How Introverts in Healthcare Experience The 12 Stages of Burnout
Introverts in Healthcare,
Know when it’s burnout.
Talk of burnout is abundant in the healthcare arena.
Medscape’s 2024 Burnout and Depression reports revealed that well over a third of surveyed physician assistants and nurse practitioners, and nearly 50% of physicians, feel burned out. Of those feeling symptoms of burnout, over half had felt that way for at least a year. That’s a lot of struggling clinicians.
But what defines burnout?
How does it show up?
Even more specifically, how does it manifest for introverts in healthcare?
Burnout for introverts can be a double-whammy. (Remember that old game show villain?)
Before we even begin to contemplate the challenges of being in the healthcare system, there are unique needs of introverts that need to be taken into consideration.
Unfortunately, the system, as we know it, rarely caters to introverts. Quiet, solitude, time to think – these aren’t baked into the healthcare model.
Introvert + clinician = risk for burnout.
Let’s see why.
How the 12 Stages of Burnout Manifest for Introverts in Healthcare
Stage 1
It’s a slow burn to mental and physical exhaustion. Stage 1 of burnout begins insidiously. You’re smart. You’re ambitious. You want to help people, touch lives, and make your mark on the world as a clinician. You’re fired up!
What can happen within all the excitement and enthusiasm, though, is you start feeling the need to do more and more. And do it faster and better. You start feeling not quite good enough. Of course, this makes you think you need to work harder and achieve more to prove you’re good at what you do. And so, it begins.
Stage 2
In the midst of FEELING like you need to work harder, you slip into the DOING of working harder. Here’s stage 2 of burnout. You don’t stop.
OK, let’s face it. When you’re in healthcare, your working hours are rarely neatly defined and tied with a bow. Emergencies happen. Being on-call happens.
BUT, when you start consistently working longer and longer hours, taking work home, and finding that work is creeping into your personal life, you’ve inched a bit further down the path of burnout. Boundaries are lost and you slowly start compromising on the alone time that’s so vital to maintaining your energy.
Stage 3
You’re last on your own to-do list. Eating regularly? Sleep? Moving your body for fun? Hanging with the people who bring you joy? Or, as an introvert, maintaining those routines that calm and refresh your nervous system? Nope.
In Stage 3, you start neglecting yourself. Be honest. How many times have you gotten to the end of the day and realized you haven’t even taken a bathroom break?
Stage 4
Have you started noticing more and more stress related to the demands of your work? If so, how are you responding? If you’re using avoidance as a way to cope rather than proactively addressing conflicts, you could be entering Stage 4 of burnout.
This is when dealing with certain challenges feels like too much. Instead, you rationalize how hard you’re working and keep pushing forward despite knowing things aren’t right. You feel jittery, panicky, and on-edge.
Stage 5
In Stage 5 of burnout, you start adjusting your values as work progressively dominates your focus. You start losing yourself.
Who and what falls victim to this shift? Self-care, relationships, and hobbies, to name a few. This is where burnout starts affecting your self-worth because it becomes more about how many patients you can see in a day, how many RVUs can you bill, or some other productivity- or achievement-based metric. You get the picture.
Stage 6
This stage of burnout is tough. It can be hard to see when you’re in it.
Everything starts seeming effortful. Your energy drops. Impatience and irritability become a new way of being. Cynicism starts creeping in. You start to resent others who aren’t working as hard as you. You blame work and lack of time for your stress.
The kicker? You’ve become stuck. You can’t even see there might be another way. And even if you CAN see it, you don’t have the energy to do something about it.
Stage 7
Stage 7 of burnout is all about withdrawal and isolation. This is an interesting conundrum for introverts. For you, alone time is usually seen as nourishing and energizing. Not in Stage 7.
At this point, you find yourself contracting and pulling away from your support systems. You may even find yourself turning toward alcohol, drugs, or other coping mechanisms to substitute for meaningful connection. And when you are with friends and family, you just seem to find yourself thinking and talking about…..work.
For introverts, there’s a big difference between being alone and being isolated. Stage 7 brings those states of being into sharp contrast.
Stage 8
Remember, burnout changes you. Have your friends, family, and colleagues started expressing concern?
As much as you’ve been trying to keep it under control, do ‘all the things’, and press on, Stage 8 of burnout is where the people around you can see what’s happening. You can no longer contain the irritability, impatience, and frustration you feel on a daily basis. Trying to juggle all the balls of work and family life is becoming close to impossible.
Remember, this is not a reflection of your competency or your character. This is burnout.
Stage 9
Once you’ve moved into Stage 9 of burnout, you feel like an outsider in your own life. You’re just going through the motions.
At this point, burnout eats away at your feelings of self-worth. Where once you took pride in the care you provided to your patients, you now feel indifferent. It’s difficult to even recognize your own needs or connect with the little things that used to make you happy.
Stage 10
Progressive feelings of decreased value and worth show up in Stage 10. You feel empty and, perhaps, purposeless. Loneliness worsens. Anxiety increasingly sneaks up on you.
To numb the discomfort and fill the void in this stage of burnout, it’s common to resort more frequently to unhealthy coping mechanisms. You may find yourself turning to habit-forming activities in an attempt to escape how you feel.
Stage 11
Depression. You’re a health care provider. You know the symptoms. On the burnout path, depression means you’ve hit Stage 11.
Millions of people experience depression every year. If any one of those people walked into your exam room and shared the pain of feeling mentally exhausted, lost, and hopeless, you wouldn’t tell them to buck up and deal with it, but somehow you might expect that of yourself.
Stage 12
Here’s the last and final stage of burnout
At this stage, you experience full mental or physical collapse, or both. The exhaustion you are experiencing is unsustainable. Your well-being is threatened.
Consider this an emergency. Intervention by licensed mental and health professionals is imperative.
The Difference Between Knowing and Doing When It Comes to Healthcare Burnout
If you recognize yourself in any of these descriptions, it might be startling.
As someone who is smart, creative, and self-sufficient, it can be difficult to acknowledge that what you’re experiencing is burnout. It can feel like admitting defeat.
Here’s where you get to take that compassion and wisdom you give your patients and extend it to yourself.
Awareness is the first step in creating change. Just start noticing all the ways in which burnout colors your life, not just professionally, but personally. Let yourself see what burnout is stealing from you.
I’m here to remind you that being a clinician is only part of who you are. You can be devoted to your medical career without sacrificing your life to it.
So, you’re at the crossroads. Do you tolerate or do you take action?
If you’re experiencing burnout, find out more about how I help. It’s time to prioritize yourself, honor your needs as an introvert, and get back to the person you were before burnout.
If you, or someone you know, is experiencing addiction, depression, or suicidal thoughts, seek prompt mental or physical care from a licensed professional.
You can receive 24/7 support through the following resources:
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline
*Call or text 988
*Or find more information at https://988lifeline.org/talk-to-someone-now/
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s National Helpline
*Call 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
*Or find more information at https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline
