ABSTRACT
This chapter details how this book is for those who feel burnt out, their family and friends, and for employers and health care providers wishing to map burnout’s landscape more closely. The Introduction summarises how the book provides information on its intriguing history (a similar condition was described as early as the fifth century BC), gives a richer definition of burnout than the one accepted for nearly four decades, provides informative self-reports from sufferers, details the Sydney Burnout Measure or SBM (which is provided in Appendix A for readers to complete if so wishing), offers a guide for distinguishing burnout from depression and other conditions, introduces the concept of ‘clinical reasoning’ to clarify differential diagnosis, overviews the biological changes that occur in brain and body during burnout, details risk factors to burnout, emphasises that burnout is not limited to those in formal workplaces and can occur in those with demanding family responsibilities, argues against a ‘one size fits all’ management model, and offers a composite management model addressing the work demand precipitants, taking up de-stressing stressors and modulating any personality predisposing contribution. It notes that the book contains multiple accounts from those who have experienced burnout and the strategies that helped their recovery, and concludes with three personal stories of burnout.
