11/05/2022
Stage 3 of the development of burnout is the Chronic Stress Phase
In this phase, your stress begins to make an impact in your daily life. This stress may become more than you feel you can successfully manage, and you may notice that your work and relationships begin to take strain.
Signs that you may be experience in more stress than you can manage may include:
A sense of apathy, towards people and activities in your life. This may include towards your work or stressful role which you previously enjoyed. Apathy can feel like a sincere lack of enthusiasm and interest. You may feel like this even when you don’t intend to, which often negatively impacts your relationships.
You may feel socially withdrawn, often by your own actions, as you may feel too exhausted to engage, or even like a relational failure. This is a self-preservation act, your body and mind feels the need to conserve energy in order to combat the stress as much as possible.
In your relationships, roles and tasks you may find yourself easily angered. You may find it happening without being able to control your outburst, but that your mind cannot grapple with additional stress or confrontation. This will affect your relationships more than other symptoms, as other people may not understand your emotional state.
In terms of your roles and tasks, you may find yourself procrastinating to a serious extent. This is procrastination beyond normal delaying tasks, to a point that it puts pressure on your work and responsibilities. This becomes noticeable to to others in your environment and may lead to conflict.
There are ways to mitigate and manage the stress and to prevent your stress from becoming even more severe, and prevent burnout from establishing itself in your body and mind. There is hope to get out of the cycle.
