Burnout Now Recognized as a Legitimate Medical Diagnosis by World Health Organization

It’s a feeling of extreme work stress that’s long been embedded in the cultural lexicon, and now it might be codified in your medical records as well.Burnout is now a legitimate medical diagnosis, according to the International Classification of Diseases, or the ICD-11, the World Health Organization’s handbook that guides medical providers in diagnosing diseases.

Burnout now appears in the ICD-11’s section on problems related to employment or unemployment. According to the handbook, doctors can diagnose someone with burnout if they meet the following symptoms:1. feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion2. increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job3. reduced professional efficacy Before making the call, the document says doctors should first rule out adjustment disorder as well as anxiety and mood disorders. And the diagnosis is limited to work environments, and shouldn’t be applied to other life situations.

Researchers have been studying burnout for decades

Burnout has long been a blurry cultural concept that has defied attempts to create a specific consensus definition scientists can all agree on.Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger is credited with inaugurating the formal study of the state of burnout with a scientific article published in 1974, according to a 2017 review of literature published in the journal SAGE Open.The authors of that review, Linda and Torsten Heinemann, say that over the next four decades, hundreds of studies appeared on the subject.

During that time, they noted burnout was not considered an actual mental disorder even though it is “one of the most widely discussed mental health problems in today’s society.”One reason for that, the Heinemanns argue, is that much of the research on burnout focused on “causes and associated factors,” rather than on attempts to develop specific diagnostic criteria. That led to “vagueness and ambiguity” around the concept of burnout.

Source CNN

In some organizations, particularly those that are not adequately safeguarded by local institutions, employee burnout is a daily occurrence. For instance, a significant number of employees are habitually overwhelmed with tasks by their management. This excessive workload is known to be a concern for management, but it often falls on deaf ears. Their profits heavily rely on their workforce, yet they are insensitive enough to consistently push their teams to the limit.

Such practices should be considered illegal, and they quite possibly are, but the affected individuals seldom voice their grievances. People are remaining silent, mainly because they are already conditioned to endure. They highly rely on their jobs, with corporations creating this dependency through low wages. This form of manipulation or “brainwashing” needs to be prohibited outright.

Its time WHO, and the local governments and institution to wake up, and to protect peoples from the greed corporation, and its internal slavery rules !

It’s time to prioritize your well-being. Your health is far more valuable than dedicating your life to an exploitative employer.

Your JobsEU.org team