Repeated Burnout, The Brain

(and the pattern you never meant to build)

Burnout arrives quietly when it’s been part of your life for years. You spot it coming and still feel surprised when it sweeps you off your feet. I’ve lived this cycle more than once. My first brush with it began when I was a new single parent, running my own business and I had no other way to support myself and my child.

When Your Body Shouts And Life Won't Let You Stop

One memory still sits in the front of my mind. I remember sitting in a tiny GP office, both of us stuck in a loop. He kept saying “rest”. I kept saying “I can’t”. We bounced those lines back and forth until I walked out feeling unheard and oddly defensive.

No one named what it was; burnout.

No one explained the strain inside my brain.

No one told me that pushing through would come back to bite me the next year and the year after that.

Finally, a couple of years later, pneumonia made the point more clearly than any conversation ever had. Even then, I carried on working because the idea of stopping felt impossible. And for several years afterwards, every winter brought another chest infection, because I never truly recovered.

You've read the same paragraph three times and still have no idea what it says

How Burnout Repeats Itself

Looking back, I can see how those repeated episodes grew from the same soil. Overwhelm. Overthinking. A constant hum of second guessing. A mind that wouldn’t switch off. Days filled with displacement activity because doing everything felt easier than doing the one thing that mattered.

I chased small spikes of relief because they helped me get through the next hour. None of it was a moral failure.

None of this is a personal flaw. It is a pattern wired into a tired brain.

Repeated burnout creates a route your nervous system thinks is familiar ground. A route it walks again and again because survival mode feels safer than slowing down or doing something new.

Why Leaders, Caregivers and

“Lynchnpin” People Feel This More

Many of the people I work with sit at the centre of your world. You lead teams. You mentor others. Some of you have teens or twenty-something children. Some of you support ageing parents or other relatives. Some of you don’t have family responsibilities at all, yet still carry the emotional weight of your workplace or community.

You are the reliable ones. The steady ones. The people others lean on. You often find that role rewarding and heavy at the same time.

What Stress Does Inside the Brain

When the pressure never stops, the stress system stays switched on. The body floods itself with chemicals that keep you alert long after the problem has passed. The part of your brain responsible for calm thinking, creativity and perspective becomes quieter. Not because you’ve failed, but because your system believes you’re in danger.

This shift changes everything. You start doubting yourself. You avoid small tasks that shouldn’t feel hard. You get caught in loops of worry. Energy drains away faster than you can rebuild it.

If you’ve been through several burnout cycles, this pattern probably feels familiar.

Where Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Fits

The reassuring part is this: the brain can learn its way out of burnout, even after years of repetition.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy supports the thinking brain so it can take back the lead. Trance calms the noise from the survival system. Small, realistic steps begin creating new, more sustainable pathways. These steps show your brain that life is less threatening than your stress response has claimed.

Each moment of progress shifts your chemistry, giving you more space to respond instead of react.

Clients often tell me you notice tiny signs first. A moment of patience. A task completed with ease. Your focus, interest and creativity returning. An evening where you still have energy. These are signals that the brain is healing.

A Softer Way Forward

If you’re reading this and something inside you is nodding, pause for a moment. You’re not imagining it. You have carried a load that would flatten most people. And you’ve done it while still trying to be a source of support for others. That takes grit. It takes heart. It also takes a toll.

Here's the thing: you can teach your brain a different rhythm. A calmer one. A rhythm that lets you lead, care, support and thrive without burning yourself down to embers.

If you ever want to explore how that might look in your life, you’re welcome to reach out. No pressure. No force. Just curiosity. For now, take a breath. You’ve already survived the hardest parts.

There is space for a gentler way forward.