“Every day I just felt pretty miserable. I was exhausted and it was like a deep bone tiredness that I just couldn’t get out of bed.”
Dr. Zarya Rubin continues about the period of her life when she was doing a subspecialty neurologic fellowship at Columbia.
“From all external measures, I was at the top of my game and I was outwardly very, very, very successful. But success does not always feel good on the inside.”
Creative Mind Audio Podcast episode – an excerpt from an Embracing Intensity podcast episode.
More from the Embracing Intensity podcast episode show notes –
Overcome Burnout
Welcome to From Burnout to Brilliance, a talk that explores the best ways to manage work-related stress and overcome burnout. In this episode, we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Zarya Rubin, a Harvard trained MD turned functional medicine health coach, who will be sharing her insights and expertise on this important topic.
With the World Health Organization recognizing job burnout as a medical diagnosis, it’s more important than ever to pay attention to the signs of burnout, particularly for those in stressful jobs such as health care workers and first responders.
With long hours, heavy workloads, unreasonable time pressures, and a lack of self-care, it’s not surprising that many people experience burnout.
But it’s not just work-related stress that can contribute to feelings of burnout. The household chores, long shifts, and a lack of much free time can also play a role.
How to Deal With Burnout
We will take a closer look at the effects of burnout, including physical symptoms, mental exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion. We will also discuss the early signs of burnout and what you can do if you feel like you’re experiencing burnout.
From the importance of self-care habits, such as a healthy diet, spending time with family members, and deep breathing, to seeking professional help, Dr. Rubin will provide guidance on how to address burnout and begin the recovery process.
You can find the full discussion and video presentation in the Embracing Intensity Guest Call Library.
This is an excerpt of Embracing Intensity podcast 258: Overcome Burnout w/ Dr. Zarya Rubin, which is a shorter audio version of the video presentation Burnout to Brilliance.
(Images are from the full video presentation.)
See page for The Embracing Intensity Free Resource Library – a collection of resources from the Embracing Intensity Course Membership & Planner Club. The signup page includes links to podcasts, videos and information about the Membership, which includes the Guest Call Library.
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See related articles below, plus link to more Creative Mind Audio episodes.
Transcript for the Creative Mind Audio Podcast episode above:
Aurora Remember: Hello. This episode is a recording of our talk with Dr. Zaria Rubin on from Burnout to Brilliance, and you can find the full discussion and video presentation in the embracing Intensity membership library, along with 30 plus calls already in there on topics related to giftedness, neurodivergence, and thriving when you’re intense. Enjoy.
Awesome. So welcome everyone. I am super, super thrilled to have Zarya joining us again for a talk on burnout. This topic is very relevant to me right now, and Zarya herself.
So, I’m so glad to have you. And if you didn’t already see it, Zarya has another talk in the community library on breaking the stress cycle.
You can also find that on the podcast. And Zarya is just such a wealth of information. I’m super thrilled to have her back.
Zarya Rubin, MD: Well, thanks so much for having me back. It’s a real treat and I’m in Portland, Oregon, but I’m Canadian. And it’s, yeah, it’s great to be here with you all this beautiful morning. We’re gonna talk about burnout and one of my favorite topics,
Burnout and Brilliance
Zarya: We are going to talk today about burnout and how to get from burnout to brilliance because I want all of us to be able to shine our light and share our gifts with the world.
And if you’re burned out, you can’t really do that. So, it’s gonna be fun.
Okay, so who am I and why am I qualified to talk to you guys? So, I’m a physician, I am a functional medicine coach. And I specialize, oh, I’m going backwards. I don’t specialize in Zoom, obviously. And I’m also a speaker, believe it or not, when the technology works. I help passionate women in midlife overcome chronic stress and burnout so they can heal from the inside out and truly thrive.
Something I’m really passionate about, I love speaking about it. I love writing about it and I love coaching on it. And that’s my website on the bottom at the end. I will give you guys ways to stay in touch with me. Okay. So, I’m gonna share a little bit about my personal burnout story cause I think it’s very relevant and it just shows sort of how far things can go with burnout without.
Us doing anything about it, and there’s a lot of reasons for that, but hopefully this will shed some light and give folks some comfort to know that you’re not alone.
