Understanding burnout: Causes, symptoms, and how to cope

What Is Burnout?

While not a clinically diagnosable condition, “burnout” is a widely used term and is recognized within the psychological and mental health community as a legitimate mental health condition and phenomenon. 

Burnout typically refers to an emotional and mental state characterized by the following symptoms: 

• Low motivation
• Low energy
• Apathy
• Anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure)
• Hypersomnia
• Hyposomnia
• Withdrawal and isolation
• An overall inability to function 

Burnout is typically associated with experiencing high chronic stress that is seemingly inescapable for at least 3-4 months. Burnout’s symptoms can be intense, largely due to bearing an amount of stress that can’t be sustained long-term.

How Do You Know When You're Burnt Out?

Burnout is highly individualized, and each person’s experience is unique. Even so, burnout can typically be identified when you notice you are not engaging in your typical routines and schedules or you aren’t finding enjoyment or enrichment in them like you used to. 

Another sign of burnout can be changes in your mood, perhaps feeling noticeably more pessimistic or hopeless about things. 

Common Causes of Burnout

Some common causes of burnout include: 

• High levels of stress within a job
• Risky occupations
• Low levels of perceived and real support (vocationally or personally)
• Facing high levels of criticism
• Working long hours
• Living or working in isolation
• Frequent interpersonal conflict
• Extended periods of time with no physical or mental rest (e.g. parenting, caretaking, or other responsibilities)
• Perceived lack of control/lack of autonomy in daily role/life

The idealization of overworking and “toughing things out” that is especially present in the U.S. has made burnout more and more prevalent. It can take months or longer to develop, and is not something that will simply go away on its own. Without significant changes in workload, situation, and/or environment as well as help from a mental health professional, levels of stress and feelings of burnout will likely persist or continue to increase.

Burnout vs. Depression: Are They the Same?

Burnout and depression can look very similar, and can even occur alongside each other, but they are not the same condition. Burnout is not a diagnosable mental condition, whereas depression is a diagnosable disorder that has been studied and observed, with its own diagnostic criteria. 

Burnout can loosely be described as a “system shutdown,” and can mimic the shutdown symptoms that occur with depression. However, depression does not just involve “shutting down” behaviors—it’s characterized by sleeping difficulties, agitation, changes in appetite, and a variety of other symptoms that are present in more severe and chronic ways. 

Burnout can, however, lead to or worsen one’s depression. If you are burnt out and believe it may be causing symptoms of depression, it’s important to talk to a mental health provider about your symptoms. As burnout and depression are two different conditions, they require different treatment. A mental health professional can give you tools to manage your symptoms and assess the needs of your condition and situation to provide individualized treatment.

What Does Anxiety Burnout Feel Like?

Burnout caused by anxiety will feel different to everyone. For some, the constant worry and excessive fear often associated with anxiety disorders can lead to burnout. The stress caused by negative thought patterns and anxious rumination can be exhausting and lead to low energy, mental fatigue, and other symptoms of burnout. 

When anxiety symptoms are intense enough to cause burnout, it’s recommended to seek help from a mental health professional. Like with burnout and depression, anxiety and burnout will require different treatment approaches, with the main focus likely being to ease the intensity of the anxiety symptoms in order to get to the root of the issue.

What Are the Symptoms of Stress Burnout?

The symptoms of burnout due to stress are similar to those listed above. They include: 

• Low energy
• Fatigue
• Low motivation
• Anhedonia
• Apathy
• Withdrawal
• Isolation behaviors
• Insomnia
• Difficulty concentrating
• Irritability
• Gastrointestinal issues

Experiencing chronic, intense stress can also alter a person’s view of themselves and impact their self-esteem, which means you may also notice symptoms like self-doubt or low self-esteem. Stress burnout is more often seen in those who have a high-stress occupation, though this is not the only cause.

What Does ADHD Burnout Feel Like?

