5 Myths & Mistakes Smart Women Make When It Comes to Burnout

When it comes to burnout, what first comes to mind? Toxic workplace? Overwhelm? Lack of passion in your job?

All these things can be true, but if you think burnout is just a workplace or even a mental health phenomenon, then you’re only scratching the surface.

To heal from burnout- to feel like ‘yourself’ again, feel motivated again, and revive your energy and your health- you must understand the facts about what burnout really is and how it affects you physiologically, not just psychologically.

If you’re feeling mentally drained about work and have physical symptoms like:

• you’re tired all day but wired at night, or you wake at 3am regularly

• exhaustion, even when you do get a good night’s sleep

• weight gain that won’t budge, especially around your belly

• cravings for sugary or salty foods

• digestion problems- bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux

• brain fog, memory problems

• irregular menstrual cycle

• bad PMS or (peri)menopausal symptoms

• low/no libido

… then keep reading. This post clears up some popular misconceptions about burnout so that you can get started on the road to recovery!

MYTH #1: Burnout Results from a Toxic Work Environment

The connection between burnout and work leads to a really limited understanding of what’s happening in the body when you feel “burnt out”.

THE MISTAKE: Focusing all your energy on changing your job, your boss, or your company culture.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you need to change your job or career in order to feel better. Or that if you change your job or career, that you will feel better.

First, In most cases, it’s 100% possible (and optimal) for you to stay in your current job and heal from burnout at the same time. This is especially true if you’re in a career you used to love, or a position you worked super hard to achieve. What if you could actually get back your energy, your mojo, and your health without uprooting your life? It’s possible.

Second, too often, women change jobs or careers and still find themselves burnt out. Or things are great for a while, but then you find yourself right back in the situation you were trying to escape.

Bottom line is, your job is not necessarily the (only) cause of your burnout. To truly heal, you’ll likely need to change things about how you relate to your work, and how you balance obligations to work, to others, and to yourself.

But also: burnout is not just a mental thing. If you have physical health issues that are impacting your life, like poor digestion, brain fog, fatigue where you’re falling asleep at your desk, poor sleep, weight gain, hormonal imbalances… then a new job won’t cut it. You need to make changes in other parts of your life, too.

Myth #2: It’s normal to feel this way, everyone else around me is burnt out and exhausted

Take a look around you or read the news and what do you see? Everyone seems to be gaining weight, addicted to coffee, exhausted, and struggling to sleep. Type 2 diabetes rates are through the roof.

When everyone seems to be in the same boat as you, it’s logical to think “I’m getting older, this is just how it is.” And some doctors might even tell you that, too!

MISTAKE: You do nothing and resign yourself to accepting the status quo in your health and life. 

Believing that what you’re feeling is “normal” will lead you to make this big mistake and just do nothing. That means things will get worse, not better.

And the truth is, you don’t need to accept anything! You actually have a ton of power to improve your health. There are so many tools available to you.

Bottom line, just because a health issue is common doesn’t mean it’s normal, or optimal. Why feel foggy and sluggish all the time? Why not have the energy to pursue awesome things in your life? You deserve better.

MYTH #3: You just need some rest and you’ll be fine

The most common “prescription” for burnout is to take a few days off from work and get some rest.

MISTAKE:  You take a few days off, get a few good night’s sleep, or take vacation or go on a wellness retreat and think this is all you need.

But when you get back to work, nothing’s changed and you’re back at square one. What gives?

The truth is, rest is extremely important, but not if it’s sporadic. Or if you only rest when it’s crisis time or when you’ve hit a complete wall. Vacations are important, too! In my opinion, they’re a necessary part of a healthy and happy life.

But rest needs to be incorporated into your life on a regular (read: daily) basis. Even vacations should be a regular thing that you plan in advance, not an emergency button you push when you’re so burnt out that you can’t bear going to work.

And here’s the other (BIG) thing: rest is only part of the picture. There’s a lot of other things you need to do to heal your body. Don’t forget, stress isn’t just “mental”, it impacts you physiologically as well, with symptoms like: insomnia, fatigue (when you most need energy), weight, poor digestion, hormone imbalances, and more. Addressing all that requires rest and more.

MYTH #4: “Adrenal fatigue” is 100% myth, your symptoms are all in your head

So you googled your symptoms and came up with “adrenal fatigue”. The theory is that from so much stress, your adrenal glands become “tired” and stop producing cortisol (the hormone that gives you energy). As a result, you’re exhausted.

Then you go to see your doctor and what do they tell you? “Adrenal fatigue” is not real. It’s in your head and you need to relax.

MISTAKE: Throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Let’s clear up some things. No, adrenal fatigue is NOT a real medical diagnosis. Your adrenal glands don’t become ‘tired’ and stop producing cortisol (unless you have a serious medical condition like Addison’s Disease, which is very rare).

BUT what you’re feeling is real. And the actual medical term for what’s happening is Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Dysregulation, caused by chronic stress. The HPA Axis is responsible for turning your body’s stress response on and off.

In a nutshell, when your brain perceives something stressful, it sends a signal for your sympathetic nervous system to turn on (aka “fight or flight”), setting into motion a cascade of events. The hypothalamus signals your pituitary gland to release hormones that tell your adrenal glands to release cortisol and adrenaline. This helps you deal with whatever stressor you’re facing. Stored sugar is let loose into your bloodstream to give you a burst of energy, and the pancreas releases insulin. Your heart rate and breathing quicken. Non-essential bodily functions like digestion and sexual reproduction are paused while the stressor is contained.

If you’re chronically stressed and your stress response is continually activated, this is a lot of work for your body to handle. Over time, your hormones will become imbalanced, especially cortisol. And eventually your body will start slowing down to protect you. Your brain will stop sending the signal for your adrenal glands to produce cortisol. This is HPA axis dysregulation.

Fatigue will become a regular part of your life, alongside sleep problems, weight gain, fogginess, digestion problems, and more.

Do nothing, and you can develop even more serious problems- insulin resistance & type 2 diabetes, autoimmune conditions, and cardiovascular disease.

The good news: this is REVERSIBLE.

In sum: even though “adrenal fatigue” is not a true medical diagnosis, there is something going on inside and it’s called HPA axis dysregulation. Your symptoms aren’t just in your head. And there’s a ton you can do to heal.

MYTH #5: If you recover from burnout once, you’ll never experience it again

It’s easy to think burnout is something you can heal from and never encounter again. Especially if your idea of healing is to leave your job and put your life on hold to deal with your health.

MISTAKE: After you start feeling better, you go back to your old ways of pushing 110%, 100% of the time.

This next part is important, so pay close attention.

If you want to:

• recover your health and your energy,

• see your symptoms lift,

• live a life of ease- instead of living on the edge,

• and permanently reverse chronic conditions like high blood pressure or insulin resistance or pre-diabetes,

…then you need to change the way you’re doing things, period. 

First, you need to make immediate changes to your health-related habits. This includes diet, exercise, sleep, daily stress management.

Second, you need to make deeper changes in your life so that you can sustain those healthy habits. This can mean getting clear about your core values, evaluating who you do and do not want in your life, setting boundaries, and even releasing/dealing with past trauma.

You need to commit to a burnout-free lifestyle.

BONUS MYTH: I’m just born this way, to be stressed out and unable to cope. 

This is the worst myth of all. Please say this out loud: “I am not broken.” Say that as many times as you need to, every day, until you believe it.

Many of us were raised by parents and caregivers who were not very good at dealing with their emotions or managing stress. So they didn’t model to us how to do it in a healthy way. And now as adults, we struggle with stress and anxiety. We self-medicate with alcohol and food. And we beat ourselves up when we can’t relax or drop perfectionist tendencies or stop people pleasing. Or just stop worrying.

But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. The other thing about being an adult is that we can choose to learn, to grow, and do things differently. And become a different person- the person we’ve always wanted to be.

A life without anxiety and health problems, and instead filled with ease and joy and vibrancy- that’s available to you. You’re not broken.