Personal Burnout Story
Zarya: So, let’s see, I was living in New York City. I was completing a fellowship and you know, I was living the dream.
So, it was a little bit after nine 11 and I was doing a subspecialty neurologic fellowship at Columbia. I graduated from Harvard, gone to McGill and was on the way to the top of my field. From all external measures, I was at the top of my game and I was outwardly very, very, very successful.
But success not always feel good on the inside.
And so, every day I just felt. Pretty miserable. I was exhausted and it was like a deep bone tiredness that I just couldn’t get out of bed. Every morning the alarm would go off and I would just be like, I can’t, this is insane. I had constant nightmares and insomnia, I had anxiety, I had panic attacks, I was very irritable.
Always was, you know, kind of very irritated with people, especially at work. I really dreaded going to work. I had, you know, like the typical Sunday scaries of, oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s Sunday and I have to go back to work. Although in medicine you often work on the weekends as well, nights, weekends, there’s no set schedule.
I did experience something called compassion fatigue, which I will go into a little bit later. That is a, one of the key features of burnout, and believe it or not this, this subway car right here. This was the train that I took every day to work the C train.
A Dark Turn
Zarya: And at a certain point, although I had never suffered from depression or never been suicidal in my life, I would think to myself, the train was coming, so should I get on it or should I jump in front of it? And I almost kind of made a joke about it every day, which was insane. But that’s where I was at. But I didn’t do anything about it. I thought, well, there’s not really anything I can do.
There’s no other option. I can’t quit, I mean, who, first of all, who quits medicine? I mean, nobody, I had so much debt. There’s a huge stigma attached to it. And I thought, well, I can’t tell any of my colleagues. They’re all happy, they’re all doing fine, they’re all, they all love this. They think that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
And also, how could I not be a doctor? I mean, if I’m not a doctor, then. Who am I? What am I? It went beyond a profession. It was a source of my identity. And I thought, well, what else could I even do? I’m not qualified to do anything else. This is all I’ve done my whole life. How would I tell people? Like just the thought of having to break the news to my parents and my friends and family.
A Turning Point
Zarya: It was just my boss. couldn’t, couldn’t fathom it. Nobody quits their dream job, right? I mean, I’d wanted to be a doctor since I was five years old. There just felt like there was no way out, and I know a lot of people struggling with burnout feel this way as well.
But then something happened that changed everything. One night I got a phone call from my best friend and in an instant, everything changed my whole life. She called to say that. Her husband was playing Frisbee. They were at a Frisbee game, and he had collapsed on the field, and they had tried to resuscitate him.
They brought him to the hospital.I said, oh, well, but that’s horrible, but he’s okay, right? She said, no, no, he died. And I almost dropped the phone on the floor. He was my age, you know, 35, healthy, no medical issues, nothing in the prime of his life. And I just thought, wow, okay. This is my wake-up call.
This is not a dress rehearsal. I cannot live the rest of my life this miserable, and just expect that maybe one day things are going to be better. I mean, I was dreaming about retirement and I hadn’t even finished my training and I was in my thirties. This was a real problem, but this horrible event kind of gave me permission. To exit medicine, and
A New Path
Zarya: I came across this quote, it was actually my mom who shared this quote with me. She never wanted me to be a doctor and go into medicine, so she was very open to the idea of me leaving. She was worried about me, but she shared this quote that was. No matter how far you’ve gone down the wrong road, turn back.
And this really resonated with me. And I realized that I had been on the wrong road, and if I continued, it was never gonna get me where I wanted to be. So, I was able to leave medicine. This talk is just about getting unstuck together and sharing ideas and strategies for how to cope with burnout, how to prevent burnout, and a little bit about what’s burnout all about anyway?
So, let’s talk about. Okay, so we’re gonna go over a couple of definitions, like what is burnout? Talk about the differences and similarities between burnout and stress. A couple of scary stats cuz what would it talk by a scientist? Be without some scary stats. Self-care. Talk a little bit about self-care, what it is, what it isn’t.
I’m gonna do some fun exercises together, depending on how much time we have. I’m gonna hopefully just do a breathing exercise with you all. Just talk about committing to yourself in the process. We’ll do some questions and I’ll let you guys know how to stay in touch with me and some next steps if you want.
