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• Burnout is a common issue during the end of the year as people reflect on their lives and ambitions |
• Burnout is not just an emotional response to work or stress, but has a profound physical toll that affects both body and brain |
• The condition is now recognized by the ICD-10 as a diagnosable code, giving legitimacy to those experiencing its symptoms |
• Burnout can lead to cognitive impairments, such as memory loss and changes in brain function |
• Shame and denial are common responses to burnout, making it difficult for people to admit they need help |
• Burnout is often accompanied by feelings of exhaustion, frustration, and self-doubt, which can be linked to depression |
• Understanding the physical and mental effects of burnout can help individuals take steps to prevent or recover from it. |
• Burnout as a chronic state of being out of sync with one's life |
• The concept of "drift" in regards to burnout, where individuals may not notice their own decline until looking back |
• Impact of COVID-19 and remote work on burnout and regression to balance |
• Importance of recognizing constraints and limits in life |
• Role of interplay between individual factors and external demands in contributing to burnout |
• Need for acknowledging legitimacy around constraints and finding ways to cope within them |
• Discussion of loss and finding opportunities amidst disappointment |
• Discussion of repurposing parking lots for events and activities |
• Importance of finding meaning in challenging experiences |
• Vicious cycle of occupational stress and its devastating effects on the brain |
• Research on burnout and its impact on brain structure and function |
• Connection between burnout, cognitive decline, and accelerated aging process |
• Discussion of the cognitive costs of burnout, including disrupted creativity and problem-solving ability |
• Cognitive costs and burnout |
• Misdiagnosis of burnout as ADHD or dementia due to similar symptoms |
• Importance of reframing perspective and taking steps to cope with stress |
• Limitations of coping skills in managing stress, especially in situations outside of one's control |
• Antidote to stress: redefining meaning, time-blocking, and seeking a sense of hope |
• The importance of not relying on a single data point or assessment in making decisions |
• Focusing on what can be controlled and taking away opportunities for others' outcomes |
• Recognizing the need to buffer negative feelings, especially during times of stress and uncertainty |
• Being aware of triggers and limiting exposure to them |
• Using frameworks like Ben McCormack's "Simple Burnout Triage" to assess burnout levels |
• Understanding the three potential responses to the question: "If you repeat your current pace and quality for another two months, how long would you be able to sustain it?" |
• The importance of taking action early on to prevent burnout from progressing too far. |
• Boundaries for self-care and recovery |
• Importance of having supportive relationships in maintaining boundaries |
• Reversibility of burnout through interventions and neurological recovery |
• Neuroplasticity and the ability to change brain function |
• Management strategies for mental health, similar to managing physical health and finances. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So it's the end of the year, and this is the time of the year when people assess, they review, they determine their future to some degree, or at least their ambitions for the future, their desires for the future... And in many cases, you sort of retrospectively look at your life, your choices, your ... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. Thanks, Adam. I'm really excited to talk about this today. Not because I love burnout, but because I think that this conversation can be helpful to so many people during this season of life; the way we've had to live life differently and sustain things wherein change is at the forefront ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. And burnout is very -- I think it's very elusive, in terms of you can't really define it, shape it very well. Someone's definition may be very good, another person's definition may be very good, and there's no real -- you can't call the spade a spade, for lack of better terms, you know? And th... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** It is. I mean, one of the most fascinating things I've found when we were preparing for this conversation was that it's actually a diagnosable code according to the ICD-10. And if you're familiar at all with medicine, that's our guidebook for how we diagnose conditions. |
So I really want to give legitimacy to this, to go "Hey, you're not making it up. Some of the symptoms and challenges you're experiencing are legitimate, and as recognized by our international code of diseases." |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. And she mentioned that emergency research shows that the chronic psychological stress that characterizes burnout not only impairs people's personal lives and their social functioning, it can also overwhelm their cognitive skills, so memory recall, and things like that. The neuro-endocrine syst... |
So the people listening to this show are like "Hey, how's my brain work? How can I do me better, essentially?" And so burnout isn't just simply "Oh, I'm experiencing it." It's something that sort of changes us. You know, awareness leads to change; we say that. And so if you're not aware, one, of your personal burnout, ... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yup. And this is a place that I don't think anyone wants to be, but realizing that, you know, when you're saying neuro- endocrine, it's our body's systems. And our body is always trying to manage its energy resources, and so it's saying, "Hey, I've upset the homeostasis internally for so long ... |
