Juggling a life split between work, home expectations and still dealing with relaxed Covid-19 restrictions, many South Africans are becoming mentally and physically exhausted with their daily lives. This prolonged period of tiredness known as burnout is not just a way you feel, it’s an actual syndrome that affects many individuals across the country.

An easy way to define burnout: you’re borrowing time from tomorrow to deal with today. Burnout plays out in stages, which doesn’t exactly help when you’re trying to deal with it because life/work does not stop just because you’re dealing with extensive fatigue.

Stress vs. Burnout

It’s important to not confuse stress with burnout. These two have totally different meanings and feelings. Stress often deals with having too much on your plate at once, whereas burnout is when you don’t have enough motivation/energy to complete tasks or responsibilities.

Listed below are the 5 stages of burnout:

1. Honeymoon phase

Just like a honeymoon period in a relationship or marriage, this stage is full of optimism an energy. You will find yourself extremely productive during this period and you may even want to take up more responsibilities with this newfound liveliness.

2. Early stress phase

Sometimes the honeymoon phase can’t last forever and you eventually begin experiencing stress. Not every second of your day is stressful but you are experiencing is more frequently. As this stage begins, you need to take notice of any physical or mental signs. You may start losing energy or productivity during this phase.

3. Chronic stress phase

During this phase, as soon as you wake up you will feel stressed out. This is when stress starts to affect your work, relationships and emotions. You may not complete your responsibilities on time, you may find yourself procrastinating a lot more and you socially withdraw yourself from your peers.

4. Burnout phase

This phase is when you ultimately reach your limit and you can no longer function as your normally would. You will also experience self-doubt and physical symptoms such as headaches will begin to occur.

5. Habitual burnout phase

If left untreated, burnout can be a part of your every day life and could eventually lead to mental health problems like anxiety or depression.

It’s extremely important to take a break when you feel overwhelmed or flustered with your responsibilities. Honour the needs your body asks for – this could be in the form of rest, sleep or some form of self-care.