Busy Life Syndrome: Symptoms, Causes And What To Do To Overcome It
Subjects who show busy life syndrome have the need to continually be doing thingsto be productive and not allow boredom.
In today’s society, doing nothing or having time for yourself seems not to be good, being bored is frowned upon and people shy away from this feeling. For this reason we see subjects who perform more than one task at a time or try to fill the time to be more productive, since if they don’t, they feel bad for “wasting time.”
In this article you will learn what busy life syndrome consists of.what causes and consequences are linked to it and how to deal with it to reduce it and gain quality of life.
Currently, we lead a frenetic pace of life in which we are required to be the best and we are taught to always be busy to be productive and attend to all types of work, family, self-care, etc. responsibilities. Busy life syndrome is a condition observed in a large number of people who they feel the constant need to have to do something, to not be able to stop or rest, to be continually hyperstimulated.
This syndrome does not officially appear in the diagnostic manuals of Psychology, but the results obtained in recent studies have highlighted the need to keep it in mind and work on it.
We see this need for constant activity in the different areas that make up the individual’s life, and it is very common in the work context. Subjects who experience it work excessively, showing a tendency to perform more than one task at a time, without taking a moment to rest.. Subjects with busy life syndrome never stop and will even try to do more than one activity at a time, for example eating while working.
In the same way, we also observe it at different ages, as we have said, it is a way of life that we learn, although it also shows a certain genetic predisposition, and it is common for children to be instilled from a very young age to always have to be doing something and that getting bored is not something. Well. We will see how they are children who are continually doing activities, always being busy.
Causes and factors that predispose to busy life syndrome
A cause linked to the busy life syndrome is the type of society in which we live; we are constantly asked to be doing something and The idea spreads that being bored or not doing something is synonymous with failure. The accelerated pace that we lead, wanting things instantly, and the fact that we have fewer hours than we need to reach all the objectives we set, does not allow us to have a respite time to dedicate ourselves to ourselves, or to simply do nothing.
On the other hand, this desire to be continually busy and productive is also interpreted as a way to feel better about ourselves, to be functional and doing something useful. It is a way to protect our ego from believing our actions are necessary and to feel more active and with greater vitality.
Thus, some people can’t stand boredom and they will do anything to feel continually productive and effective.
Likewise, always keeping ourselves active, whether mentally or physically. It keeps our mind busy, thus reducing the possibility of thinking about other aspects that overwhelm us.. If we are distracted and focus our attention on something external, on a task, this does not allow us to have time to dedicate to getting to know ourselves or to be aware and face our worries. It is good to be distracted to be able to disconnect, but we cannot always live apart from what we feel and disconnected from ourselves.
Consequences and effects of the syndrome
It has been proven that Hyperstimulated and overworked subjects may show problems in some of their cognitive functions., mainly affecting memory capacity. It is normal that we observe some errors in our memory; It is not a perfect mechanism, and as such we cannot expect it to always work well. In the same way, with the passage of time memory can be diminished due to an aging process, observing slight impairments or forgetfulness that we consider normal.
But We cannot consider it normal that these memory problems occur regularly in young people.. In this case the problem is not due to an aging of our brain, but is related to the excessive constant stimulation to which we are subjected.
Carrying out multitasking, having attention on different focuses, makes it difficult for us to encode, process and store the information we receive from the outside, making it impossible or complicated to remember it.
This difficulty in memory has been verified in different studies, reaching the conclusion that An excess of information or dividing our attention over many tasks generates more forgetfulness.not being able to remember information as basic as what we ate today or what the movie we saw yesterday was about.
We see this multitasking, of wanting to do more than one thing at a time, more frequently in the workplace, and contrary to our purpose of wanting to be more productive, It ends up exhausting us and generating the state that in psychology is known as burnout.. Wanting to do more than we can handle can give us a feeling of lack of control at work and not being able to achieve all our goals, causing frustration and discomfort.
Furthermore, as we have already seen, not wanting to face or know our worries, thoughts or feelings, It leads us to act almost like machines, losing the most human part of feeling. We cannot continually live apart from ourselves, as sooner or later we will have to face it and the impact will be much worse. Knowing yourself helps you face life and solve the different problems that may arise in a more functional and effective way.
So this constantly busy lifestyle It is a risk factor for both our physical and mental health effects.. To be able to do all the tasks that have been proposed and always be busy, we forget to satisfy basic needs such as sleeping a minimum of 7 hours, eating slowly and eating a diet that provides us with fundamental nutrients; We can also observe an increased risk of substance consumption such as tobacco.
The personality that stands out for presenting the characteristics of this syndrome is the type A behavior pattern.proposed by Meyer Friedman and Raymond Roseman, described in subjects who live by and for work, are very competitive, impatient and hostile and who show a predisposition to develop coronary diseases.
How to reduce busy life syndrome
Now that we know better what the busy life syndrome consists of, we will move on to consider how to deal with it in order to reduce it. Given the risk it entails and the effects it can entail, it is necessary to carry out an intervention to put a stop to our excess activity and our frenetic life.
In general terms, the strategies or techniques used to improve our condition will consist of establishing a healthy routine that allows us some time to rest.
1. Allow yourself to do nothing
This is a very important point to comply with if we want to reduce this syndrome. We must set a time to rest from doing nothing and simply resting.. This seems like a very simple exercise, but for subjects with this condition it can be very difficult, since it goes against what they believe or are used to doing.
By doing nothing we mean not activating our mind, but quite the opposite, getting it to relax. Allow yourself to get bored, life is not about always being productive.
2. Set a good sleeping and eating routine
The eating and sleeping habits of individuals with this type of syndrome are not adequate, and in many cases, they simply do not exist, since they eat or rest when they can or simply do not do so.
There must be time for everything, to work, to rest and above all to satisfy our vital needs that allow us to stay alive; If we neglect them we are harming ourselves, because sooner or later our body will say enough is enough and will stop working well, leading to a condition that we could have avoided and forcing us to stop for a longer time.
Having the purpose of improving does not work, create a schedule and write it down so it’s easier for you to follow it. When you eat, don’t do anything else and dedicate some time to this function. Likewise, try to establish what menu you will have each day to follow a balanced diet. Just before going to bed, stop doing anything related to work, don’t pick up your cell phone or any other electronic device, just relax so your body prepares for sleep.
You may be interested: “10 basic principles for good sleep hygiene”
3. Practice sports
Playing sports will also help you disconnect from work, tasks and dedicate time to yourself.. Likewise, it also reduces body tension and stress, and is linked to the increase in endorphins that have the function of reducing the sensation of pain. On the other hand, it is a healthy habit that allows you to maintain good physical health and reduce the risk of getting sick.
4. Set limits
Feeling productive is good and makes us feel good, but we must know how far we can go and where our limits are.; We cannot say yes to everything, since it is impossible to be in more than one place at a time or to perform different tasks correctly. Knowing how to say no is not easy and as such we have to practice and “force” ourselves to do it, because it will be the only way to learn.