\[06:24\] We've talked about this in previous shows, around the difference between homeostasis and in humans allostasis, wherein our bodies and brains don't go back to a baseline pre-perception of threat or reaction to threat, but actually reallocates upwards regarding that threat. So when I am perpetually stressed, my... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. And you mentioned the fact that it's now an ICD code... Alexandra says "Many of the symptoms of burnout overlap with the hallmarks of depression, including extreme fatigue, loss of passion", which you were talking about there, to some degree, "creativity, and intensifying cynicism and negativi... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. Look, and this is so prevalent in the mental health world... Look, anybody who's depressed doesn't wake up and go, "Oh, I think that's a great idea. Let's do that. Let's make everything harder, so I feel like I'm operating through molasses in every activity I choose to do today." No! Oh ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** \[09:48\] Yeah. It's sneaky, it's cunning... As this other fella who wrote another article. Having been through burnout, Kieran Thai, self-described as a freelance writer, originally from Sydney, Australia, but now living in Denver, wrote a post called "Recovering from burnout" on his personal blog.... |
But this idea that it's a thief - like, it's sneaky, it's cunning... It's almost like it's out the getcha. In the pre-call we were talking through some of the details of this... I'm like "Well, that's just kind of doing life." And we can kind of go through what we were talking about there, but you know, all the things ... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. I think of it like the drift. We don't recognize drift until we look back. And so this is why I think this topic is so timely, because we're closing out a year, and a tough one for many of us. And going "Can you look back and see how you're drifting? Or have you set up sort of tethers in... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. In regards to the drift, I think it's -- some have said in regards to remote work and sort of progression in certain directions, I wonder if there's regression in the other directions, which haven't really been talked about. So there's been discussions around, "Oh, COVID and the global pandemi... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Right. And I think for you and all of our industries -- I mean, I'm so familiar with healthcare, and this is what we've been trying to manage... Because one thing that healthcare workers don't have control over is flow. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. There's sort of a -- they're at the mercy of flow. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. And look, many people in the field of healthcare go into healthcare because they do what? They care about people. And they want to help people. And guess what it feels like this year? They're not helping, because they can't help to the degree or in the way in which they want to help. And... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** What I find interesting from Alexandra's article is that this topic of burnout was broached 1976. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** \[14:08\] You might as well just say 1776. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** \[laughs\] |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I mean, that's a long time ago. I mean, it's many years ago. Rough math - sub 50 years ago, right? The title of the article from -- I'm not sure how you say this fella's name; I think that might be a fellow. I'm assuming, at least... \[unintelligible 00:14:22.07\] is the person's name. An article ti... |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. We often talk about the importance of naming things, right? That this has been around, but it hasn't necessarily allowed people to recognize that it's not a personal thing. It's not somebody trying to do this to themselves. It's an interplay issue. And so again, even the World Health Org... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Alexandra says - a few sentences down from that section where I was reading, she says "Burnout emerges when the demands of a job outstrip a person's ability to cope with the stress." |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yep. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** And newsflash, I was incorrect assuming gender there. \[unintelligible 00:16:33.20\] is a woman. She discusses that just a few sentences later; I could have read a little further... Sorry about that. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Yeah. This is what is just so, so challenging - we just can't adapt. In the world of mental health I work with people doing this routinely, and it's so important, guys, to be able to acknowledge legitimacy around constraints. Like, it does stink; it's aversive. "I don't want to be navigating t... |
One of the things I've encountered a lot throughout this year is people struggling with loss. And be it people in their lives, or expectations they had for things they were going to do... I mean, even more locally, for my world, is adolescents who have worked their whole lives to prepare for college in a sport of some ... |
\[18:04\] So we then have to switch gears and go, "How can I find a way to buffer and cope with that loss? And are there opportunities that lie within some of those disappointments?" And in no way am I negating the loss, but I'm also going to look at it like an addition equation and go, "What other opportunities are th... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I'll give you a real funny/simple example. Repurposing parking lots. |
**Mireille Reece, PsyD:** Okay... |
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2022 Brain Science Transcripts
Complete transcripts from the 2022 episodes of the Brain Science podcast.
Generated from this GitHub repository.
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