Mental health exhaustion affects everyone at some point in their lives. It is particularly prevalent in people who experience long-term stresses that leave them feeling overwhelmed and emotionally drained regularly. In any given week, 19 percent of Americans deal with mental health struggles, including mental exhaustion and burnout.
What Causes Mental Exhaustion?
Mental exhaustion is typically caused by exposure to long-term stress and anxiety. Life is full of triggers, and so the causes of mental fatigue can vary from person to person. However, below we have listed some of the most common causes of cognitive fatigue in designers in particular:
- Burnout: leaders experience burnout when they work too much, take few breaks, and when their job is very demanding emotionally.
- Chronic stress: many employees experience chronic stress. Whether it’s the stress of getting projects delivered on time, pitching to clients, or managing workloads and collaborating with colleagues, chronic stress is a common cause of mental exhaustion.
- Mental Health Conditions: One in four Americans suffer from mental health issues in a given year, and these conditions can cause mental exhaustion.
- Lack of Diverse Projects: if designers work on the same project for too long, it is not uncommon for creativity to wane as monotony sets in. The brain needs to be challenged with various creative projects to stay healthy and happy.
- Overloaded with Projects: as a designer, becoming overloaded with projects is expected. Often, designers find themselves swapping from project to project throughout the day. This can lead to feelings of high stress and burnout.
Common Symptoms of Mental Exhaustion
The symptoms of mental exhaustion present themselves in both emotional and physical ways. They can impact your behavior as well as your physical health. It is not uncommon for the symptoms of mental exhaustion to creep up on you during prolonged or extreme stress.
- Emotional Signs of Mental Exhaustion – apathy (the feeling of not carrying), depression, detachment, anxiety, lack of motivation, and reduced productivity.
- The Physical Signs of Mental Exhaustion – headaches, stomach cramps, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and changes in your appetite.
- Behavioral Signs of Mental Exhaustion – having more regular sick days off school/work, social isolation, poor performance at work, instances of being unreliable, and unable to keep personal or work commitments.
The Difference Between Stress and Mental Exhaustion
Stress is a reaction to change or situations we perceive to be threatening. It’s our body’s natural response to adverse conditions or situations that are new, exciting, or scary. The difference between stress and mental exhaustion is whether the stress is prolonged or not.
The biological response in our bodies to stress results in a surge of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. This hormone increase helps us react quickly to threats and situations in which we feel pressured. During regular periods of stress, the stressor is eventually removed, at which point our bodies should return to normal hormone levels.
In comparison, mental exhaustion results from prolonged, long-term stress. When you are continually dealing with situations that heighten your body’s stress response, it is common for your body’s cortisol levels to remain high. Over time, these high cortisol levels start to interfere with the body’s normal functions, such as digestion, sleep, and the healthy working of the immune system.
“Mental exhaustion can lead to burnout and depression; both are serious conditions,” says Olivia Marcellino, VP of Research at LuxuryRehabs.com. “While people can and should try strategies like practicing mindfulness and self-care to overcome mental exhaustion, it’s important for one’s health to seek and get outside help. No matter how minor one may consider their mental fatigue, find therapy. Whether that’s a private therapist, a brief retreat offering psychotherapy, or a residential program with more intensive care.”
How Learning and Development Leaders Can Help
Leadership plays an integral part in supporting individuals struggling with mental exhaustion. And when it comes to supporting creatives with mental health struggles, it can feel daunting. Thankfully, some excellent health and well-being programs can help.
Emotional Coaching for Team Members
Emotional coaching can equip employees with the skills they need to manage stress better. Emotional coaching teaches skills such as self-regulating emotions and managing stress responses and is an invaluable tool for businesses.
Initially developed by the USA psychologist John Gotham, emotional coaching and regulation skills are crucial for learning and development at all stages of life. As such, many business leaders are investing in emotional coaching for their teams to help manage feelings of mental exhaustion and help navigate the stressors of demanding job roles successfully.
Online Therapy Access for Remote Employees
Remote working has taken off in the past few years, primarily out of necessity due to COVID. However, many employers like this new way of working, and it is estimated that by 2025 36.2 million Americans (an 87 percent increase from pre-pandemic days) will be working remotely.
However, while remote working can be more convenient for employees, it can make it difficult for employers to provide the full support that is needed. Many companies are investing in online therapy options for remote employees in need of emotional support.
Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) are confidential services that help employees deal with work and personal struggles impacting their mental health and causing exhaustion. These programs are an excellent way for business owners to support their staff from afar, ensuring the mental well-being of their workers, wherever they are.
Encouraging Physical Well-being with Health Programmes
Health and well-being programs are helping business leaders tackle employee mental exhaustion. By encouraging physical well-being, business leaders are finding employees are more engaged, happier, and more productive at work.
In fact, according to studies, businesses that invest in improving employees’ well-being through health programs see staff performance increase by 3.5 percent and employee satisfaction increase by one percent. It may not seem like much, but this increase across each staff member can make a big difference to a company’s mental well-being and productivity.
Offering Holistic Benefits and Support
Reducing mental exhaustion in the workplace doesn’t just involve supporting the mental health of your employees. To fully support your employees, it is essential to provide for them in other ways, too.
Did you know that 50 percent of Americans have maxed out credit cards? Living from month to month can cause significant stress and mental exhaustion for employees, leading to poor work performance and overall well-being.
To help relieve the pressure, it can be helpful to offer season ticket loans for transport, childcare vouchers, office snacks, paid-for lunches, and even payment advances to help ease the pressure of day-to-day life.
Final Words
Business leaders are beginning to understand the significant effect mental exhaustion can have on employees. The best way to combat the problem is to put measures in place to support employees in every aspect of their professional lives.
As remote working continues to be the new normal for many, the line between work and home life is becoming increasingly blurred. And mental exhaustion is rife. Providing health and well-being programs and initiatives in the workplace is an excellent way to support your employees and create a company that people love working for.
