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4 Ways to Move Through Pandemic Exhaustion
Burnout, the Freeze Response, and How to Cope
As I write this, we are more than thirteen months into pandemic life. Even as more and more people are getting vaccinated, and society is showing signs of opening back up, many of us feel more exhausted and more depleted now than we have from the start.
The term ‘burnout’ has been popping up often in conversations, commentary, and social media posts. The World Health Organization defines burnout as an occupational hazard that is characterized by three dimensions:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
- reduced professional efficacy.
Check, check, check, am I right? But WHO also makes explicit that burnout refers exclusively to employment and should not be applied to other experiences. Surely, I can’t be the only one who fits these criteria in other parts of my life, as well? Everything feels harder; it all takes so much more effort. Whether I am working, or parenting, or trying to engage with other people, I am going through the motions with a distinct lack of joy, excitement, and — most significantly — energy.
When it comes to our work we may be burned out, but when it comes to the rest of our lives, something else is going on.
Psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Perry explains that while small, predictable doses of stress are healthy and helpful for our development, stress that is prolonged, severe, and unpredictable can leave us vulnerable to both physical and mental health issues. The pattern of stress related to COVID-19 fits the latter. Death tolls spiking; advisories, recommendations, and policies constantly changing; the political and social climate racked with violence. We are still, literally, in survival mode; our bodies flooded with cortisol and other stress hormones, with the least sophisticated parts of the brain running the show. Our fatigue, aches and pains, and cognitive fog are likely related to this unrelenting stress and its cumulative impact on our bodies.
Let’s pause here and invite space into the body. Stretch both arms up over your head. Maybe lean over to one…
