How To Recover From Extreme Burnout
Are you currently experiencing extreme burnout? Have you been googling things like adrenal fatigue, how to rest, and extreme tiredness?
Whether youre experiencing burnout from a place of workaholism-induced fatigue, situational depression, or a chronic lack of rest, this article will go into the twelve things that you can do to recover from your burnout faster than you thought possible.
Eat Small Meals Frequently To Avoid Sugar Spikes
During your burnout recovery, you want to ensure that youre being as gentle with your blood sugar levels as possible.
The worst thing you could do is consume two or three massive, overly processed meals per day. The best thing you can do is eat four to six small, nutrient dense meals per day. More on this in the next two points.
My Extreme Burnout Experience
For the first three years of starting up my business, I barely took a day off. And I really mean barely. Even saying barely feels generous.
My best guess is that within my first three years of writing online, I may have had a total of ten days where I actually did zero work.
First year of my business. Here I am working on my laptop while on vacation.
And while I feel so grateful to have the kind of job where I wouldnt want to take many days off from work, and a job where the time flexibility is so great that I am able to chip away at it on a daily basis, ultimately I am not a robot. Eventually my plans of constant productivity came crashing down around me.
Throughout the majority of my third year in business I had a sense of feeling tired but also wired. It felt like my body wanted to take a ten hour sleep but I couldnt because I had just consumed six cups of coffee. Which was strange because I dont drink tea, coffee, or caffeine in any form. Nevertheless, this underlying message from my cells screaming out for rest went unheeded.
Then, one day, my body demanded that I pay attention
It was a Wednesday morning that I woke up from an unusually long sleep still feeling exhausted.
My body felt heavy so heavy that I felt like I had woken up three times heavier than I had been when I went to sleep.
My brain felt foggy and exhausted. Stringing a complete sentence together was challenging.
The idea of getting out of bed to make myself breakfast felt impossible.
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How To Prevent A Recurrence
Treating your depression can help reduce the risk of another recurrence. Treatment commonly includes a combination of some form of talk therapy, as well as medication.
Sometimes people experience a recurrence of depression during their treatment, and thats okay. Your treatment team can reevaluate your treatment plan and see if it needs to be changed or tweaked.
Monitor Changes In Medication
How long you need to take antidepressants depends on how well they work and whether you’re at risk of a relapse. As you begin to feel better, your doctor may decide to reduce your medication dosage or take you off it completely. This is a positive sign that you’re making progress.
Another medication-related sign to look for is if you’re having fewer side effects with your antidepressant or if they are less severe. Or maybe you’ve found a way to work them into your life so the effects aren’t so bothersome, such as taking them at morning versus night or vice versa. All of these changes are steps in the right direction.
If your antidepressant is making you feel worse or causing side effects that are impacting your quality of life, speak to your doctor. Sometimes a change in medication is all you need to start feeling better.
It may take time, but with the right combination of treatment, support, and lifestyle habits, you can feel like your old self again.
Depression Discussion Guide
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Severe Depression Takes Hold
It was a sunny day in Chicago in 2004 when Liss Murphy got up from her desk and walked out of her office in a public relations firm, never to return. It was the beginning of a complete mental, physical, psychological shutdown, Liss says. Up until that point, she had experienced only occasional, mild depression.
After moving to the Boston area, she began treatment with medications, psychotherapy, and eventually, electroconvulsive therapy. Two years passed with no relief. Her life came to a halt. Eventually, doctors referred her to Mass Generals Department of Psychiatry, where she met with Dr. Dougherty, who had successfully used DBS to treat people with severe OCD. Based on a precise list of criteria, he thought it could help relieve Lisss depression.
It was a last-ditch effort, Liss says. During the procedure, she lay anesthetized but awake while doctors secured her head in a metal frame and opened her skull to place the electrodes. The brain feels no pain when directly manipulated, Dr. Camprodon says. The medical team tested her reactions as they placed the electrodes in her brain and turned them on and off in the target area known as the ventral capsule. At one point, with the electrode turned on, she felt a warm and pleasant feeling. For Liss, that was the moment her recovery began.
Exercise Is Something You Can Do Right Now To Boost Your Mood
Your fatigue will improve if you stick with it. Starting to exercise can be difficult when youre depressed and feeling exhausted. But research shows that your energy levels will improve if you keep with it. Exercise will help you to feel energized and less fatigued, not more.
Find exercises that are continuous and rhythmic. The most benefits for depression come from rhythmic exercisesuch as walking, weight training, swimming, martial arts, or dancingwhere you move both your arms and legs.
Add a mindfulness element, especially if your depression is rooted in unresolved trauma or fed by obsessive, negative thoughts. Focus on how your body feels as you movesuch as the sensation of your feet hitting the ground, or the feeling of the wind on your skin, or the rhythm of your breathing.
