Our Addiction to Exhaustion
Old School Burnout
It’s popular to say that the exhaustion epidemic is a product of our times, but that’s not really true. Research shows that exhaustion, along with its cousins, burnout, and depression, have plagued us for quite a while now.
Hannah Rosefield, in her article How Exhaustion Became a Status Symbol, sheds light on our relationship with burnout by referencing the work of Katherina Shaffner.
“Anna Katharina Schaffner’s Exhaustion: A History opens with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013. He cited deteriorating physical and mental strength as a major factor in his decision to step down…Then she points out that the only other pope to resign voluntarily gave reasons very similar to Benedict’s for doing so. That was Celestine V and the year was 1294.
This begs the question, how has something as destructive as exhaustion and burnout been able to maintain its longevity among us?
Pride.
Burnout as a Status Symbol
Shaffner shows that the insidious role status symbols play in burnout dates back to Aristotle.
“…many critics, even as they call for a cure, frame exhaustion as a mark of distinction. This idea dates back at least to Aristotle. “Why is it that all men who have become outstanding in philosophy, statesmanship, poetry or the arts are melancholic?” he wonders in Problemata.
In other words, it’s mostly the really awesome people that suffer from burnout. How convenient. If you’re exhausted, medicated, and estranged from your family, it’s probably just the price you’re paying for your brilliance. And who doesn’t want to be brilliant these days?
Aristotle might have started it, but we’ve perfected it.
“Today, exhaustion still hints at status, but of a different sort. To say that you’re exhausted is to telegraph that you’re important, in demand, and successful. It’s akin to the humblebrag of ruefully describing yourself as “so busy”—naturally since exhaustion follows from busyness.”
David Robson of BBC Future further expounded on Shaffner’s work in his article, The Reasons Why Burnout, and Exhaustion are so Common.
In her book, Schaffner quotes one German newspaper article that claimed burnout is just a “luxury version” of depression for high-flying professionals. “Only losers become depressive,” the article continued. “Burnout is a diagnosis for winners, or, more specifically, for former winners.”
The Reason I Got Burnout
It’s would be easy for me to thumb my nose at such shallow thinking, except for the fact that I’m guilty as charged..“But my busyness is legit,” I say. After all, I have four small children, a demanding job, and a mortgage.
And it’s entirely possible that I do have just cause for my frenetic pace. So might you. But I also know that I’m not above plastering a two-millennia-old status symbol all over everything I own in hopes that people will think that I’m somebody.
The Enslavement of Autonomy
But surely our modern, always-connected, digital world has some impact on the proliferation of burnout. Shaffner believes so.
Schaffner doesn’t deny the stresses of modern life. She thinks that it comes, in part, from our greater autonomy, since more and more jobs have given us the freedom to manage our own activities. Without clearly defined boundaries, many people over-stretch themselves. “It mainly manifests in the anxiety of underperformance and a sense of not being good enough – of not living up to these expectations,” she says.
She also agrees that email and social media can drain our reserves. “In a lot of ways the technologies that were meant to save energy have become stress factors in their own right,” she says. Today, it is harder than ever to leave work in the office.( David Robson – BBC Future The Reasons Why Burnout and Exhaustion are so Common
According to Shaffner, our vocational autonomy might be the very thing that perpetuates our mental enslavement. I can see that. After all, we have a real-time scoreboard in our pocket judging us all the time.
How many views does my blog have? How many new subscribers on my email list? Oh no, the stats are dipping, I need to go write another blog post.
How exhausting.
The REAL Reason I Got Burnout
If my recent case of burnout was just life ganging up on me. Fine. Stuff happens. But if I sank into depression and my wife’s hair fell out because I wanted you to think I was special, shame on me. I need to be better.
At the very least, this research prompts me to closely vet exhaustion in my life for lame excuses and prideful pretenses.
Do I really need to be this busy?
Do you?
Join the conversation in the “comments” section below. Have you had revelations in your life in regards to exhaustion? How have you overcome it?
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