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Thinking too much can damage your brain, cause burnout – Scientists warn; find out how
People who rub their foreheads and complain that a complex problem is making their brains hurt aren’t exaggerating things — a new study suggests. Mental exertion is associated with unpleasant emotions in a number of situations, researchers reported Aug. 5 in the journal Psychological Bulletin. The results showed that the more mental effort a person exerts, the more likely he or she is to experience feelings such as frustration, irritability, tension or annoyance, leading to burnout. Read on to learn more.
The research – titled The Unpleasantness of Thinking – found that when you undertake a big mental effort, you quickly become stressed and anxious
When someone tells you to calm down when you’re angry, you should listen to them. Stressing out your brain by getting angry or thinking too much could be harmful to your brain health, according to a new study.
research title unpleasantness of thinking It has been found that when you undertake a big mental effort, you can quickly become stressed and anxious. After analysing more than 150 studies involving more than 4,500 people in 20 countries, a researcher from Radboud University in the Netherlands said that frustration was significantly higher in the majority of those who were involved in difficult tasks.
“People generally dislike mental effort,” said study author Dr. Erik Bijleveld, from Radboud University. “Managers often encourage employees to put in mental effort. On the surface, this seems to work well, so you might be tempted to think that employees like to think deeply. Our results suggest that this conclusion would be wrong,” he added.
According to Dr. Bijleveld, the study involved people from all walks of life – including healthcare, the military, university students and even athletes who were given various tasks such as learning new techniques, practicing golf swings and playing physical sports.
Writing in the journal Psychological Bulletin, Dr Bijleveld said: “Our main finding is that mental effort is strongly associated with negative emotion. We found this relationship across all types of tasks and in all types of populations, including experienced professionals and university-educated people.”
What are the causes of burnout and ways to prevent it
Burnout is a state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that can be caused by chronic stress or frustration. It can feel like emptiness, a lack of motivation, and an inability to keep up with life’s demands. Burnout can also affect your productivity and spill over into your personal life, making it difficult to engage in activities you usually enjoy.
According to Dr Bijleveld, most people under mental stress are trying to learn a difficult hobby or job that they enjoy overall – but that doesn’t mean that thinking too much brings them happiness. “You should make sure to support or reward people when they need to put in enough mental effort,” he said.
Here are some causes of burnout and ways to avoid it:
stretch out
When employees are given more work than they can handle, it can leave them feeling overwhelmed, tired, and stressed. To avoid this, prioritize your tasks and complete them one at a time.
lack of control
If you feel you have little control over some parts of your job, you can talk to your manager about ways to reduce this or manage the stress it causes.
lack of support
A lack of support leads to burnout – which reduces the quality of care provided, so always ask for help.
Tension
Prolonged and excessive stress can lead to a state of burnout that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted. There are many ways to manage stress including therapy, exercise, and meditation.
Work-life imbalance
Research shows that lack of work-life balance is the main cause of employee burnout. Maintain the balance as much as possible to avoid any kind of unpleasant incident.
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