Burned Out

Constant long-haul travel can have a serious impact on your mental well-being – but there are ways to minimize your stress levels.

- Sally Brown

Modern international travel can feel like a series of hurdles to negotiate, whether it’s the late arrival of your airport taxi, unexpected traffic jams and flight delays, or just the sequential set of queues, from check-in, bag drop, security, lounge access and boarding to baggage collection and passport control. In between periods of stress, there are periods of boredom, often combined with opportunities to over-drink or eat.

Throw in jet lag, disrupted sleep, feelings of loneliness, disconnect from colleagues and guilt at leaving loved ones, and it’s no surprise that a quarter of frequent travelers have experienced mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, according to a survey by the International SOS Foundation and Kingston University.

Of course, it’s not only frequent travelers who experience work-related stress. According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounts for 44 percent of work-related ill health and 57 percent of all working days lost to ill health. But the Kingston research reveals frequent travel presents an additional element of pressure – 45 percent of the 200 frequent travelers surveyed reported higher stress levels than normal while on work trips. And 31 percent said they experienced emotional exhaustion – one of the major risk factors of burnout – on a weekly basis.

STAGES OF BURNOUT

Burnout is defined as a “syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment,” according to Professor Christina Maslach, the psychologist who first identified the syndrome in the 1970s.