hey there everybody and welcome to this
presentation on six signs that you are
burned out or depressed but certainly
not lazy i'm your host dr donnelly
snipes
so let's start out with lazy
lazy people are not motivated this is
true but they are perfectly happy not to
do anything they're not laying there
going oh i just don't have the energy
but i really should get up and do
something
lazy people are laying there on the
couch going
yeah i'm fine with the fact that i'm
sitting in my own squaller
telling yourself you're lazy
is self-critical and can contribute to
depression and low self-esteem
if somebody is unmotivated
and they continue to tell themselves
that they're lazy that implies that they
have the ability to make the choice to
get up and do something that they have
the energy stored up somewhere
if the person is depressed or burned out
that just ain't the case
burnout is a state of exhaustion that
may or may not meet the clinical
diagnostic criteria for depression
depression and burnout look very similar
depression can be caused by a lot of
things not just burnout but they do look
very similar
signs of burnout or depression are very
similar
exhaustion and lack of energy
it's not
this i've had so much fun and i'm just
pooped it's complete exhaustion from
stress whether it's stress at work or
stress at home or sometimes you just get
burned out from life there has been so
much stress
over the past you know several years
that a lot of people are just plum
burned out they turn on the television
and or they try to watch the news or
they try to go to social media and that
they're just bombarded with negativity
and stuff and they're just like
i just can't i just can't i'm too
exhausted
to even cope with this right now
and
that is one symptom that's pretty
ubiquitous to burn out and depression if
you're laying there going
i just can't
then that indicates that your fl hpa
access your fight or flight mechanism
you're already over past fight or flee
and you're into the
forget about it and there's usually
another f word i use but youtube won't
let me use that word
so
burnout is when you're past fighter flee
your body just says i don't have i don't
have the energy i don't have the gas so
forget about it
feeling disconnected is another sign of
burnout or depression now people can
feel disconnected for a variety of
reasons and disconnected or ness or
depersonalization
is a common symptom in people who've
experienced trauma
but people who are burned out can also
feel disconnected because it's just it's
too much to feel anymore they don't have
the energy to feel it's too overwhelming
to feel the stress so they just become
disconnected from their feelings it's
almost like they pull the plug and they
put the feelings over here
or the experiences over here and they
kind of walk around sort of in a numb
state if you will they don't feel like
they can connect with other people
either it's like you're operating in two
different
spheres
people who are burned out or depressed
often withdraw
when they can if they have to go to work
and they're able to go to work they may
go to work but they often avoid as much
social interaction as possible
not because they don't like these other
people that are their friends or their
co-workers but they don't have the
energy interacting with people takes
energy even if you like interacting with
people it takes energy and when people
are depressed and burned out sometimes
it's just overwhelming to try to deal
with other people's
stuff or even to try to be
empathetic and focused and you know
engage even in a
somewhat superficial conversation it
takes energy and people who are burned
out and depressed ain't got it
moodiness and irritability is very
common in people who are burned out or
depressed they have experienced so much
stress again they can't take it anymore
irritability
is often a
form of anger and that is a fight
response the person becomes irritable
because they're overwhelmed they don't
have the energy or they can't figure out
how to find the energy to change the
situation and you're just adding one
more thing and that's a threat because i
i'm already getting crushed by
everything that's coming down on me
lack of motivation now remember i said
people who are lazy lack motivation too
but it's not because they are exhausted
and overwhelmed it's because
they just don't have motivation they're
fine with the way things are there is no
need
in their mind for them to do anything
they're like whatever
a person who is burned out and depressed
is depleted they often see things that
need to be done or they'd like to do and
maybe it's even like hobbies or things
and they're like yeah you know i i
really do like painting but
i just i don't have it in me right now
that is more of a sign of exhaustion and
burnout so
where is this
lack of motivation emanating from and
has it always existed that's another
thing that we want to look at
people who are lazy have often
historically been lazy
people who are burned out and depressed
this often gradually creeps in
over
a few weeks a few months even a few
years as they get progressively
exhausted and worn down
so can you look back and find a time
when this person was
motivated and energized
and finally loss of interest or apathy
this is a very
common sign because when people are
burned out and depressed it means their
dopamine levels and their norepinephrine
levels and their endorphin levels are
low
it means that they're having trouble
finding pleasure in anything it means
that their neurochemicals are out of
whack if they don't have the energy
