The scary ways burnout at work changes your brain

Imagine an alarm that goes off 24/7 and nothing can turn it off.

This is a graphic and quite accurate description of what happens inside the brain when you suffer from prolonged burnout at your workplace.

How do you deal with it?

Voila system!

health

07/09/2022

Wednesday, 07 September 2022, 08:11 Updated: 08:29

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You should not feel constant anxiety in your workplace.

An exhausted man in the office (Photo: ShutterStock)

In 2019, just before the era of the Corona virus and the lockdowns, the World Health Organization released an announcement that shook the world, about its decision to include burnout at work in the official international classification of diseases for the first time in history.

Today, doctors can diagnose burnout at work as a disease for anything - and the disturbing studies we'll tell you about right away show exactly why.

But before anything else, you should dwell for a moment on what burnout is at work and how to find out if you too suffer from it.

People tend to think that feelings like stress and anxiety in the workplace are normal and simply need to be overcome and tolerated in order to cultivate a successful career.

In practice, if you have been suffering for a long time from stress that also manifests itself in extreme changes in mood, "mental fogginess", chronic fatigue or fits of rage and anxiety - there may be a problem here that is important to address and even share with your doctor.

In an interesting study conducted on the subject by researchers from Stockholm University, they performed simulations of the brain activity of 40 people who work more than 60 hours a week and received an official medical diagnosis of burnout at work.

The data of those workers were compared to those of people in a control group, from a similar demographic background, who do not suffer from burnout like them.

The brain scans helped the scientists assess how exactly the burnout was reflected in measurable neurological changes and even in the structure of the brain.

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To the full article

In an article published in the journal of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), they covered the intriguing study in detail and noted that "the main differences in the brain activity of the two groups were mainly evident in the amygdala region, a brain structure that is considered critical for emotional responses including fear and aggression. In the participants who suffered from burnout, the amygdala was larger Relatively speaking, it seems that they had weaker connections between the amygdala and the rest of the brain, especially between it and the prefrontal cortex."

Job burnout clearly affects the amygdala.

Brain scan (Photo: Giphy)

To understand these findings, the amygdala can be compared to a kind of security system, which activates a powerful alarm whenever we are faced with an "emergency situation".

When suffering from burnout, this alarm is activated much more than usual, which makes people more sensitive, nervous and much more stressed.

In such a state, the brain has difficulty functioning clearly, focusing, or controlling powerful emotions.

In addition, the prefrontal cortex, which is the area responsible for our executive abilities, has difficulty disarming the "alarm" and restoring peace to the brain.

A dangerous cycle that feeds itself

You are probably familiar with the following scenario - you are very stressed at work, the stress makes it impossible to do anything, so you are more stressed, less enough and God forbid.

To deeply understand this ironic and dangerous mechanism, Greek researchers from the University of Thessaloniki went through 15 studies conducted on burnout at work and published their findings in the scientific journal International Journal of Work, Health & Organizations.

The findings showed, among other things, that continuous burnout leads to a significant decrease in attention and concentration abilities.

People who suffer from this condition also experience impaired memory, fail to maintain attention for a long time and generally have difficulty managing themselves properly.

All of these, the researchers emphasize, may also increase the risk of addictions, emotional eating and risk-taking, such as driving or having sex.

Take time off sometimes, it will do you good.

Suitcases packed at the water line (Photo: ShutterStock)

Here the question arises, is this an irreversible effect, or is there something that can be done to improve the situation?

Well, some studies conducted in the past on mice showed that it is definitely possible to repair the damage and a recent study conducted on humans in 2018 and published in the journal Cerebral Cortex from Oxford showed that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helped to reduce the erosion damage and even reduce the size of the amygdala again, The same area of ​​the brain that, as mentioned, makes it difficult to control emotions and think clearly.

And along with emotional therapy, Mark Rego, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University, also suggests doing more physical activities to combat burnout.

In an article published in the university's journal, she stated that in this context a variety of activities can be performed, including "art, cooking, a walk in nature or even talking to real people."

In addition, he suggests to all of us, especially those who suffer from burnout, to think of ways to "quiet the mind, whether through sports, meditation practice or longer vacations."

around the world are already beginning to understand how dangerous burnout is to health and are even looking at different and ambitious initiatives to change the accepted form of work.

In the United Kingdom, in recent months, the "world's largest experiment" has been underway, within the framework of which thousands of workers throughout the United Kingdom will switch to work four days a week.

Until the revolutionary enterprise (perhaps) makes aliyah to Israel, a country where more people work than any other Western country in the OECD, it is important that everyone be alert to their situation and think how even in times of busy schedules and overly demanding requirements, it is still possible to find margins that will allow investing in mental health , before it's too late.

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