What is Burnout? What it Really is (And What it Isn’t)

It’s healthy to take on responsibilities and want to help people out. However, these things can pile up to an unmanageable level. When they do, burnout is inevitable. 

Burnout is an experience a lot of people will experience. However, it can be misunderstood as other issues. In this article, we’ll talk about burnout, including:

• What it is
• What it isn’t
• Causes
• How to recover

Inner Balance Counseling can help you identify if what you’re feeling is burnout or something else. We offer mental health counseling, both in-person and online, to help you understand what’s affecting you and how to feel better.

What is Burnout?

Burnout is not a formal diagnosis, but it’s widely recognized by mental health professionals. It’s a chronic state of exhaustion caused by consistent stress. It drains motivation, productivity, and emotional capacity.

Burnout and fatigue go hand in hand, but they’re more than feeling tired at the end of the day; they seep into every aspect of life and make regular functions hard. If you’re burnt out, you’ll feel physically, emotionally, and mentally tired.

Burnout symptoms are all-encompassing. They affect mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. There are no formal diagnostics for burnout, but there are signs that point to burnout.

Mental Signs of Burnout

The whole body gets affected by burnout. Some cognitive signs of  burnout are:

• Brain fog
• Confusion
• Difficulty focusing
• Lack of creativity

While experiencing burnout, it’s hard to be productive at work and even focus on things you enjoy. It’ll feel like a workout just to get small tasks done.

Emotional Signs of Burnout

Your emotional reactions can be dramatically affected by burnout. While experiencing burnout, you may experience these emotional symptoms:

• Helplessness
• Decreased enjoyment
• Feelings of detachment
• Numbness
• Cynicism
• Self-doubt

While experiencing burnout, you’ll likely feel dysregulated, and managing your emotions will be more difficult. 

Physical Signs of Burnout

Some people notice these signs of burnout before they notice the emotional or mental signs:

• Headaches
• Stomach and intestinal issues
• Physical fatigue
• Loss of appetite

The physical symptoms of burnout are your body's response to the high amount of stress you’re feeling.

Causes of Burnout

Humans are resilient. We’re able to take on a lot of responsibilities, and when needed, our bodies can go into second gear. During times of high stress, can get important things done.

That stress response is important in small doses. However, when that’s turned on for long periods, it’ll eat away at your overall health.

Simply put, burnout is caused by prolonged exposure to stress. This stress can come from any direction, including work and personal responsibilities.

Our emotional and mental limit is referred to as the window of tolerance. Read more about the window of tolerance and what happens when you’re pushed past it.

Why Work is the Top Cause of Burnout

The most common cause of burnout is work, and there are a lot of reasons why. Work is an important part of people’s lives, but it’s rarely easy and rewarding. 

• Overwork: Hustle culture and mandatory crunch have made many workplaces unhealthy. Employees are asked to leave aside their personal life in favor of their work.
• Lack of control: People thrive when they feel autonomous. Feeling like your every move is being dictated is a surefire way to start feeling burnout.
• Little to No Recognition: When your work isn’t recognized through pay or verbally, it’s easy to get frustrated. Being underpaid will lead to frustration at work and could eventually lead to burnout.
• Poor work culture: Relationships in the workplace matter. If the culture of the workplace is toxic or if there is little to no human interaction, people will likely begin to feel strained.
• Unpracticed values: Businesses that claim important values but don’t practice them will burn out their employees. That cognitive dissonance will wear them thin, and the workplace will feel uncomfortable.

Maintaining a work-life balance is important for mental rigidity. When work stress begins to seep into your personal life, evaluate what you’re experiencing and consider what should change.

What Isn’t Burnout?

Because burnout doesn’t have a formal diagnosis, there are no formal steps to find if symptoms are directly connected to burnout. However, there are common issues that often get confused with burnout. 

Many people assume they’re burnt out when really they just don’t like their job, need a rest, or have other underlying mental health issues.