Pair up with an exercise partner. Not only does working out with others enable you to spend time socializing, it can also help to keep you motivated. Try joining a running club, taking a water aerobics or dance class, seeking out tennis partners, or enrolling in a soccer or volleyball league.
Take a dog for a walk.If you dont own a dog, you can volunteer to walk homeless dogs for an animal shelter or rescue group. Youll not only be helping yourself but also be helping to socialize and exercise the dogs, making them more adoptable.
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Symptoms And Diagnosis Of Psychotic Depression
Psychosis may eventually develop in those suffering from depression. But before that happens, they will likely notice other telltale signs of a major depressive disorder, such as:
As depression deepens, vulnerability to psychotic episodes increases. Psychotic break symptoms cause changes in personality, behavior, and capacity to function, and may include:
- Growing agitation and restlessness
- Escalating complaints of pain or ill health
- Further intellectual impairment
- Bouts of physical immobility or unresponsiveness
- Irritability and hostile responses
- Paranoia, feelings of persecution
- Odd and illogical speech or actions
Delusions and hallucinations will develop in the final phase of psychotic depression, and these symptoms of psychosis often cause significant interference in daily functioning that calls for rapid and intensive medical intervention. At this stage people can begin to lose touch with reality, making self-care virtually impossible.
How Is Depression Diagnosed
These days, a routine doctors visit with your general health practitioner may be all it takes to receive a diagnosis. Standard screening tools like the Patient Health Questionnaire a survey of yes, nine items, that physicians use to assess the severity of depressionare becoming widely used in primary care settings to screen for the condition.
In fact, most patients with depression are going to be diagnosed and treated by primary care doctors, not specialists or psychiatrists, says James Murrough, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Depression and Anxiety Center for Discovery and Treatment at Mount Sinai.
Depression is mainly diagnosed by history and clinical presentations, or a specific pattern of symptoms, says Dr. Murrough, which is to say theres no blood test for MDD. But if you have symptoms like changes in sleep or appetite, your doctor may look into other conditions unrelated to mental health .
The first thing your doctor might do is order blood testsnot to make the diagnosis of depression, but to rule out things that could be masquerading as depression, explains Dr. Murrough. For example, an underactive thyroid can present as low mood and feeling sluggish, and iron deficiency anemia is another reason why some people might have low energy.
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How Depression Changes Your Brain
It seems that more people in the world live with depression than ever before. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 350 million people of all ages worldwide suffer from this mentally debilitating disease.
Depression can literally change your brain, altering the neural pathways and synapses and shrinking the size of your hippocampus, an area of the brain that regulates emotions and memory. Mentally, you probably feel foggy and exhausted, as your brain must work harder to process information and feelings. If you dont feel well mentally, it can take a toll on every other area of your life.
Depression can make you feel disconnected from the world around you, helpless to make any sort of change, and paralyzed by the thoughts inside your head. To combat all of these feelings, many people unfortunately turn to prescription drugs as a temporary answer, but we still dont know the long-term effects of these powerful drugs. Instead of medicating ourselves, we can turn to more natural remedies that often work better than even pills can.
Today, well go over how exactly depression alters your brain, and ways to reverse the damage naturally. It takes willpower and determination, but you CAN take your life back with a few simple lifestyle changes and ways of thinking.
Harry’s Story: Overcoming Severe Depression
Sitting at my desk as I try to start this story, I’m struggling to decide where to begin and I can feel it coming on. Shivers up my arms and into my neck, a heavy chest, now my legs start, I’m not sure if I’m hot or cold, my chest gets heavier as my body decides whether to fight or take flight.
Luckily, I’m aware of what’s going on my head remains calm as I write these words. Letting myself become overcome with the anxiety that is taking hold of my body, the natural response I feel when confronted with difficult tasks or stress, is not going to happen. I’d like to show that if they’re spotted early enough, mental health problems can be managed and even prevented.
Dealing with depression is an everyday struggle. It’s definitely true that some days are worse than others, but I’ve learned to manage it, to become aware of my symptoms, my triggers, and to remain in control.
However, this has not always been the case. It’s only of late that I have come to understand what’s going on inside and the relationship between my body and mind. Awareness is the key to prevention and that is why I’d like to share with you my story of battling depression. I don’t want anyone else to feel the way I have done, to feel trapped and isolated by mental health problems and to not be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
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Support Of Family And Friends
The support of families and friends has been found to have a major impact on recovery. For example, a person suffering from depression often easily becomes isolated, and the fatigue involved in depression may make it difficult to leave home. Therefore a simple visit to town or cooking together with friends can already cheer up the person. Naturally, rest should not be forgotten. You cannot make depression disappear by telling the depressed person to cheer up.