What is Burnout?
Zarya: Okay, so what is burnout? There’s this cute little infographic, Venn diagram that shows the intersection between exhaustion. Cynicism, inefficacy kind of the perfect storm of different elements combining. Now I pulled the W.H.O. Definition cuz people are like, ooh, the W.H.O. Is recognizing burnout. But I gotta admit I don’t love it.
According to the W H O, it’s classified as a workplace condition and not a medical condition, not a disorder. I really disagree with that. And they also say that burnout can only take place in the workplace, which I also disagree with, but cause it’s the W H O I’m sharing it. So, burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
It is characterized by three dimensions, feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion. And it’s more than just like, I’m tired and I take a nap and I feel better increased mental distance from one’s job, feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job and reduce professional efficacy. So, some of it I like, but I much prefer this definition.
That was from an article on burnout. Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. Though it’s most often caused by problems at work, it can also appear in other areas of life, such as parenting ding, dinging, caretaking, or romantic relationships.
Many Manifestations of Burnout
Zarya: So yeah, there’s many different ways that burnout can manifest, and it’s not just work according to me, according to this definition. So, it’s a little more complex than simply, well, I have a stressful job. Now, obviously, if you have a stressful job, I think you’re gonna be more prone to burnout. It’s more than long hours, it’s more than a lot too many tasks.
There’s an element of lack of control and a component of the tasks that compete with your sense of self, like maybe you don’t believe in the company or what you’re doing, or. Working towards a goal that doesn’t resonate with your values. Maybe you have a terrible supervisor or manager and you don’t have a lot of support at work.
Maybe your colleagues are terrible. I don’t know. It’s a lot of elements that contribute. It’s often pretty relentless. Like you don’t ever get a break. That’s certainly true of medicine. It’s certainly true of parenting, no recognition and something called compassion fatigue. So, compassion fatigue shows up in areas of caregiving where you are exposed to a lot of pain and suffering and trauma, and eventually you become a little bit numb to it and exhausted by it, and you stop feeling compassionate toward the people you’re supposed to be caring for.
Whether this is your patient or your kids. Or a parent or you know, spouse if you’re a caregiver. And it’s really a terrible feeling because then it’s compounded by the guilt of feeling that way. So not only are you feeling terrible about your job and about the people you’re supposed to be caring for, but then you feel terrible about yourself.
Compassion Fatigue
Zarya: So that is the nature of compassion fatigue, and it’s a key feature of burnout in many cases. Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about stress versus burnout. I love this graphic of the matches and just totally crapping out at the end. And people often ask like, well I don’t understand? So, is it stress? Is it burnout?
Or what is it and how are they related? Well, so stress generally refers to the mismatch between demand and capacity, and it actually originated from the engineering world and materials and stress and things like that. Stress can take many forms. It can be acute. So, something very sudden happens that’s very stressful.
You get in a car accident, that’s an acute stress. It can be episodic, so it can be predictable or unpredictable. But generally, like, let’s say you have a long commute every day in terrible traffic and the drivers are jerks and you know that every day to and from work, you’re gonna have this very stressful commute.
Understanding Stress & Burnout
Zarya: And that is episodic stress. Then there’s chronic stress. And chronic stress is when you’re in a situation or an environment where the stress just keeps on going. It can be a bad job, it can be a dysfunctional relationship. You know, it can be. School, if you’re in a very difficult program and struggling and prolonged chronic stress can lead to burnout.
Interestingly, stress, we associate stress with a heightened neurologic nervous system state. It’s often a little bit of more sympathetic overdrive. Your stressed, your heart’s beating fast, your palms are sweaty, you’re like your blood pressure’s going up, versus burnout where the nervous system is more in a depressed state, you can’t function.
You’re exhausted, you can’t get out of bed. You feel hopeless. There’s not this, you know, overabundance of energy that often coexist with stress. So, a little formula here, stress plus with chronic stress, I would say, plus apathy and hopelessness equals burnout.
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A few related articles
Getting past overwhelm and distraction as a highly sensitive person
Multiple Passions and Talents But Potential Burnout
Multiple Talents, Multiple Passions, Burnout
Deal With Overwhelm To Be More Creative
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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