Take proactive steps to protect your mental health and wellbeing as you achieve success.

Cheryl Richardson, a lifestyle coach, recently noticed a phenomenon when she leads her Life Makeover seminars. Whenever she lists the classic signs of burnout, the audience lets out an audible gasp. Some people raise their hands, while others actually stand up and admit they have all the signs.

Richardson describes these signs as poor concentration, general irritability, unprovoked anger, resentment towards others, prolonged bouts of insomnia, and a lack of or increase in appetite. She goes on to say that if left unchecked, these warning signals can damage a person's emotional and physical health.

"A lot of us are sleepwalking through life, feeling poorly, sleep deprived, and exhibiting all the signs of classic adrenal burnout," says Richardson. "We tend to accept these symptoms as just part of the package. But we’re wrong. It’s not the way life is supposed to be. If you ignore the signs, you’ll become seriously ill and your life could be at stake. It really is that dramatic."

In today's world, technology was meant to make us more efficient, but it can often increase our workloads and shorten our tempers. To make matters worse, there are other stressors from work, home, and family, as well as a poor economy, a tight job market, the war on terrorism, and the threat of war in Iraq.

"So many of us are living in a constant state of adrenal overload," states Richardson. "We don’t realize how damaging that is over time. Every time the phone rings, it activates the body’s fight-or-flight system. We have to do what we can to guard against that and remember who’s in charge of our lives."

Allyson Moore, a former executive vice president of the nonprofit LEAD Program in Business, knows this all too well. In April 2001, she took a job as university relations manager for Unilever United States Inc., and one week after starting, she found out her grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease. She had to manage an unthinkable amount of stress for more than a year, but eventually remembered that nobody else can protect your sanity but you.

[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]