For Dr Serge Goffinet, President of the burn-out network (Multidisciplinary Network for Monitoring and Prevention of Suffering at Work – RPSPST), we cannot speak of a seasonal syndrome for burn-out, for several reasons.
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A diagnostic problem
Dr. Goffinet, psychiatrist, explains that there is no consensus among doctors – psychiatrists and general practitioners – on the diagnosis of burnout. Therefore, “there is an overlapping factor with depression which is very important”.
According to him, there are also “mixed forms”: “People who are burned out but who also meet several criteria for depression, so it’s very difficult to differentiate. Hence the importance of calling on a specialist. . However, the majority of people experiencing burnout do not have many of the characteristic symptoms of depression (for example suicidal ideation) but are truly burnout of work origin.“
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A difficult correlation with the season
Even for a psychiatric condition with a name like “seasonal affective disorder,” the link is difficult to establish. “the famous winter depressionwhich we know more in the northern hemisphere, we see different manifestations in Norway or Belgium… And this does not exist, for example, in Florida. There are correlations which are suspicious, that is to say that we can indeed say that there is a lack of light at play, but we are not 100% sure that this is the main cause.“
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Other factors come into play for seasonal emotional depression, according to Dr. Goffinet: “It is necessary to take into account the age of the patients, the latitude, and the degree of light“There are several factors, in general, which, in psychiatry, influence certain disorders.
Furthermore, cycles are not always linked to exogenous factors. “For example, the bipolar have cycles, often in spring and fall. But these cycles are linked on the contrary to the internal environment, that is to say that they are endogenous biological cycles, that is to say that it is due to the annual functioning of their body.”
The notion of “external locus of control”
To explain the third reason why burnout is not a seasonal syndrome, Dr. Goffinet takes this example: “When you ask someone : ‘why are you in a bad mood today?’”Some say : I didn’t sleep well, I have bad news, and then there are those who tell you‘it’s gray outside.’”
-According to the psychiatrist, “There is this psychological tendency, really among Western human beings, to attribute the factors of their internal state, either to an internal experience or to an external experience..”
He believes that saying: “My depression, my burn-out, my anxiety is due to the gray sky, or on the contrary, my good mood is due to the mild temperaturee”, is an attributive manner.
“This is what we call attribution theory, it is a cognitive theory which consists of saying either that one’s internal state, one’s state of mind, one’s psychological state is due to an internal or external factor..”
The factors of burnout are complex
“The burnout factor is always a complex interaction between the data of the individual and the system of people at work.explains Dr. Goffinet. He adds. “There are two other factors which are the environment, that is to say the work atmosphere and the general sociological framework.“
The duration of the syndrome also varies greatly. The figures cited in this article concern people who have been ill for a year. Duration is also linked to factors other than burn-out syndrome, thinks Dr Goffinet: “Csome workers are very afraid of C4 medicalwhich can occur after 9 months of illness, others have an employer who tells them: “Take time to recover, get back in shape.”
Then there are forms of burnout linked to moral harassment, whether it comes from a colleague or a superior. “Of course, if the colleague leaves the service, that changes the profile and the duration.”
Burn-out: 14% of disability entries in 2020 and 18% in 2023
Beyond the question of the time of year most conducive to burn-out, the INAMI figures show a constant progression in the figures for disability due to burn-out: among employees, we pass from 14% in 2020 to 18% in 2023, even exceeding disability due to depression, which remains constant, at 17%, each year since 2020).
“The only thing we know is that what is certain is that burnout among employees and self-employed people continues to increase and it continues to be a pandemic“, commented Dr. Goffinet.
The political world has invested a lot of money in mental health since Covid, but the world of work has an essential role to play to avoid the massacre.
