7 Signs Burnout Is Altering Your Personality In Ways That Deserve Urgent Attention | Ann Babiarz

When the stress of life becomes too much, it can lead to burnout, which is detrimental to your health and can negatively alter your personality. If you are burned out and exhausted, you feel tired and cynical. You are usually less effective at your job or any task at hand.

Burnout is common among professionals and can be a dangerous way to ply your trade. No one wants to be treated by a burned-out physician. No one wants a burned-out lawyer handling their case. And no one wants a burned-out airline pilot trying to land a plane through tricky cross-winds. Burnout can be temporary if you work on stress management, but if you don’t pay attention to the signs and symptoms, its effects will continue.

Here are 7 signs burnout is altering your personality in ways that deserve attention:

1. You lack physical energy

Tired person wrapped in blanket showing burnout needs attention SeventyFour via Shutterstock

Prolonged stress and anxiety are physically draining. Furthermore, if you are stressed out, you tend to have a hard time sleeping and may not eat a proper diet, exercise regularly, or do pleasurable activities. You then wind up with a situation where cause and effect become the same. You won’t engage in the very activities that might make you feel more energetic.

2. You are emotionally exhausted

Exhausted person works late showing burnout BaLL LunLa via Shutterstock

As if being tired and lacking in energy isn’t enough, you may feel emotionally tired. This may manifest as impatience, irritability, moodiness, or uncharacteristic silence, and the skills you usually use to cope with day-to-day life are impaired.

Research on emotional labor and emotional exhaustion found that certain types of emotional regulation help reduce emotional exhaustion. The study showed how automatic emotion regulation did not help reduce emotional exhaustion, but surface (masking emotion), combined with deep acting emotional regulation (actually matching your felt emotion with the outward expression) were effective in decreasing exhaustion from extreme emotional labor.

3. You have a bleak outlook

Bleak person rests head on arm showing burnout FaceStock via Shutterstock

You find it difficult to get excited about life, to expect the best, to not let little things upset you, and to be positive in general. When suffering from burnout, optimism won’t operate as your antidote to stress. Instead, your bleak outlook feeds stress that you feel like a character in a Charles Dickens novel.

4. Your performance at work and in other areas is impaired

Frustrated person can't perform at work showing burnout ViDI Studio via Shutterstock

You make more errors at work. You have a harder time concentrating. You find yourself engaged in more battles with staff, peers, or clients. You may not even want to get out of bed to go to the office three-out-of-five days during the workweek.

A study of the effects of stress on performance suggested that being able to control stress levels depends partially on a person's response. Exposure to moderate, controllable stress usually benefits performance, but exposure to uncontrollable stress or having a more extreme response to stress tends to harm a person's performance.

5. You don't have time for family and friends

Sad person stands apart from friends showing burnout Krakenimages.com via Shutterstock

Are you interacting less with the kids? Getting complaints from your spouse about absences? Has your workweek increased to 75 hours, leading you to eat poorly, skip exercise, and sleep less, which then feeds back into physical and emotional exhaustion? The solution could be making time for physically based leisure activities with friends and family. Research on stress, social support, and coping suggested that participating in group sports can lower stress, anxiety, and depression.

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6. Your relationships are troubled

Angry person yells at relationship partner showing burnout New Africa via Shutterstock

Another serious sign of burnout altering your personality is when your relationships are troubled, and you have no desire to fix them. Instead of complaining, you might withdraw:

Are you in a cycle of conflict with your spouse, children, or friends?
Did the Saturday night poker game with your buddies or the Sunday afternoon recreational volleyball league go away?
Do you feel like you have fewer allies and more enemies than usual?

7. You have lowered immunity

Burned out person with many empty coffee cups showing lowered immunity SrideeStudio via Shutterstock

Research shows how overloading your body with stress can create prolonged periods of "fight or flight" response. This leads to an overdose of certain of your body’s chemicals that, in turn, compromise your immune system so you may get the flu or a cold more easily.

These seven signs are all interrelated. Moreover, if you find yourself suffering from one of the indicators and digging deeper, you’ll probably see that more elements of burnout are present. Can you exhibit one or two signs and not be burned out? Of course. Many of us have a poor balance between work and home. It comes with the territory of many of today’s work situations.

We all have periods where we are tired, emotionally drained, or ill. Being off the top of your game isn’t necessarily the same thing as experiencing burnout symptoms. If you ponder the issues each of the seven signs presents, you will find that a little introspection goes a long way toward understanding yourself. Knowing the warning signs can help you ward off a case of burnout so you can live a healthy lifestyle.

Ann Babiarz is a personal finance specialist who helps clients craft strategic plans for a successful and exciting lifestyle.