One evening, Lola comes home from work and finds a parcel on her doorstep. Inside is a strange, black, hairy, intrusive and unpredictable creature. It is her burnout. At first, one might almost smile at this little presence. But very quickly, it takes up space. A lot of space. It turns her daily life upside down, disrupts her routines and forces Lola to face what she had been trying so hard not to see.
The idea is particularly apt because this is often how burnout is perceived in the collective imagination: as long as it hasn’t completely taken over one’s life, one tries to negotiate with it. Just one more day. Just one more case. Just one more effort. Just one more night that’s too short. We believe we can keep going, because we’ve always managed to.
And this is precisely one of the misconceptions the book aims to challenge. Burnout is not thought to affect only ‘vulnerable’ people. On the contrary, the graphic novel highlights those individuals who are deeply invested in their work – committed, conscientious, and sometimes accustomed for years to pushing their own limits.
This is probably where the project becomes more interesting than a simple autobiographical comic. Behind Lola’s story, the book also seeks to explain. Ten educational fact sheets accompany the story to address the early warning signs, risk factors, the difference between burnout and depression, feelings of guilt and the recovery process.
The subject matter is all the more powerful because it stems from real-life experience. In 2018, Linda Diguet herself suffered from burnout. She then began writing in a diary. These personal notes gradually evolved into a writing project, and several years later into this graphic novel. She now works as a consultant and trainer specialising in particular in quality of life at work and the prevention of psychosocial risks.
This background lends the book an extra dimension. It is not simply a matter of explaining from the outside what burnout might be, but of attempting to convey a lived experience: the lack of understanding, the fatigue, the loss of bearings and that strange sense of guilt that can accompany the moment when the body and mind suddenly say ‘enough’.
The choice of the graphic novel format is therefore far from trivial. This is because certain sensations defy medical or professional vocabulary. A creature that grows larger, that fills a room, that follows its character everywhere can sometimes convey in a single image what a long theoretical discourse struggles to express.
The presentation dossier highlights a reality that affects nearly three million French people and presents mental health as a major societal issue. Beyond the figures, it is hard not to recognise something of our times in this story: the pressure to perform, to be available, responsive, enthusiastic and connected, even when everything inside is crying out for a break.
What if the true merit of *Mon burn-out et moi* were, ultimately, to strip burnout of some of its abstract nature? Giving it a form, a presence, almost a face, also allows us to look at it.
For what we can finally look at, we may perhaps begin to understand.
‘Mon burn-out et moi’, by Linda Diguet, illustrated by Djoïna Amrani, with a foreword by Marie Pezé, published by Vuibert Graphic. 128 pages, 22 euros
