Burnout is a term that’s loosely applied to pretty much any condition causing chronic exhaustion as a direct result of one’s working style, content or quantity, but which may overlap, lead to or mimic other conditions such as anxiety, depression and even resigning from a job. But before taking sick leave (the trouble with that is that in true burnout it has a tendency to become a recurrent pattern), resigning or leaping to a radical career change, there are things that one can do to reduce or eliminate burnout. The challenges appear to be two-fold: to take the required steps whilst feeling as if one is only just coping, and to ask for help – something that GPs seem very reluctant to do.
Recharging one’s internal energy in order to feel at peace and in balance with oneself is one of life’s essential skills, and has been talked about for millennia. Plato’s theory of education states:
Unwise eating and drinking, the first effects of gymnastic exercise, sexual indulgence, overwork of any kind, especially associated with a sedentary life; all produce upsets of one sort or another, disturbances of the bodily equilibrium…