ADHD

Our understanding of ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder)  is ever-growing. ADHD can manifest in hyperactivity and a debilitating inability to do anything. 

This is known as ADHD burnout, but it’s not the same thing as “normal” burnout. ADHD burnout is exhaustion that comes from coping with the symptoms of ADHD. It’s similar to burnout in that it demotivates productivity in the workplace and at home, but it’s not caused by stress in the workplace.

If you’re experiencing ADHD burnout, it may be time to seek professional help. Managing ADHD is challenging, but you don’t need to experience it alone. 

Learn more about ADHD and how it’s treated at Inner Balance.

Depression

Depression is a mental health struggle that almost everyone will experience in their life. Lack of motivation is a common symptom of depression. It can cause people to feel demotivated at work and make it difficult to complete tasks at home.

While depression can feel similar to burnout, it’s not the same thing.

This might feel like cutting hairs, but the difference is important. Burnout can be resolved by making changes to your responsibilities. Depression needs to be resolved with work from a counselor and/or psychiatrist.

Learn more about depression and how it’s treated at Inner Balance.

Grief

Grief is in the same category as burnout in that it causes exhaustion and fatigue that feel like burnout.

After a significant loss, it may be hard to feel motivated to do anything. Physical symptoms like intestinal pain are also common in both grief and burnout. When you experience grief, you need the time and space to process it. Burnout requires a lifestyle change.

Learn more about the causes and treatments of grief, as well as what grief counseling looks like at Inner Balance.

How to Recover From Burnout

If you don’t take care of burnout, it will only get worse. Use these tips to recover from burnout.

Self-Care

Burnout is a sign that you aren’t being taken care of. While you’re burnt out, take care of yourself by taking frequent bubble baths, pick up journaling, and do some meditation.

Self-care is helpful for burnout because it helps you slow down and take care of yourself.

Read our article on daily self-care to learn how to prevent burnout before it starts.

Advocate For Yourself

It’s easy to take on too many responsibilities at work, your hobbies, or at home. Sometimes, it feels like a lot of tasks or the wellbeing of others would be at stake if you didn’t take on more responsibilities.

If you feel burnt out, talk to your manager, partner, or anyone else who can help. Advocate for yourself. It may feel uncomfortable and strange to do, but speaking out about the pressures leading to burnout can help you find help you didn’t know was there.

Advocating for yourself can feel scary if you’re not used to it. Practice it by starting small. If more responsibility comes your way, say no or delegate it to someone else. 

Prioritize Your Physical Health

Sleep, diet, and exercise all contribute to mental health. If you’re feeling burnt out, take a look at what you’ve been eating, how much you’ve been moving, and how much you’ve been sleeping. 

Prioritize sleep by setting a strict bedtime and developing a healthy bedtime routine. That means no phones, low-light, and enough time to slow your brain before turning off the lights.

Learn more about how sleep affects mental health.

Exercise can start simply with daily walks. You don’t need a gym membership or a complex workout routine. Just something to get your blood flowing. 

Pursue What You Enjoy

Take your time back by pursuing what you enjoy.

Your weekends don’t have to be jam-packed with exciting getaways. However, pursuing what you love, like hobbies, events, journaling, or a long morning on the porch with a cup of coffee, will help you get back to enjoying your time.

This might feel like a chore at first. You may need to set a timer and force yourself to do something, but over time, you’ll likely start to feel better.

Talk to a Counselor at Inner Balance

Finally, professional help can help you work through burnout. With the help of a compassionate and experienced counselor, you’ll be able to get insight into how your work and responsibilities affect your mental health. You’ll also be able to find ways to defend yourself from burnout in the future.

Inner Balance Counseling helps everybody feel better. We believe that everyone deserves to feel safe and that they belong. Whether you’re experiencing burnout or something similar, we can help you develop healthy coping skills and start feeling better.

Reach out and start feeling better.