Those who experience burnout due to dysregulation and other ADHD symptoms often report experiencing feelings surrounding self-criticism, low self-esteem, difficulty focusing, and difficulty concentrating. 

Often, burnout due to ADHD can make people feel like their ADHD is “magnified” or “amplified.” The mental exhaustion caused by consistent attempts to regain focus and concentration in order to complete tasks and stay organized, particularly at work, can make it more difficult to manage other ADHD symptoms and maintain regular daily function.

Since they are tied to focus, emotional regulation, and motivation, ADHD symptoms can aggravate symptoms of burnout, and vice versa. Help from a mental health professional can allow someone with ADHD to extricate the symptoms of each condition, lessen their intensity, and find preventative strategies to keep burnout at bay in the future.

How Long Does It Take to Get Over Burnout?

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight, and it will likely take time to recover — up to 6 months or more, depending on the severity. Burnout recovery should be focused on relieving current symptoms, like resting to combat fatigue, and preventing future relapse.

From a clinical standpoint, professional mental health counseling is one of the most effective treatments for dealing with burnout and its symptoms. 

How to Cope with Burnout

As stated earlier, seeking professional counseling services is the most recommended and most researched approach to effectively coping with and preventing the recurrence of burnout. 

Through your healing journey, you’ll focus on the identification of your personal values and a return to a schedule (behavior activation) that incorporates these values, activities, and routines regularly. It’s important to make sure you are properly mentally nourished and have balance in your daily schedules. 

Mindfulness and grounding techniques that increase your overall levels of distress tolerance and resiliency are also commonly used to relieve burnout. 

Prevention Strategies for Burnout

Engaging in regular counseling sessions is an effective way to prevent burnout. With your counselor, you can learn more about your brain and body’s specific needs and create a plan to meet those needs regularly. 

In your personal time, there are many other ways you can work to supplement your work in therapy and help relieve feelings of burnout. These can include:

1. Take a timeout. To recover from burnout, it’s important to take time to decompress. You can try deep breathing, meditation, taking walks, laughing with friends—anything to help you re-center and re-energize.
2. Get enough sleep. Another immediate step you can take to recover from burnout is to catch up on any lack of sleep. When stressed and overwhelmed, sleep is a need that is often neglected. Try to keep a consistent sleep schedule and practice good sleep hygiene and see if your symptoms improve.
3. Define a healthy balance. Balance is an important part of living a healthy and fulfilling life. Brainstorm on your own or work with your mental health provider to establish what a more balanced life looks like to you. The more you can identify your actual goal, the easier it will be to create a path toward achieving it.
4. Spend some time in nature. You can also spend time outside to recover from burnout. Whether it’s taking a walk outside, sitting at the beach, eating lunch in a park, or even just taking a beat to feel the sun on your face, nature can help refocus the mind and regain perspective. 
5. Allow yourself mental health breaks. Be sure to do this constantly, even daily. These can be small breaks throughout the day, such as a cup of coffee alone, or breaks that include days off and vacations. It’s important to remember that one aspect of our lives, work or otherwise, should not dominate our time. Life is made of parts, and each of these parts is important to our mental health and well-being. Breaks are a normal and healthy part of any task or activity.
6. Evaluate your relationships. If you’re experiencing burnout often, you could benefit from evaluating your relationships. Notice the energy you feel around those you interact with. Do you feel relaxed or uplifted? Do you feel anxious or exhausted? If certain people zap your energy or leave you feeling overwhelmed, factor this into your choices about being around them.
7. Consider a job or position change. To recover from and prevent future burnout, you might want to consider a change in work. Even if you love the work you do, burnout is not a sustainable state of being, and if you believe that elements of your work are causing it, adjustments need to be made to prioritize your well-being. 

As stated above, burnout prevention strategies are focused on creating and maintaining a life that involves balance and autonomy and incorporates the frequent use of your daily values, support system, and other hobbies and avenues of enjoyment that you choose with regularity and predictability. As you find new strategies to help with burnout, make sure they work to fill you with energy, peace, and fulfillment.