Studies have found that individuals with burnout struggle with memory problems and memory loss, due to problematic functioning of the brain areas tasked with regulating our executive functions. Also, people with decreased cognitive flexibility are not able to spot a mistake and take subsequent corrective actions.
It takes an average time of three months to a year to recover from burnout. How long your burnout lasts will depend on your level of emotional exhaustion and physical fatigue, as well as if you experience any relapses or periods of stagnant recovery.
Studies in mice show it's possible, and a 2018 study in people found cognitive behavioral therapy for burnout reduced the size of the amygdala and returned the prefrontal cortex to pre-stress levels," reports CNN. Other activities beside therapy can help your brain recover too.
Your brain on burnout
Chronic stress has long been known to contribute to mental and physical diseases, and now researchers are able to capture what happens to the brain. “One of the most striking (effects) is thinning of the gray matter of an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex,” Arnsten said.
Burnout reduces productivity and saps your energy, leaving you feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you have nothing more to give. The negative effects of burnout spill over into every area of life—including your home, work, and social life.
It can lead to personal and professional dissatisfaction; social isolation; relationship problems; depression; substance abuse; and, in extreme cases, suicide. Therefore, it's important to learn how to prevent burnout and to seek professional attention if it occurs.
These include impaired executive functioning, attention control, and working memory; emotional exhaustion and dysregulation; and irritability, anxiousness, and physical fatigue.
Emerging research shows that the psychosocial stress from burnout doesn't just harm social and physical functions but can also overwhelm cognitive function and the neuroendocrine systems, which can ultimately lead to “distinctive changes in the anatomy and functioning of the brain (source).”
Overall findings suggest that cognitive deficits, depression and anxiety appear to be common in burnout while they underpin the role of perceived family support in both mental health and cognitive functioning.
The brains of people who are chronically burnt-out show similar damage as people who have experienced trauma. Burnout reduces the connectivity between different parts of the brain which can lead to decreased creativity, working memory and problem solving skills.
Fatigue and Sleep Deprivation
Being tired because you didn't sleep well last night and being chronically short on sleep both have been shown to affect memory and learning.
Depression, anxiety and stress – “These are common causes of forgetfulness,” Lyndsay said. “Stress and mood disturbances can act as a distraction and make it difficult to focus, which can lead to memory problems.”
During a chronic stress response, areas of the brain can be overstimulated, which can cause a person to forget what happened. It explains why we may have difficulty recalling events when experiencing chronic stress. We may also have trouble focusing and remembering things over time.
Burnout doesn't go away on its own; rather, it will get worse unless you address the underlying issues causing it. If you ignore burnout, it will only cause you further harm down the line, so it's important that you begin recovery as soon as possible.
Brain fog occurs when the brain is overworked or under strain. The most common symptoms are feeling dazed and confused, headaches, thinking more slowly than usual, an inability to remember things or even tasks just completed, mental fatigue, and mood swings.
Everyone spaces out from time to time. While spacing out can simply be a sign that you are sleep deprived, stressed, or distracted, it can also be due to a transient ischemic attack, seizure, hypotension, hypoglycemia, migraine, transient global amnesia, fatigue, narcolepsy, or drug misuse.
1 Burnout symptoms include feeling exhausted, empty, and unable to cope with daily life. If left unaddressed, your burnout may even make it difficult to function. Learn the physical and mental symptoms of burnout, factors that may increase your risk, and a few recovery strategies.
Notably, employees reporting high levels of burnout are more likely to experience physical and psychological health problems, including sleep disturbances, headaches, and infections [36], as well as higher levels of depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, and life dissatisfaction [37,38].
Burnout involves three distinct symptoms: energy depletion and exhaustion, depersonalization and cynicism, and reduced efficacy.
The final stage of burnout is habitual burnout. This means that the symptoms of burnout are so embedded in your life that you are likely to experience a significant ongoing mental, physical or emotional problem, as opposed to occasionally experiencing stress or burnout.
Worry, stress and anxiety can build up over a long period of time and reach a point where a person is no longer able to cope or perform their normal daily tasks. Burnout is when a person reaches a state of total mental, physical and emotional exhaustion and it has some similar signs and symptoms to a nervous breakdown.
Burnout is a state of complete mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. If you are experiencing burnout, you may notice it is difficult to engage in activities you normally find meaningful. You may no longer care about the things that are important to you or experience an increasing sense of hopelessness.