September burnout

You were exhausted in June.

You've taken some time off over the summer. You've let go of stress for a while.

You go back to work with good intentions and good resolutions.

But there's a sort of lump in my stomach or in my throat that persists. Or maybe not...

After a few days, you start to feel tired again, as you did just before the holidays. Stress rears its ugly head again, despite your good resolutions.
What if it was September burnout? But why is it happening now, just when you were hoping to get back on track after the summer? You thought you'd had enough rest.

There are 3 reasons for this epidemic of burnout at the end of September.

NO. 1 REASON FOR THE BURN-OUT EPIDEMIC AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER: BACK-TO-SCHOOL SYNDROME
Back-to-school syndrome is that slightly depressing feeling that many of us get at the end of the holidays.
It's a bit of a slump.
If your summer holidays were joyful, you were bathed in endorphins and oxytocin, the hormones of well-being and happiness.

Getting together with friends, good family meals, celebrations, beautiful scenery and sport all stimulate the secretion of happy hormones.

The drop in these hormones is the cause of your low morale. So it's important not to cry foul. burn out too quickly.
ATTENTION
However, if you were already in a state of exhaustion before the holidays, it's possible that this drop in morale will exacerbate your malaise.
Especially as the start of the new school year is often a stressful time for families and professionals.
The increase in stress in September is fertile ground for burnout!
At home, you have to organise the children's return to school, the family's activities, get back into the swing of things and deal with the first colds... If you think about it, September lends itself well to a burn-out, given the mountain of things to deal with (linked to the start of the new school year). While the holidays are often an opportunity to relax completely, the shock can be hard to take...
At work, it's often the final stretch to achieve your end-of-year goals.
If you were already exhausted BEFORE the holidays, the resources you regained are quickly depleted by the energy demanded this September.
It's the burnout of late September.

REASON No. 2 FOR THE SEPTEMBER BURN OUT EPIDEMIC: HOLIDAYS ARE PERFECT FOR BURN OUT, because it's the calm BEFORE the storm
Burn out is a vicious circle that is self-perpetuating. You feel like you're stuck in a speeding car that's impossible to get out of. Holidays are like a break at a motorway service area. A break from the frenetic pace of your professional life.
This moment of calm is an opportunity to take stock of the crazy race you're in.
As in the story of the frog and the pot*, a story I often tell in training and to my clients, you are "out of the pot" for a while. This break makes it impossible to get back into the boiling water. The vicious circle is broken. You can't go back to work, you're OUT! You try to get back in by putting yourself through a lot, but then it all collapses: you've realised that this is not what you want any more!

*A reminder of the tale of the frog and the pot: if you suddenly plunge a frog into hot water, it will jump out; whereas if you plunge it into cold water and bring the water to the boil very gradually, the frog will go numb or get used to the temperature and end up being scalded.

WHEN HOLIDAYS AREN'T REJUVENATING
Sometimes, on the contrary, caught up in our urgent needs, holidays don't feel rejuvenating or restful. Either because you don't really take one, or for far too short a time, or because stressful thoughts follow you right into your holiday. It's almost as if you know you can't go back if you take a break. So your body continues along the path of chronic stress, and little by little the hormonal impact of burnout appears, as do the characteristic symptoms of burnout. You draw on your magnesium and you draw on your 4 neurotransmitters: your dopamine, your gaba, your acetylcholine and your serotonin. These neurotransmitters are then deficient, they haven't had enough time to rebalance themselves, and then they collapse!

Whether you take a break or not, at the end of the day you'll find yourself exhausted!

CONCLUSION
Perhaps you thought that the holidays would stem or eliminate your exhaustion. And yet the respite was short-lived. What if this was the right time to let go? To take a real break?

As you can see, September is not the cause of burnout, just the time when many of the triggers for this insidious process are concentrated. In fact, some of us will last until October or Christmas. But the holidays won't change a thing! You need to take action to stop this chronic stress! And that's what my support in the office, in teleconsultation and in training.