“Are You OK?” How Dr. Neha Sangwan Recognized Burnout in Herself & Now Helps Others

Photo credit: iStockphoto.com (Eoneren)

In the summer of 2004, Dr. Neha Sangwan worked as an internal medicine physician, caring for 18 critically ill patients daily. She recalls running from task to task, patient to patient, crisis to crisis. 

At one point in her day, she went to a nurse and asked for medication for a patient. 

“She turned and looked at me and said, ‘Dr. Sangwan, are you okay?’” Sangwan recently recalled in a conversation with CFW. 

Then the nurse explained the reason for her question: “That’s the fourth time in under five minutes you’ve asked me that same question, and I’ve answered you every time.’”

That was the day she had to reckon with the reality that she was burned out. She went on Prozac and stress leave. It was also the beginning of her understanding of what burnout is and how she could help others avoid it. 

“Burnout doesn’t happen overnight,” she explains. “It’s a continuous process. And it often starts when you’re doing everything you think you’re supposed to do.”

Burnout Is Not a Personal Failure. At first, Sangwan blamed herself for not holding it together. But eventually, she realized it was systemic. She’d taken on extra shifts, worked through exhaustion, and relied on sugar and caffeine to power through. 

“It’s all connected,” she says. “It’s nobody’s fault. It’s everybody’s responsibility to notice if something is working or not for them, on a ‘me, we and world’ level.”

How to Know If You’re Burned Out—or Headed in that Direction. As a physician and engineer, Sangwan developed what she now calls the Energy Dashboard, a tool to help people track five types of energy: physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual.

She walks people through each area with these questions:

• Physical: Are you getting quality sleep? Nourishing yourself with whole foods? Moving regularly?
• Mental: How often are you stuck in comparison, blame, or overthinking?
• Emotional: Where in your life are you feeling angst—and where do you feel joy?
• Social: Who do you spend time with, and how do those relationships affect your energy?
• Spiritual: What gives you purpose? Do you trust yourself?

One of the most essential cues? How your body feels when you answer. “When your mind and body don’t agree,” Sangwan says, “the body always is right.”

What’s Your Coping Strategy? Part of recognizing burnout is understanding how we mask it. Sangwan encourages people to name—and thank—their coping mechanisms before trying to change them.

Only then, she adds, can we ask: Is this how I want to keep doing it?

Rethinking Support. One of the most significant shifts Sangwan made after her burnout was asking for help.  “I have now asked for support on a level that I’m willing to pay to get help,” she says. “Even when I’m traveling or am really busy, I still get my lemon water, celery juice, and detox shake. I make sure that my body, heart, and spirit are nourished.”

The Bottomline? Burnout is complex, personal, and more common than we think. But learning about the signs gives us more control. 

“Just because I wrote a book on burnout doesn’t mean I don’t burn out myself,” she says. “What it means is I pick up the signals much earlier… and so I can avoid this space.”

Want to know where your energy is being drained—and how to start recharging?Take Dr. Sangwan’s Energy Dashboard Assessment, and watch her guided video walk-through, here.