Emma Hello and welcome to defeatburnout.com. I’m so excited to have you here!
My name is Emma and I have created this site to support anyone who is dealing with burnout in their life right now, or who simply wants to find out more about this serious health condition that is affecting more and more people.
Table of Contents
My story
On paper I had everything – the nice house, the executive car, the six-figure salary and benefits, the fancy job title and PA. I got up at the crack of dawn to commute into London and often by the time I got home, my husband would be in bed. I’d find myself wondering, “Is this really what it’s all about?”
Looking back, I was experiencing many of the conventional signs of burnout. I wasn’t sleeping much, I had sweats, I’d often get pains in my stomach and my mind was whirling like crazy so it was becoming harder to concentrate and get things done. I didn’t spot any of these signs, just putting it down to being a bit busy and stressed.
One day my body decided enough was enough. If I wasn’t going to listen to its warnings, it was going to stop me in its tracks.
I had a complete breakdown in the office one Friday night after a particularly busy and stressful week. I found myself running out of the office in tears and I couldn’t get out of bed for the rest of the weekend. I had terrifying nightmares and night sweats, waking in the morning and having to rush to the bathroom to vomit. I knew something was seriously wrong.
Come Monday I knew I wasn’t well enough to commute into the office, so I got out my laptop with the intention of working from home. I immediately started shaking and physically vomited.
A trip to the doctors resulted in a referral to a physiatrist. That was the start of a long path to recovery. It’s an experience that has changed me forever. I can no longer push myself as hard or ignore my body because it soon lets me know when it’s unhappy.
Ultimately, I had to leave my corporate career to fully heal myself and find the path that I was meant to be on; ultimately a path to supporting others.
My mission to help others
Through my experiences with burnout, I’ve learned just how many people have suffered with this condition, or who are on a path to burning themselves out. Burnout has become a toxic part of modern-day working.
I believe that I went through an intense burnout in order to help others to avoid a similar experience, or to help them recover from an existing burnout. I am not a trained medical professional. I am simply a burnout survivor who wants to positively impact the lives of others and raise awareness of this condition.
Let’s connect
If you have any comments or questions, I’d love to hear from you at emma@defeatburnout.com. I look forward to going on this healing journey together.
Remember you are worthy and you are enough.
Emma
Founder of Defeat Burnout
defeatburnout.com
Hi Emma, I haven’t been able to find anything that describes the feelings, experiences, and process post ‘event’ that leads one to seek help. Have you elaborated anywhere, or know of sone good reading material? Everything I find is on the stages up to a breaking point, recommends yoga/breathing/therapy for recovery and then one is back to work. I’m hoping to explore more about the experiences of the mental fog, impact on creative thinking, the fatigue, weight gain, relearning how to be before relearning how to work etc. it’d be wonderful if you could share anything you might know on this. Thank you so much.
Hi Kate, burnout recovery is a huge topic that I’ve found is impossible to do justice to in short-form content. I have shared much of what I have learned in the last 5 years of specialising in burnout recovery in the Burnout Recovery Masterclass series: https://courses.defeatburnout.com/courses/the-burnout-recovery-masterclass-2022.
I then typically do this work with individuals and very small groups because so much of the recovery journey is bespoke to the individual and how they are wired, rather than a one-size-fits-all.