However, withdrawal from social relationships does not promote recovery. However, not everyone has family or friends and others find it too difficult to talk about the disorder. Therefore mental health patients must think for themselves what would promote their personal recovery.
General Optimism Towards Life
It is difficult for depressed people to feel optimistic about the future after all, the symptoms of depression include feelings of unhappiness, melancholy and lack of prospects. However, it has been stated that those depressed individuals who deliberately tried to maintain a positive attitude and believe in their own coping also recovered faster.
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Why Consider Major Depression Treatment At Bridges To Recovery
At Bridges to Recovery, we specialize in diagnosing and treating complex psychiatric and emotional issues such as major depression and other depression disorders. We provide compassionate and effective care in a serene residential setting so clients can focus on their treatment and recovery without the worries of external pressures and stressors.
- Private residential accommodations. Our beautiful, private residential treatment homes have a maximum of six clients, providing a safe, private alternative to a more traditional hospital environment.
- World-class clinical staff. Our expert clinical team provides individual therapy using proven evidence-based treatment modalities to treat depression.
- Individualized treatment plans. After a thorough assessment, we create a truly individualized treatment plan that offers profound healing and strategies for overcoming the toughest obstacles.
- Health and wellness focused. To ensure your comfort during your healing process, our chefs create delicious healthy, gourmet meals. We also offer yoga, meditation, acupuncture, massage, and physical fitness classes.
At Bridges to Recovery, we believe that exceptional psychiatric, clinical, and holistic care can transform lives. With the utmost dignity and respect, we meet you where you are to develop a vision for the life you wish to have, and offer the care you need to achieve it.
Or Spend Time With Loved Ones
Depression can tempt you to isolate yourself and withdraw from your friends and family, but face-to-face time can help wash away those tendencies.
If youre unable to spend time together in person, phone calls or video chats can also be helpful.
Try to remind yourself these people care about you. Resist the temptation to feel like youre a burden. You need the interaction and they likely do, too.
When you do the same thing day after day, you use the same parts of your brain. You can challenge your neurons and alter your brain chemistry by doing something entirely different.
Research also shows doing new things can improve your overall well-being and strengthen your social relationships.
To reap these benefits, consider trying a new sport, taking a creative class, or learning a new cooking technique.
Knock out a few birds with one stone spending time with other people and doing something new by volunteering and giving your time to someone or something else.
You may be used to receiving help from friends, but reaching out and providing help may actually improve your mental health more.
Bonus: People who volunteer experience physical benefits, too. This includes a reduced risk of hypertension.
When you do something you love, or even when you find a new activity you enjoy, you may be able to boost your mental health more by taking time to be thankful for it.
Research shows gratitude can have lasting positive effects on your overall mental health.
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Find The Small Things That Save You
“These small things saved me when nothing else could,” wrote Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.
He was referring to how he learned to live with thrift and self-forgiveness.
In hospital I thought of this line often. I knew about the big things taking medication, seeing the doctors. So, what were my small things?
I now know them to be a cup of something warm, something beautiful to read, and sitting on the floor .
How Can Someone Recover From Depression
While depression is a common and treatable illness, the individual affected is not the only one who suffers. If someone experiences a bout during their formative school years, the lost time in the classroom, suffering grades and attendance can have a major, lifelong impact on that persons future.
Depression is real and it is also very treatable for60 to 80 percent of people, but when you are experiencing symptoms, they can be debilitating and have a significant impact on your life. Treatment usually takes a multifaceted approach where people get a combination of medication and therapy. In some cases, additional treatment is necessary, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation .
The majority of people who receive effective treatment will not have a depression relapse. However, about half of the people who receive treatment during their first bout of depression experience a recurrence at some point.
People need to go through a minimum of four symptom-free months before they can be considered cured. It is referred to as a relapse if your symptoms improve over four months, but before this time is up, your symptoms come back.
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Psychotic Depression Treatment And Prognosis
People with psychosis may require emergency hospitalization before entering an inpatient or outpatient treatment program. During their hospitalization they may be administered antipsychotic medications such as Zyprexa, Seroquel, or Risperdal, which can stabilize their conditions by halting the progression of their hallucinations and delusions.
In formal inpatient or outpatient treatment programs for psychotic depression, psychotherapy in individual, group, and family formats will be combined with appropriate medications, which generally includes a mixture of antipsychotics and antidepressants. Treatment and rehabilitation may be further advanced through the addition of holistic healing practices, life skills classes, educational offerings, and any individualized services recommended by members of a patients treatment team. If a dual diagnosis for substance abuse has been made, treatment programs may include services specifically tailored to assist in the detox and recovery process.
Because of the disabling nature of the disorder, long-term treatment for psychotic depression is usually necessary. That may include an extended stay in residential inpatient treatment programs , plus participation in aftercare regimens that continue for several months following the cessation of formal treatment.