Recognizing & Remediating Burnout

I'm starting to see warning signs ...

We better talk about burnout, because I’m seeing the indicators, both in myself, and in people around me. I like Dr. Tracey Marks in general and this is a good presentation on the difference between burnout and depression.

There are a variety of charts floating around out there along the lines of this one on combat effectiveness.

This replaces the time axis with stress level but there is a relationship. Others I’ve seen like this indicate the first thirty days are a time of rising efficiency, there’s a thirty day plateau, and then exhaustion sets in for the final thirty days.

There are six months to go until the U.S. election and then ten weeks after that comes inauguration. Summer is the fighting season in Afghanistan, it’s military campaign season in Ukraine, and with school out and temperatures up it’s protest encampment season here in the U.S.

Summer, then Fall, and then Winter are each going to be a thing in terms of stress. If you don’t pick some time to unwind between each, you will find yourself facing the need to sit out 2025, lest you do some serious harm to yourself.

Attention Conservation Notice:

I may employ the concept of a group hug in a non-ironic fashion before the Conclusion section. If you’ve never faced this stuff before, better listen up.

Symptoms:

I have been looking and can not find a paper I read on burnout from the perspective of the NGO officer tasked with security in the theater or whole of organization level. This is something I read when ISIS was at its peak and the context was relief in in the Horn of Africa, a notoriously rough neighborhood.

• Feel drained, no amount of short term rest helps.

• Unable to cope, never enough people/money/time to do it right.

• Sleep disturbance.

• Irritable at best, short fuse.

• Inappropriate response to hazards & horrors - laughing at trauma of others.

• Use more alcohol or other substances.

The biggest tell among all of those to me is the one in italics. When the response to something awful is laughter than sounds a trifle near a hysterical response at the end, that is a big flashing neon warning sign. I’ve heard people doing that “laughing but feeling it’s inappropriate” thing a couple times in the month of April.

Dealing with aid worker burnout is a 2013 piece in The Guardian, it’s not the report I read, but I just found it while searching, and it’s two worthwhile pages on the topic.

You should go look for information in this area and keep going until you see things you recognize. You may not have been in the burnout zone in the context of conflict, but most of us know some person or organization that has faced these troubles.

The point is to get some self awareness going …

General Solutions:

I ignored the spiraling symptoms in late 2012 and early 2013. I had received very specific instructions from someone with combat experience as well as online conflict stuff.

“You need to take a break, start right now, and we’re talking months. If you don’t back off you WILL find yourself in a condition that will take years to resolve.”

I was not in a place to hear this wise counsel and it cost me in a myriad of ways. Looking back the things I should have done include:

• Get up, get out, and just go, put some miles in if you don’t already have and use a gym membership. If you’re constantly goosing your fight/flight response but there’s no outlet for the adrenaline that quickly becomes a toxic stew.

• Diet and supplements matter. Alcohol and drugs are way in the past for me, but in general replace each shot of alcohol with one gram of magnesium other than the poorly available oxide. Ativan will hook you, kava kava is a cheap, fast alternative that does not trigger physical or psychological cravings.

• Accept that you may not know how you feel. Fitness monitors aren’t expensive, get one that has a sleep tracking function, and then USE IT.

• Start a diary, look for the great big patterns that you just can’t see while flying by the seat of your pants.

• Find the right person in your circles and authorize them to check you as hard as they think you need. Make sure it’s not in infiltration artist. This is best when it’s someone you can talk to ABOUT things without reading them into those things.

Those are the direct measures that are more or less universally true.

Specific Solutions:

I feel like I’m harping a bit, but I don’t want anyone else to experience the things I have. I’ve written a variety of articles about this topic in the context of online conflict.

What Hunts You? aka what is your threat model.

Regarding Your Ass a mix of “operations technical” and “operations psychological” defensive measures.

Wellness In Conflict does what it says on the tin.

Stop Ingesting Crap combating disinformation also means AVOIDING it.

Situational Awareness don’t get a crick in your neck looking over your shoulder and don’t lose sleep; let the machines take care of mechanical stuff.

Conclusion:

This one is more than a little personal for me.

Drained? Check. Unable to cope? Check. Sleep is never OK for me. Irritable? Check? Substances? No alcohol/drugs, but certainly the natural “load levelers” in my medicine chest are dwindling at a faster than normal clip.

Worst of all, I’ve got that inappropriate humor thing, and that is a BIG red flag for me.

I got asked to join in a thing for the Glendale schools/UCLA protesters attack. This is not a revenue maker and it’s right back to that hand to hand environment I am determined to avoid. I felt bad saying no but it’s one of a number of things I’ve waved off the last few days. I may just completely sit out the summer protest season so I’m refreshed for the fall and winter.

Be careful out there …