributing factors can include:

• Prolonged high workloads
• Long working hours
• Insufficient breaks or recovery
• High levels of responsibility
• Emotional demands at work
• Poor workplace support
• Low control over how work is performed
• Unclear or conflicting expectations
• Workplace conflict
• Organisational change
• Caring responsibilities
• Parenting and family demands
• Financial pressure
• Poor sleep
• Perfectionism
• Difficulty saying no
• Feeling responsible for other people’s problems
• Neglecting activities that normally help you recover
• Multiple pressures occurring at the same time

Often it is the combination and duration of demands that matters.

You might notice:

• Feeling physically or emotionally exhausted
• Dreading work
• Becoming cynical or increasingly negative
• Losing motivation
• Feeling detached from work or other people
• Difficulty concentrating
• Becoming forgetful
• Making more mistakes
• Feeling less effective despite working harder
• Irritability or reduced patience
• Difficulty sleeping
• Feeling unable to properly recover
• Losing interest in things outside work
• Withdrawing from relationships
• Working increasingly long hours
• Feeling guilty when you stop
• Relying more heavily on alcohol, caffeine or other ways of getting through
• Feeling that even small tasks require significant effort

These experiences can also occur with depression, anxiety, sleep problems, physical illness and other conditions.

Persistent or significant exhaustion should not automatically be assumed to be burnout. A GP can help assess whether there may be physical or mental health factors that need attention.

Therapy can provide space to stop functioning on autopilot and understand what has been happening.

Together, we can look at the demands you’re carrying, how long they have been present, the expectations you place on yourself and what opportunities there may be for change.

Therapy may help you to:

• Identify the main sources of exhaustion
• Recognise warning signs earlier
• Understand patterns that keep you overextended
• Develop clearer boundaries
• Explore difficulty saying no
• Consider expectations you place on yourself
• Reduce unhelpful perfectionism
• Reconnect with your needs and priorities
• Consider the role of work or other environmental pressures
• Develop more sustainable ways of responding to responsibility
• Reintroduce recovery and activities that matter to you
• Consider whether larger changes may be needed

The aim is not simply to teach you how to tolerate an unsustainable situation for longer.

Sometimes the work involves changing how you respond.

Sometimes it involves recognising that what is being asked of you needs to change.

When you’re exhausted, adding a complicated self-care plan can become another demand.

Start smaller.

• Acknowledge how tired you actually are. Stop using how much you can still force yourself to do as the only measure of whether you’re coping.
• Identify what is draining you most. Not every demand contributes equally.
• Protect one period of recovery. Create some time where you are genuinely not working or dealing with responsibilities where possible.
• Take breaks. Skipping them may create more time in the short term while reducing your capacity over time.
• Look at what can wait. Exhaustion can make everything feel urgent.
• Ask for help. Consider what could be shared, delegated or discussed with someone else.
• Pay attention to sleep and physical health. Persistent fatigue can have many causes.
• Consider seeing your GP. Particularly if exhaustion is significant, persistent or accompanied by other physical or psychological changes.

Burnout and exhaustion can be difficult to recognise when you have become accustomed to pushing through.

I offer practical, person-centred counselling and psychotherapy that can help you understand what has led to the exhaustion, recognise the patterns and pressures involved and consider what needs to change.

The answer is not always simply becoming more resilient or learning to cope with more.

Sometimes it is about developing a more sustainable relationship with work, responsibility, expectations and yourself.

If you think talking to someone could help, you can learn more about my approach or get in touch to arrange a session.