to
[Music]
do things
then it's going to be hard to get
excited about anything
so those are some very important
distinctions now people who are burned
out
and or depressed there are things that
they can do
burnout and depression both represent a
state of complete exhaustion
coupled with a sense of hopelessness and
helplessness if you've ever been at a
job for example and you started getting
burned out you know think about it
were you exhausted did you have feelings
of hopelessness and helplessness and the
answer is probably yes
i've been there i know a lot of us who
have been in our careers for many many
years have probably gotten there at
times where
we don't feel like we're making a
difference we don't feel like there's
any hope that we can
achieve the goals that we had initially
set out when we
entered the field there are a lot of
reasons people may start to develop a
sense of burnout
so what can you do and this is
you know four tips
obviously this is not everything you
need to do in treatment but these are
four strategies to get you started
first
if you're exhausted if you're burned out
if you're depressed you don't have a lot
of energy so get back to basics
identify the must do's what needs to
happen
in your life there are things that
should happen you'd like to happen like
mowing the lawn of course it's the
middle of winter here right now so
that's sort of irrelevant but
if you don't mow the lawn this weekend
yes it may start looking a little bit
shabby but
is that
a must do
or is it something that can be put off
if you need to conserve your energy for
something that is
more important to be brutally honest
define what a rich and meaningful life
looks like to you a lot of times when
people are feeling burned out and
depressed they are focusing on the one
or two things that are going poorly
and they are
not sure where to even
shuttle their energy it's like okay this
is going poorly i can't change it
i give up i don't know what else to do
by defining a rich and meaningful life
people force their mind to open
and notice the things in their life that
are important to them that are going
at least okay
i mean
could this be going better
sure maybe
but
noticing some of the things that are
going at least okay helps balance out
the negativity
from what's what's going poorly
identify what's triggering your burnout
or exhaustion and begin addressing it
it could be work it could be a pers
certain person at work it could be
you know caseloads it could be
bills it could be news and social media
whatever it is that is just sucking your
energy dry
and
perpetuating this feeling of
hopelessness and helplessness
start listing those things down and then
figuring out one by one what can you do
to mitigate it so you can either avoid
it
or address it so you feel safe
and as empowered as possible
and i know that's really vague but you
know burnout is so
uh can happen to so many different
people for so many different reasons in
this short video it's really hard for me
to identify particular examples
and finally prioritize self-care
physical stress
contributes to burnout and depression
because physical stress depletes your
energy so you're already starting 40
yards back if you will
so it's important to prioritize
self-care
when your nutrition and your sleep are
quality adequate
you know i'm not saying be a complete
health fanatic but when they are
adequate you're going to feel
better
your brain when your circadian rhythms
are stable because you're sleeping on a
regular schedule and getting quality
sleep
it helps stabilize your
neurotransmitters and your hormones when
you are eating a healthy diet you're
giving giving your body the
building blocks it needs to make the
neurotransmitters and the hormones and
those sorts of things and if you're
eating colorfully you're giving it the
antioxidants which can help reduce
inflammation and we know that
stress
and depression are both associated with
increased inflammation so if you can
help reduce that inflammation
it can also help balance those
neurotransmitters
none of these are going to help
overnight
if you are burned out it's something
that has happened over a period of time
and it's important to identify again the
things that are contributing to that
burnout
and
what you can do to address them and also
i know i already said this
what's important in your rich and
meaningful life
you know i at one point um
several months ago you know i started
getting overwhelmed because things kept
breaking around the house and work
wasn't going exactly perfect and i
started feeling just completely
overwhelmed and
just
didn't seem like anything i did made a
difference and i was just like screw it
now obviously thankfully that
attitude only lasted a brief period of
time because i stepped back and i said
all right
what is going well in my life right now
and i looked looked around and i took an
inventory you know my kids were doing
well in school the animals were
relatively healthy i had a roof over my
head i did have a job um we were all
relatively healthy so i took an
inventory of those things that were
important i said you know what
even though some things
really suck right now there are a lot of
things that are going pretty well that i
wasn't
noticing
instead of waiting
to be happy until i'll be happy when
it involved an attitude adjustment and
me saying okay i'm going to be happy now
what can i be happy about now
and
endure
the distress caused by these other
things so that's just you know one
little
case study if you will about addressing
depression