Burnout: the newest trend

You don’t feel like you. The year started off with you bright and determined to work hard. Concepts were always tricky but you studied day and night and it paid off. But now the words swim in front of your eyes and out of your ears. Your friends laugh around you but
you feel blank; like your social battery has been drained. You think you’re depressed. You even begin to question if you’re good enough for this degree.

The answer is: yes. You’re probably capable for that degree but there you go again expecting too much from yourself. You color code your numerous schedules and set impossible deadlines for cramming entire syllabuses. Motivation and ambition swim in your veins but one day, the light simply goes out. And you? You struggle to understand: why?
There’s so much to do and yet you cannot seem to start. Fear trickles in as you realise that you suddenly don’t care. You’ve become numb to all that made you jump out of bed in the morning, ready to conquer. Not to be alarmed, you’ve just: burnt-out. And apparently, it is very common and possible to work yourself to the brink of complete mental and physical exhaustion.

Burn-out is a term garnering more and more attention nowadays. With the rise of “hustle culture” and its charming demands, burn-out is eyed as a trophy in today’s society. And, unfortunately, the idea of exploiting your energy at the expense of your health is often seen as a badge of honour.

The term itself was officially coined in the 1970s by American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. “Burn-out” was a term often used to describe hardcore drug-users that intoxicated themselves to the point that they became permanently dull and inattentive.
Coincidentally, Dr Freudenberger formulated the term after noticing similar symptoms in himself and other volunteers at a free drug clinic. According to him, burnout means “to fail, wear out or become exhausted by making excessive demands on energy, strength and
resources”. In simpler terms: lets bake a cake. Mix in exhaustion (quite a bit), add generous amount of mental fog, sprinkle in some self doubt and fold in an unhealthy amount of alienation. And Voila! You have the perfect recipe for burn-out.

Or if we go even simpler:

You can do anything but not everything”
-David Allen

In 2019, WHO classified burn-out as a legitimate diagnosis and many other countries started following suit. Often times, burn-out is confused with stress but these are completely separate entities. Stress is a state of mind while burn-out is a condition. Stress is momentary and specific. It is a feeling of having too much responsibilities, duties and tensions. Burn-out is chronic and the feeling of not having enough care, time or energy. So, why are medical students more susceptible to burn-out? Research has shown that 50 percent of medical students experience symptoms of burnout. Another study shows medical
students are more susceptible to burnout than their non-medical peers.

[1] Let us put it this way: they are expected to cram loads of anatomy, participate in portfolio-sharpening extra curriculars all while juggling their social and personal lives. It is not wrong to say that the field is a highly competitive one. One that is expanding disproportionately with the mental capacities of students. Antibiotics were discovered less than a hundred years ago in 1929. Now we’ve come all the way to using VR headsets to rehearse life-threatening surgeries. Medical students are also considered the “ideal scholars”. Hence, they bear the brunt of too many expecting eyes. “Impostor syndrome” is also something a lot of students deal with. Most of them have been high achievers all their life. They are dropped in a pool with other high-achievers and suddenly they are average. The need for academic validation mixed with a sudden inferiority complex can trigger them to work great lengths to achieve more. Needless to say, green scrubs and coffee runs and highlighted worn-out books may seem aesthetic but there is a lot underneath the surface.

Extreme cases of burn-out can manifest as mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Another trend is social isolation; where you may find it hard to reach out your peers or counsellors for help. However, this is a time when you need support the most: dealing with these overwhelming feelings on your own is not easy. And because the mind and body are so strongly connected, mental distress may also bleed out as physical symptoms.

“Health is a state of complete harmony of the mind, body and soul”
-B.K.S. Lyengar

You may experience heart palpitations, chest and pains and stomach problems. The truth is humans are built to change. When everything around us drops static, our primal instinct may be to panic and that is okay.

As bothersome it sounds, when does burn-out actually become a blessing in disguise? In some cases, we tend to forget to take a simple break; a breath of fresh air. Burning-out helps you reassess your priorities and make you question if work at the expense of your health is actually worth it. Moreover, it allows you to take much needed rest and practice gratitude for what you have already been able to conquer. In a way, it breaks the endless monotonous loop you find yourself stuck in. Hence, take it it as a sign that you need to have a life outside
your profession.

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you”
-Anne Lamot

Burn-out opens a black hole that vacuums out your motivation, your energy and your focus for a while. Therefore, don’t be hard on yourself. This is a time when your mind and body need to recharge and reset. Take a deep breath and step back. Appreciate your progress..
Treat this as a vacation when your only priority is self-care. Another great way to recharge is to indulge in your hobbies. Read a light-hearted book (definitely not your textbook), or watch the movies piling on your list. If you allow your mind to unwind, trust us, it will
make a stronger comeback. You have reached a neon-bright reminder that it is necessary to pause sometimes. We are all aware of the demanding nature of this field and how it can lead us to become prisoners of our own routines that can come crashing down upon us. The harsh truth is life only gets harder from now. You need to create safe spaces of peace for yourself because life will not slow down for you.

Therefore, you need to take a moment and answer these five questions:

What matters most to you in life?

Have you done anything you enjoy doing today?

Do you find yourself worrying a lot during the day?

Are you getting adequate rest?

How many hours of sleep are you getting?

The answers will tell you everything you need to know.

-Maham Nasreen Hameed Khan & Maryam Ashraf