Are You Burnt out?
Exhausted, no matter how much you rest? Increasingly cynical, guarded, or detached from work you used to care about? Less able to do things that once felt manageable?
Burnout very seldom arrives as a dramatic collapse. More often, it creeps up on you, slowly. You're probably still functioning, showing up, ticking the boxes. But inside, something feels frayed, resentful, or flat. If someone asked you to name the feeling, you probably couldn't. Everything feels like too much effort.
If that sounds familiar, it may be worth pausing to ask whether this is ordinary tiredness or if chronic work stress has started to take a deeper toll.
If that sounds familiar, it may be worth pausing to ask whether this is ordinary tiredness or if chronic work stress has started to take a deeper toll.
Officially, burnout is understood as an occupational phenomenon, not weakness, laziness, or a failure to cope.
Burnout can often get confused with depression, and it's difficult to tell apart from stress and anxiety.
WHO frames burnout as an occupational phenomenon caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, with three dimensions: exhaustion, mental distance or cynicism, and reduced professional effectiveness.
But there are definite physical and emotional symptoms.
Mental Health UK suggests that:
Emotionally, you may feel helpless or defeated (often due to factors beyond your control), self-doubt and worthlessness settle in, feel overwhelmed, demotivated, and an overriding sense of dread or worry persists.
Physically, you may have high blood pressure, recurring headaches, difficulty breathing, and sleep disturbances.
Behaviourally, you may find yourself taking a lot longer to complete things. You can't concentrate, you're irritable, quick to react, and become reliant on food, alcohol or drugs to cope. You're probably off sick more than usual and there's a decrease in productivity.
But there are definite physical and emotional symptoms.
Mental Health UK suggests that:
Emotionally, you may feel helpless or defeated (often due to factors beyond your control), self-doubt and worthlessness settle in, feel overwhelmed, demotivated, and an overriding sense of dread or worry persists.
Physically, you may have high blood pressure, recurring headaches, difficulty breathing, and sleep disturbances.
Behaviourally, you may find yourself taking a lot longer to complete things. You can't concentrate, you're irritable, quick to react, and become reliant on food, alcohol or drugs to cope. You're probably off sick more than usual and there's a decrease in productivity.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
Burnout is usually a pattern, not one bad week
You don’t need every symptom on this page for burnout to be present. The question is whether the pattern has become persistent: ongoing exhaustion, growing distance from your work, and a sense that you are no longer functioning as you normally would. Burnout is less about having a stressful week and more about what happens when stress keeps asking more of you than your system can recover from.
How Do You Know it's Not Depression or Stress?
Because symptoms can overlap, and there is confusion between burnout, stress and depression, Mental Health UK outlines clear distinctions:
Burnout is not classified as a medical condition in the way depression and anxiety are. But it can seriously affect your mental and physical wellbeing, and it can increase the risk of depression or anxiety.
WHO clearly defines it as an occupational phenomenon, so it's not an illness or a health condition. However, it can put you at risk for depression and anxiety disorders.
- Depression is anchored in negative thoughts and feelings about life, where burnout tends to focus on the causes of burnout: too much workload, conflict or lack of safety, constant urgency, poor boundaries etc.
- Longterm stress can result in burnout, but where those who are stressed still believe they have influence over aspects they can change, if you're burnt out, you tend to be so tired that you've lost hope and motivation.
Burnout is not classified as a medical condition in the way depression and anxiety are. But it can seriously affect your mental and physical wellbeing, and it can increase the risk of depression or anxiety.
WHO clearly defines it as an occupational phenomenon, so it's not an illness or a health condition. However, it can put you at risk for depression and anxiety disorders.
Naming it is the first useful step
Once you can recognise the pattern of burnout, you can stop blaming yourself and start asking better questions: What is draining me? What is still within my control? What needs to change?
In the next email, we’ll look at the common triggers of burnout and the first practical steps you can take.
In the next email, we’ll look at the common triggers of burnout and the first practical steps you can take.
Sources / further reading:
World Health Organization: Burn-out as an occupational phenomenon
Mental Health UK: Burnout symptoms, causes and support
Photography: Lacie Cueto and Elisa Ventur
World Health Organization: Burn-out as an occupational phenomenon
Mental Health UK: Burnout symptoms, causes and support
Photography: Lacie Cueto and Elisa Ventur
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