Burnout is now recognised as a real problem. Our 24/7 lifestyles promote the sense that we have to have-it-all and do-it-all immediately, encouraging behavior that lead to burnout. The warning signs are easy to miss once we get into long-term patterns of stress and adapt to these constant, over-elevated levels of stress hormones. It begins to feel 'normal' to be functioning like this, strung out, unable to concentrate, wired, constantly exhausted – and then it takes time, sometimes months and years to re-set our internal stress thermostat to normal.

In From Burnout to Balance, Harriet Griffey helps readers to reclaim their life by recognising their own signs of stress, managing these and avoiding their escalation through positive lifestyle changes, and ensuring basic self-care measures every day – adequate sleep, regular nutritious meals, exercise and relaxation – to keep body and mind resilient, all helps. Saying no to excessive demands on our time, asking for help when it's needed, creating a support system and relinquishing perfection, are all the attitudes of confident people who know that before you put on someone else's oxygen mask, you must first fit your own.

If a high-performance car is driven relentlessly at full throttle and burnout occurs it doesn't just stop: all systems fail