Burnout Is Now An Official Medical Diagnosis

Bella Breakdown

If you ever find yourself just exhausted, emotionally and mentally, there’s a diagnosis for that now and it’s called “burnout.” Once used to describe the young workforce, the condition is not officially being recognized by the professional health community.

Burnout is usually caused by work-related stress and because of the growing concern is now being taken seriously by medical professionals thanks to a revision to the doctor’s handbook, International Classification of Diseases.

Under the “Problems associated with employment or unemployment” category, burnout is being described as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

According to the health guidelines, burnout is categorized by the following symptoms: Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job and Reduced professional efficacy.

“Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context,” said the World Health Organization. Then adding, “and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.” While being stressed at work or because of work, sadly, is inevitable in some cases. However, there are ways to combat this.

Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard Medical School professor, advises people to build up a “relaxation response.” Which is the opposite of the fight-or-flight response that stress can sometimes cause. Doing 10 to 20 minutes of regenerative daily activity like meditation can also help you when it comes to burning out at work.

Find out more about the burnout diagnosis in the video above.