Burnout and the brain
What happens to the brain in burnout? Let’s look at the science.
Did you know that burnout has a huge impact on the body and also the brain? Burnout is never a sign of weakness – it’s actually a physiological response to excessive stress.
Understanding the brain science of burnout can help remove feelings of guilt or personal culpability. Burnout may occur in the brain, but it’s definitely not “just in your head”.
So, what happens to the brain in burnout? Let’s take a closer look at the science.
Fight or flight
The road to burnout starts with our brain’s natural fight or flight response. Tasked with the job of helping us deal with dangerous situations, our fight or flight response uses a mixture of cortisol and adrenaline to increase blood flow and jolt us into action. It’s been protecting us since our ancestors lived in caves and ran away from sabretooth tigers.
Here’s what happens in your brain when it perceives a threat:
Your amygdala, which acts as a lookout, goes into high alert.
The amygdala sends a signal to your hypothalamus to activate your fight or flight response.
Your system floods with adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones are designed to help you react quickly.
Once the danger subsides, it is the role of the prefrontal cortex to send a signal back to the hypothalamus telling it to stand down and relax.
Hyperactive pathways
As brilliant as our brains are, sometimes they can get things wrong. Our fight or flight response is designed to deal with immediate threats, like a car swerving in front of you. But, in today’s world, the brain perceives a lot of everyday situations as threatening. Things like watching the news, checking your emails, or having an awkward social interaction can trigger your fight or flight response.
Our brains are exposed to so much stimulation that the amygdala can become hyperreactive. And the more time your brain spends in fight or flight, the higher your risk of burnout.
The cortisol journey
The road to burnout is long. Burnout is associated with long-term exposure to stress in the context of work. When we reach burnout, we will experience three things: emotional exhaustion, reduced effectiveness at work, and detachment or cynicism about work and/or the people we interact with at work. Science suggests the transition from chronic stress to burnout is related to cortisol levels.
Cortisol is one of the stress hormones that floods your brain in fight or flight. Unlike the other stress hormone – adrenaline, which dissipates quickly – cortisol sticks around even after a stressful event. When we are experiencing repeated or long term stressful situations, the body can slip into a state of chronic stress, which keeps cortisol levels high.
Consistently elevated cortisol is a problem because of its impact on physical and mental health. It can dampen your immune response, cause high blood sugar, and negatively affect mood.
While too much cortisol can play havoc on health, producing too little cortisol is linked to severe fatigue, low energy, and difficulty concentrating. So too little and too much can be detrimental to the mind and body.
It’s important to bear in mind that not all stress is bad for us. When we are engaged at work, we experience a moderate increase in cortisol that helps keep us focused and energized. However, if stress ramps up by increased work demands, while we may remain engaged, we may also start feeling exhausted or strained. At this point cortisol levels have climbed.
As work stress mounts, we may then progress to feeling detached from or cynical about work. At this phase cortisol levels remain high – a state known as hypercortisolism. And it’s at the next stage, a time when we are likely to find ourselves depleted of energy, less effective at work, and feeling highly cynical about work, that cortisol levels decline to the point of insufficiency – a state known as hypocortisolism. It’s as though the ability to produce cortisol has burned out.
The good news is that it’s possible to fully recover from burnout. It takes time, effort, and lifestyle changes, but it’s possible. This article is a great place to start.
Fighting stigma with science
We hope understanding the brain science of burnout can help you see it for what it really is – a physiological condition. Burnout is never a sign of personal culpability or weakness. It’s actually a result of your brain trying to keep you safe. Now you know the science, you can take steps to reduce stress and protect your cortisol levels.
Reference
Morera, L.P., Gallea, J.I., Trógolo, M.A., Guido, M.E., & Medrano, L,A. (2020). From work well-being to burnout: A hypothetical phase model. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 30;14:360