How to Recognize Burnout Symptoms

Is your job making you exhausted? Does the thought of dragging yourself to work fill you with dread? Or have you reached the point where you just don't care about your job anymore? If so, you might be experiencing burnout—a type of work-related exhaustion that can bleed over into other areas of your life.

Excessive workplace stress for prolonged periods can lead to burnout. However, it can also happen in other areas of life where you face too much stress for too long, such as when dealing with caregiving, relationship, parenting, or financial challenges.

So, what does burnout look like, exactly? Symptoms of burnout include feeling exhausted, empty, and unable to cope with daily life. If left unaddressed, your burnout may even make it difficult to function. Keep reading to learn more about the physical and mental symptoms of burnout, factors that may increase your risk, and a few recovery strategies.

What Does Burnout Mean?

Burnout is a reaction to prolonged or chronic job stress. It is characterized by three main dimensions:

1. exhaustion,
2. cynicism (less identification with the job),
3. and feelings of reduced professional ability.

More simply put, if you feel exhausted, start to hate your job, and begin to feel less capable at work, you are showing signs of burnout.

Most people spend the majority of their waking hours working. So, if you hate your job, dread going to work, and don't gain any satisfaction from what you're doing, it can take a serious toll on your life. This toll shows up via burnout symptoms.

Symptoms You Might Be Experiencing Burnout

Burnout isn’t a diagnosable psychological disorder, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be taken seriously. Burnout symptoms can affect you both physically and mentally. Feeling burned out can contribute to mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, and the ongoing stress you are experiencing can take a massive toll on both your physical and mental health.

Physical Burnout Symptoms

When you experience burnout, your body will often display certain signs. Research indicates that some of the most common physical burnout symptoms include:

• Gastrointestinal problems
• High blood pressure
• Poor immune function (getting sick more often)
• Reoccurring headaches
• Sleep issues

Because burnout is caused by chronic stress, it's helpful to also be aware of how this stress, in general, affects the body. Having chronic stress in your life doesn't necessarily mean that you are experiencing burnout. Unaddressed chronic stress, however, can eventually lead to burnout.

Chronic stress may be felt physically in terms of having more aches and pains, low energy levels, and changes in appetite. All of these physical signs suggest that you may be experiencing burnout.

Mental Burnout Symptoms

Burnout also impacts you mentally and emotionally. Here are some of the most common mental symptoms of burnout:

• Concentration issues
• Depressed mood
• Feeling worthless
• Loss of interest or pleasure
• Suicidal ideation

Burnout vs. Depression

Burnout shares symptoms with some mental health conditions, such as depression. Depression symptoms also include a loss of interest in things, feelings of hopelessness, cognitive and physical symptoms, as well as thoughts of suicide. How can you tell if what you are feeling is burnout versus depression?

The key differences center on where and when you experience symptoms. Burnout symptoms tend to be focused on work (or the specific challenge you're dealing with), while depression tends to affect all areas of your life.

If this is how you feel, a mental health professional can help. Seeking help is important because individuals experiencing burnout may be at a higher risk of developing depression.

Are You Feeling Burnt Out? Take the Quiz

Try our fast and free burnout quiz to find out if some of the things you've been feeling may be a sign of burnout.

Factors That Put You at Risk of Burnout

People who work in certain stressful professions sometimes have a higher risk of burning out, but having a high-stress job doesn't always lead to burnout. You may not experience these ill effects if your stress is managed well.

However, some individuals (and those in certain occupations) are at a higher risk of having burnout symptoms than others. It often comes down to how you manage your stress and the support you have in your life.

According to a 2018 Gallup report, there are five job factors that can contribute to employee burnout:

1. Unreasonable time pressures. Employees who say they have enough time to do their work are 70% less likely to experience high burnout, while individuals who are not able to gain more time (such as paramedics and firefighters) are at a higher risk of burnout.
2. Lack of communication and support from management. Manager support offers a psychological buffer against stress. Employees who feel strongly supported by their manager are 70% less likely to experience burnout symptoms on a regular basis.
3. Lack of role clarity. Only 60% of workers know what is expected of them. When expectations are like moving targets, employees may become exhausted simply by trying to figure out what they are supposed to be doing.
4. Unmanageable workload. When the workload feels unmanageable, even the most optimistic employees will feel hopeless. Feeling overwhelmed can quickly lead to burnout symptoms.
5. Unfair treatment. Employees who feel they are treated unfairly at work are 2.3 times more likely to experience a high level of burnout. Unfair treatment may include things such as favoritism, unfair compensation, and mistreatment from a co-worker.

The stress that contributes to burnout can come mainly from your job, but stressors from other areas of life can add to these levels as well. For instance, personality traits and thought patterns such as perfectionism, neuroticism, and pessimism can contribute to the stress you feel.

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Burnout Can Have Serious Effects

Chances are, you probably have a pretty good idea of whether you are burned out or not. So what happens if you don't take steps to address those feelings of exhaustion, disconnect, and distress? If left untreated, burnout symptoms can lead to:

You Might Feel Alienated From Your Work

Individuals experiencing burnout view their jobs as increasingly stressful and frustrating. You may grow cynical about your working conditions and the people you work with. You might also emotionally distance yourself and begin to feel numb about your work.

You May Become Emotionally Exhausted

Over time, untreated burnout symptoms can cause you to feel emotionally drained and unable to cope. You might find it harder and harder to deal with problems at work and at home. When you get home from work, you may be so fatigued that you don't have the physical or mental energy to engage in other activities that are part of your home life.

Your Performance at Work Can Suffer

Burnout affects everyday tasks at work, or in the home if your main job involves caring for family members. Individuals with burnout symptoms feel negative about tasks, have difficulty concentrating, and often lack creativity. Together, this results in reduced performance.

How to Prevent and Treat Burnout

Although the term "burnout" suggests that this may be a permanent condition, it is reversible. If you are feeling burned out, you may need to make some changes to your work environment.

Approaching human resources about problems you're having or talking to a supervisor could be helpful if the company is invested in creating a healthier work environment. In some cases, a change in position or a new job altogether may be necessary to begin to recover from burnout. If you can't switch jobs, it may help to at least switch tasks.

It can also be helpful to develop clear strategies to help you manage your stress. Self-care strategies like eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of exercise, and engaging in healthy sleep habits may help reduce some of the effects of a high-stress job.

A vacation may offer you some temporary relief too, but a week away from the office won't be enough to help you beat burnout. Regularly scheduled breaks from work, along with daily renewal exercises, can be key to helping you combat burnout.

Social support is also critical. This can come from various sources, including coworkers, friends, family, and mental health professionals. If you are struggling to find the type of support you need, consider joining an in-person or online support group where you can talk about your challenges and get encouragement from people with the same type of experience.