How Does Burnout Impact My Brain? – S02 E06

S2 E06: How Does Burnout Impact My Brain? 

Outline

Burnout's impact on brain structure and cognitive function.

• Burnout physically alters brain structure, impacting cognitive function and emotional regulation.
• Burnout erodes brain function, impairing productivity and creativity.

Burnout impacts brain structure and function, leading to emotional reactivity and decreased productivity.

• Brain structure changes due to burnout lead to emotional reactivity and decreased resilience.
• Discusses burnout, its impact on the brain, and the need to mitigate it to tap into higher-order executive functioning.
• Research shows workplace burnout can alter neural circuits, causing an enlarged amygdala and weakened executive function.

Burnout's impact on cognitive function and creativity in the workplace.

• Burnout impacts cognitive function, problem-solving abilities, and creativity.
• Leaders must address their own burnout to set a positive example and avoid hindering performance.
• A toxic work environment can lead to burnout, impacting personal and professional lives.
• Emphasizes the importance of addressing burnout in leadership positions, as it can significantly impact team performance and creativity.
• She encourages leaders to model the change they want to see, communicate often, and gather insights from their team to mitigate burnout and unleash their full potential.

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Rat Race Reboot. Today is episode six, we're talking about the impact of burnout on the brain. And we've been talking about burnout. For the past five episodes, we're doing a series of 12 of them. 

So if you've missed any of the previous episodes, I encourage you to go back and give them a listen, they're short, but they just help you gain an insight as to whether or not you are experiencing burnout, and what are some initial steps you can take to see yourself out of it. But today, we're talking specifically about the brain. Because burnout and chronic stress doesn't just weigh on your mind, it physically alters your brain structure. 

So, it increases the size of the amygdala. And that disrupts the connection with the prefrontal cortex. And this rewiring can lead to a heightened sense of emotional reactions and a limited ability to manage stress. And so when we're stressed, when we're in burnout, we want to be able to manage that stress and be resilient. So specifically, there are cortical consequences. So, your brain's prefrontal cortex, which is crucial for cognitive function, starts to show signs of accelerated aging and thinning in these critical areas, such as the medial prefrontal cortex. The implications are huge because they can manifest in difficulties with memory, attention, emotional regulation, and vital areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus. Regions associated with the reward system can show significant volume reduction after prolonged stress. 

And that can impact everything from your decision-making to your ability to navigate challenges and remember things. And then burnout begets more burnout. So it creates this vicious cycle of burnout: the more you try to power through burnout, the more you're impairing your brain's functioning, and you're creating this self-perpetuating cycle loop of doom, if you will, have decreased productivity and increased stress. And we're trying to avoid that, right? There are cognitive costs to burnout. Burnout can take its toll on your creativity, your problem-solving abilities, and your working memory, and it can even make the simplest of tasks feel daunting. If you listen to last week's episode, I talked about where I felt like I was experiencing burnout. I'm finishing my doctoral projects. 

And I'm working, and I'm taking on contracts, and one contract that I was in, even though it's lovely people, and that contract in and of itself wasn't the cause of burnout. But there was an aspect of my role, with all of these other things piled on my plate. This role wasn't in alignment with who I am and how I want to show up and serve in the world. And so even the simplest of tasks, like updating a spreadsheet, felt so daunting. And it was crazy; I was stuck in burnout. And in order for me to get out of it, I had to recognize it, and then stop it and take steps to close out that contract and look towards something else that's more in harmony with who I am and what I want to do and how I want to show up in the world. But it's imperative that we understand the impact on the brain. It's important to realize that when we're in burnout, it's not just stress; you know, it's not something that's weighing on our minds. It's altering our brains, literally. 

And if we can get out ahead of it, we can mitigate some of these changes. And if we're in the midst of it, we can reverse some of that damage and choose a different path. But, you know, overall, research shows that workplace burnout can alter neural circuits, and it causes this vicious, vicious cycle that I was talking about, but it causes an enlarged amygdala, and that's so critical for emotional regulation, and reactions, including fear and aggression, weaker core correlations between activity in the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex. That's a structure that's involved in executive function. So they will have difficulty controlling negative emotions. 

So executive function revert refers to a set of mental processes, including self-control, working memory, attention control, and cognitive flexibility, which together consciously and unconsciously, voluntarily and involuntarily, regulate higher-order executive functioning, such as abstract thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, judgment, planning, and decision making. And these are the things that we really want to connect with when we're solving the world's wicked problems. 

