Running out of gas? Know how to recognize the tipping points of stress

Illustration Stress

A certain level of stress is inevitable in life. At some point, stress can go from positive to negative. Excessive stress can cause your body to function beyond what it can voluntarily do. Unfortunately, few see this coming until it’s too late. Once the symptoms kick in, they can have a major effect on work, happiness and overall quality of life.

According to recent research (Brandstätter, Job and Schulze, 2016), a burnout can be caused by a combination of certain personal characteristics and the opportunities and demands at work. Motivational needs of employees tend to affect the way they deal with the workload. If you are an outgoing person, working as an accountant with little interaction with people can feel like you are isolated. When there’s such a mismatch between a person’s personality and the work they are doing, the chances of a burnout increases.

It’s all about changing thoughts

It is important to relax, by doing relaxation exercises or sports. But when taking some time off doesn’t help, finding accessible, affordable therapies for coping with stress could help cure the symptoms of a burnout. A focus on understanding when and how thoughts about stress are distorting could help many to work past the stress using their own insight into their changed perception of previous experiences. 

With Karify, our cognitive behavioural based burnout program can help feeling excited about life again and tackling issues, by various exercises and assignments. It focuses on the understanding of problems, working on the amount of stress, changing the underlying thoughts and setting up goals for the future.

Reference: Brandstätter, V., Job, V., & Schulze, B. (2016). Motivational Incongruence and Well-Being at the Workplace: Person-Job Fit, Job Burnout, and Physical Symptoms. Frontiers in psychology, 7.