When the ‘awen’ is absent: ‘burnout’ and creative writing
*Author’s note: This is a translation of my recent belles lettres, published on ‘Meddwl.org’ (a Welsh language website for the promotion of discourse regarding mental health and wellbeing). For the Welsh version, please click here. The word ‘awen’ refers to a kind of poetic inspiration, which is often described in terms of arriving, almost like a breeze. Whilst the dictionary offered ‘muse’, amongst others, I did not feel that this accurately conveyed the concept I had described through the medium of Welsh; I thus resolved to retain the Welsh word ‘awen’ for the purposes of this belles lettres, as I had to do with the word ‘burnout’ when writing the original Welsh belles lettres, since there is currently no Welsh word to describe this phenomenon.
The phenomenon of ‘burnout’ is reasonably familiar to us all by now, as part of general conversations about mental health and wellbeing. In its broadest sense, it refers to the negative effect of stress, anxiety, and depression on our ability to function or perform to our usual standard, whether in the work environment, in our hobbies, and/ or our role within the home. The factors which contribute to ‘burnout’ can emanate from a combination of these contexts, for example: working long hours, caring responsibilities beyond the workplace, and not enough leisure time to relax and do the things which lift our spirits. This is the ‘common sense’ meaning of ‘burnout’, and the version I tend to mean if I am discussing it. And as Kascha et al. (2011) explain, it’s likely that this concept of ‘burnout’ emanates from observing similar terms and concepts in a variety of literatures — from Shakespearean plays to the medical literature generally (from the 1970s onwards).
However, there is not, currently, an official definition of ‘burnout’, agreed within the medical realm; that is to say, it is not currently an official category within the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, fifth edition (DSM V). Research in the field tends to focus on the phenomenon with regards to its connection to employment only, and this is reflected in the recent efforts to include it as a medical category. In May 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a short piece on their website, to announce that ‘burnout’ was included in the revision of their International Classification of Diseases 11. It is interesting to note that the WHO have specifically emphasised that it is an ‘occupational’ phenomenon, and thus it is not being classified as a health condition in itself.
Personally, I do not agree with this definition; I believe that ‘burnout’ can emanate from, and impact upon, our lives in the working, social, and domestic spheres, whilst being affected by a plethora of factors simultaneously. However, it will be good to have a clear definition within the official medical literature, so that we can all share language, concepts and terms of reference whilst discussing ‘burnout’. This is important for several reasons of course, but particularly so that we can have terminology in place through the medium of Welsh.
During the course of researching this belles lettres, I discovered that we currently do not have a working Welsh term for ‘burnout’. There is no word for it in any of the online dictionaries, so I decided to access whatever term had been coined and used by the NHS in Wales. I conducted a Google search and came across a pamphlet by ‘Monmouthshire Carers Project’, on the website of the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. The title of the pamphlet in English was ‘Beating Burnout’. I pressed the button for ‘change language’ at the top of the page, to see how the NHS had translated the word, however disappointment awaited me — ‘Curo’r Burnout’ was the title! And so it seems we have an onomastic challenge: coin a Welsh term for this phenomenon. Having discussed the matter on Twitter, I can currently offer ‘hunlosg’, ‘hunanlosg’, or ‘hun-rhacso’, as a starting point.
Having researched ‘burnout’ further, I came across a psychological definition of ‘burnout’ as a condition of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion, which emanates from more than long working hours alone. The cynicism, depression, and lethargy, which are characteristic of ‘burnout’, tend to arise when a person does not have control over an aspect of their work, in the workplace or home, or where they are asked to complete tasks which are contrary to their sense of self. This is a definition which makes sense to me, in terms of my own personal experiences of ‘burnout’.
I went through a difficult period of uncertainty, where I felt that my identity was threatened, and I suffered intense anxiety, as I tried to decide how to improve my situation. As the anxiety took hold, I lost my ability to write creatively. I have been writing a creative writing column for over ten years now, and I also depend on my creative writing abilities to produce all kinds of scholarly outputs — this is a coping mechanism for dealing with my dyslexia. So it was an alarming experience when the ‘awen’ was absent, regardless of how hard I tried to raise it. In terms of my column, I did what any author worth their salt would do — I wrote about how the creative storehouse was empty!
Thankfully, I have been feeling much better lately. The ‘awen’ returned to me little by little — beginning when I was on the beach, whilst on a creative retreat with literary magazine Y Stamp in Tŷ Newydd. Once again, I took full advantage of this, writing the poem ‘Dychwelyd’, which detailed my feelings of ‘returning’ to a state of wellbeing. I then also translanguaged this into English and published it as an Insta-poem with a background I had made myself (something I learned on the retreat). And, for perfect capitalization, I used these poems to write a belle letter about my creative writing process!
As part of my process of returning to health and wellbeing, I have been learning about different forms of art, whilst also concentrating on creative writing, and fostering confidence once again in my scholarly writing, after a void of almost a year. So it is nice here to try and combine all three elements, whilst adding to the topic of mental health, through the medium of Welsh — which is a very important aspect of the campaign for the future of the Welsh language and also the health of our community. I thus offer this belles lettres, and also an associated poem, with some kind of visual artwork also, in the hope that you will enjoy them and that my efforts will be of benefit to someone.
The Welsh version of this belles lettres accompanied a poem on the Meddwl.org website; this was later selected for publication in the anthology which accompanied ‘Gŵyl y Ferch’. I have published a translated version of the poem so that everyone van enjoy it.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Bwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Aneurin Bevan. (2019). Curo’r Burnout — Prosiect Gofalwyr Sir Fynwy 2014. Cyrchwyd Rhagfyr 21, 2019, O: http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/866/document/241229/
Kaschka, W, P., Korczak, D., & Broich, K. (2011). Burnout: a Fashionable Diagnosis. Deutsches Ärzteblatt Internationa, 108(46), 781–787. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3230825/pdf/Dtsch_Arztebl_Int-108-0781.pdf
Psychology Today. 2019. “What Does Burnout Look Like?” Burnout. Cyrchwyd Rhagfyr 21, 2019 https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/burnout
Wheeler, S, L. (2019a). Dychwelyd. Y Stamp: Rhifyn Tŷ Newydd.
Wheeler, S, L. (2019b). Wrth dy grefft: Trawsieithu fel rhan o’r broses greadigol. Cyrchwyd o: https://www.ystamp.cymru/single-post/2019/11/13/Wrth-dy-grefft-Trawsieithu-fel-rhan-o%E2%80%99r-broses-greadigol---Sara-Louise-Wheeler
Wheeler, S, L. (2019c). Wellbecoming. Retrieved November 5, 2019, Cyrchwyd o: https://www.instagram.com/serensiwenna/
Wheeler, S. L. (2018). Pan mae’r storfa greadigol yn wag. Y Clawdd. https://saralouisewheeler.wordpress.com/2018/06/12/pan-maer-storfa-greadigol-yn-wag/
World Health Organization. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. Cyrchwyd Rhagfyr 21, 2019, o: https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/
