Burnout and stress-related health problems are increasingly common, yet hard to diagnose. According to The American Institute of Stress, 77% of people experience stress that impacts their physical health. You might appear medically fine to a doctor, yet feel extremely unwell. After sharing my own experience of burnout I was asked about my recovery journey and through sharing what worked for me, I hope to help others too.
These are the three lessons I had to come to terms with to be able to start to heal my physical and mental health.
Health is never guaranteed.
You can plan your life as much as you want but without your health, those plans won’t happen. I was talking to a friend undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She had all the symptoms but still couldn’t get her head around it. Those things always happen to ‘other people’ so you ignore the signs. She was still in denial when she got diagnosed. Her first thoughts were the disappointment of cancelling the four trips she had planned. You can plan but your health can catch up on you.
This isn’t to say that hypochondriacs have it right, but we will all at some point have health struggles and that is a part of life. If we deny the fact that we are all likely to get sick at some point, we might ignore symptoms until it is too late. The sooner we accept that health is never guaranteed and get help, the better our chances of being able to recover are.
Your mental health impacts your physical health.
There are many in-depth studies on the links between mental and physical health. Anxiety, depression and stress can manifest physically with nausea, sleep loss, and fatigue.
After I burnt out, I felt like I’d just have to live feeling physically impaired for the rest of my life. I longed for the days I had energy, and everything was possible. When you’re unwell, everything feels more difficult. I felt constantly tired, I had a brain fog that stopped me from concentrating and blurred vision. My medicals were absolutely normal, yet I felt so unwell.
There are three main reasons scientists have given for the link. Firstly, mental health impacts your productivity. Secondly, mental health can affect your decision-making, impacting your ability to access or process or act upon information (Mani et al., 2013). Thirdly, poor mental health is associated with lifestyle choices that impact your well-being such as smoking, drinking, and lower physical activity levels (WHO,2009).
We can drastically impact how we feel.
Many conditions, both mental and physical, are beyond our control. We still have the power to destroy or rescue our health with the way we live.
In “The How of Happiness”, Sonja Lyubomirsky detailed how 50% of your ‘baseline happiness’ level is down to genetics, 10% is your circumstances and the remaining 40% we have control over through our state of mind.
A few things really helped me to restore my health in my four years of recovery from burnout. One was physical exercise. This doesn’t mean I was going to the gym and smashing weights every day, but I got really into walking. I reviewed my nutrition and started taking supplements (Iron, Vitamin D, B and Krill oil), buying fresh and organic whilst drinking way more water – which helped my blurred vision! I avoided travelling. Going across time zones, losing sleep and the exhaustion from the planning and process. I made sure I was getting at least 8 hours a day and not needing to set my alarm clock.
The key shift in my physical health came when I addressed the limiting beliefs in my subconscious that caused the anxiety that got me into that state. We don’t put our health first until it’s too late, many of us get a second chance. Don’t ignore the signs, and don’t assume it’s going to get better. Your health won’t wait for you to ‘just reach those targets in your career’ to start caring. We’re only human and need to accept that not all is within our control.
