I had a burnout of epic proportions. Although I had a few serious contributing factors ending in an extreme outcome, the cause of it is a textbook case of pushing yourself too hard, not showing selflove and not listening to the warning signs. But before I get into my story, and the mess that I found myself in, lets take a look at what a ‘burn out’ actually is. BURN OUT; It has been described as a syndrome of physical and emotional exhaustion due to long-term, unresolvable job stress, working under difficult or demanding conditions. Some people develop negative job attitudes, a loss of concern and feeling for either yourself or those with whom you work or are close to. The final stage of burnout is dangerous. The person has no reserves left to cope with any added pressure and the slightest, additional stress can send the person into a severe mental or physical breakdown.
It would probably be much quicker to answer the question ‘Where did I go right’. At the time I couldn't see it but now that I am out the other side as it were, and have a new understanding of the major body systems, it seems glaringly obvious that things were never going to end well for me. I used to work for a large house builder in the City of London. It was extremely pressured, and stressful with lots of overseas travel and loooong hours. Granted the long hours were my choice but you cant hold a Head of Department position down in a high achieving business without putting in 150% right? At this point I would like to state that I put 40% of that pressure on myself, I was a workaholic and had hunger and drive, but it was to the detriment of my health and my relationship with my family. When I wasn't at work, I was thinking about work. I never actually switched off and was always on call. My family repeatedly asked me over the course of about 18 months to slow down, to take my foot off the gas, take a break, change careers - Did I listen? I enjoyed my job. I was good at it, it came naturally to me and I thrived off the buzz and the ‘stress’. Or so I thought. I was doing myself so much damage and my lifestyle, nutrition, work life balance and my general attitude towards my own health and wellbeing was all wrong. I was so wired to the job that I had trouble sleeping at night. I got into the habit of putting my earphones in and listening to an audio book to get me off to sleep and by the time morning came I’d usually had unbroken sleep amounting to 4.5 hours. I used to have 16 cups of coffee a day (4 of those before 8am) and I never ate breakfast - unless I was hungover and then ‘The Queens Head’ egg and hash brown bap with half a bottle of ketchup was a life saver! Lunch was a ‘just add water’ diet packet meal of 150 calories and dinner would most likely be after 9pm and either a take away or some delight tha