When we're faced with challenges and trying to be more innovative, we need to understand the impact of burnout on the brain and mitigate it so that we can tap into these higher-order executive functioning aspects of our mind and brain. The very structure of the brain may change. So, as I'd mentioned, the prefrontal cortex, which is an area of the brain that's essential to cognitive functioning, begins to thin, and patients suffering from burnout show more pronounced thinning in this area compared with other controls; the neural structures begin to show signs of wear and tear, which lead to cortical thinning, as well as memory attention, emotional difficulties. And long term occupational stress is also linked with significant reductions in gray matter volume and the hippocampus. And that's never a good thing. So why does this all matter? Do I expect you to remember this? No, listen, look at the show notes. But burnout, in a nutshell, can impact cognitive functioning. It really can hold us back in terms of our level of creativity. 

When we're having trouble problem-solving and pushing through, we're experiencing more burnout, which then again taps into and negatively impacts our cognitive function and problem-solving abilities. Again, the cycle starts to perpetuate. Working harder to beat burnout is not the answer. Burnout is actually harming your brain and making it more difficult to be more effective. That's why I often talk about different strategies to incorporate small breaks within your day when you're working on tasks that require a lot of energy and focus. Using things such as the Pomodoro Technique, I love that technique enables you to work really hard for a short amount of time, take a break, stretch, get a glass of water, do a few cycles of that, then take an extended break. 

So incorporating wellness and, you know, healthy exercise, that things that feed your brain, self-care, you know, these are things that are so vital to you being able to tap into your creativity, your ability to problem solve, and then ultimately, be the most effective version of yourself that you can be. So leaders, if you're out there listening, I want you to really heed this message and take notice, from a personal level, working grueling hours, which I used to do, I used to believe that, you know, hard work was I kind of believed in that myth. It's not hard work that pushes you forward. Yes, you have to put in the time to do the things that you want to do and get the requisite skills in order to be the best in your field. But the path toward burnout is a dead end. 

So, working grueling hours and working yourself, just being in the rat race, it's not a badge of honor. It's not a behavior to be emulated. And if you're a leader, you know you're hindering your ability to be your best, and you're hindering your ability to do your best at work by not addressing your own burnout. You also want to be mindful of the message that you're sending to other people when you are when you consciously understand the impact of burnout and you say to people you want them to take vacation time, you want them to take short breaks, you want them to get outside and walk but if you're not doing those things, guess what people are doing what you do, not what you say. And that reminds me of one toxic work environment that I worked in years ago where we were on the road constantly traveling for work. When we were in the office with our families and loved ones and at home to be with them and have a personal life that was rich and rewarding, we looked at the clock. And so we would work these long days and had to be in really early. And then, you know, close to five or 530, people are like looking at the door to see who's leaving because you didn't want to be the first one to leave. People would talk about you. It was a horrible culture. 

I remember when I left that organization and went to another one, I went back to visit some friends, and they labeled that organization as the divorce unit. This is when I was serving in one of the military units. And that's really, that's really sad because their burnout had an impact not only on them, psychologically, in the workplace, they were beaten down, I was there I was beaten down to, and that environment had a horrible impact on their personal lives. And actually, it had a bad impact on mine. I was a part of that divorce culture. Back then. It just took a little while to catch up with me. But it was as a result of that environment; it was really, really horrible and a vicious cycle. So if you're in a leadership position, people are you have to lead the charge and set the tone for the culture, you have to be that change that you want to see, you have to model it because people are ultimately going to do what you do. And it might take them a little bit of time to follow in your footsteps. But you have to be steadfast and communicate it often with people. 

So, from the organizational level, if you've not considered the impact burnout has on your team and performance, it's time that you do it. The key to transforming business results may very well lie in your ability to unleash your team's highest level of creativity and problem-solving skills, and reducing and mitigating that burnout is such a critical step toward that. So, I hope this has been important to you. I hope that you at least gained an idea of the impact that burnout has on your brain function and your ability to be the best version of yourself so that your team can be as creative as it can be and as innovative as it possibly can be. 

And I'm going to leave you with this quote. The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled burnout; whoever seeks to dampen that fire leaves the embers of creativity, memory, and problem-solving to grow cold. That's exactly what we were talking about today. So, I hope you take this seriously and take some steps to be aware of how you might be contributing to the cycle of burnout within your teams and your organization and make a committed decision to choose something different. 

And if you don't know how to do that, gather people around you and get some insights from them. And if you're stuck in that burnout cycle, remember that in the last episode, I gave you some steps to consider some points of reflection so that you can take action from wherever you are in the organization and leaders. I want you to listen to your people. So, thank you for listening to today's episode of Rat Race Reboot. As always, I appreciate you. Leave your comments. 

Let us know how you're finding these episodes and if they're helpful to you. And remember, everything is created twice, first in your imagination and then in physical form. We'll see you next week.