About this episode
Brock and Jess unpack the biology of burnout and challenge common misconceptions about it.
Burnout gets talked about a lot — but rarely with clarity. In this episode, Brock and Jess unpack the biology of burnout and challenge the flood of non-evidence-based ideas circulating online. If you’ve ever been told burnout is “just stress,” “just poor boundaries,” or something you can fix with a weekend off… this conversation is for you. We explore what’s actually happening in the nervous system when burnout sets in — including: The role of the amygdala and chronic threat activation What happens to the prefrontal cortex under prolonged stress How the stress response shifts from adaptive to maladaptive The Default Mode Network and why cognitive flexibility drops Why productivity, empathy, and executive functioning decline The overlap (and differences) between burnout and trauma One of the biggest problems with burnout is that people experiencing it often don’t understand what’s happening to them — which can lead to shame, self-blame, and pushing harder when the body is actually signalling overload. This episode reframes burnout as a biological state shift, not a personal weakness. For occupational therapists — and anyone working in high-demand caring roles — understanding the…
People in this episode
Host: Brock Cook
Guest: Dr Jessica Levick
Topics covered
- burnout
- stress
- nervous system
- mental health
- occupational therapy
- cognitive flexibility
Keywords
- burnout
- stress response
- amygdala
- prefrontal cortex
- Default Mode Network
- cognitive flexibility
- mental health
- occupational therapy
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Occupied Podcast
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