Are You Experiencing Burnout? A Guide to Understanding and Evaluating Burnout

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The purpose of this article is to enhance your understanding of burnout, become familiar with the symptoms of burnout, and help you obtain the right tools to evaluate if you are experiencing difficulties with burnout.

There is a difference between burnout and stress that needs to be considered. Burnout is when you participate in a responsibility for too long and you are exhausting yourself more than you can recover. Stress is the body's response to pressure. When we are stressed for too long our body can experience chronic stress, which could lead to burnout.  Andrew Proctor’s text, The Essential Guide to Burnout, quotes psychiatrist Glenn Roberts, “Burnout is not the result of stress but of mismanaged stress (Procter 2013).” If you push yourself beyond your natural limits, you are at a greater likelihood of experiencing burnout.

Different Types of Burnout:

There are so many different aspects to burnout. You could experience burnout at work, with parental duties, a stressful problem that arises that needs attention, or carrying out responsibilities as a carer (taking care of elder parents). When an individual experiences burnout they may describe feeling more stressed and depleted. Burnout through research has been described as:

-       Emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment and feelings of insufficiency (Melamed et al.

-       Persistent stress may influence symptoms that are both physical and mental (Ahola et al 2009).

-       Chronic stress that brings on symptoms of depression (von Kanel 2008).

The physical symptoms of burnout include: physical and mental exhaustion and fatigue, muscle aches and pains, dizziness, tension headaches and sleep disturbances, inability to relax, irritability, and inability to recover after rest, relaxation or entertainment (Procter 2013).

Males are more likely to experience symptoms of depersonalization with burnout compared to females (Sharma & Cooper 2016).

Observing what areas you feel like you are managing well and considering the areas where you are ‘at your limit’ will help you better understand the changes that need to be considered. Inner pressures also need to be evaluated when considering burnout. The inner pressures are the pressures that we put on ourselves based on a specific cognitive distortion called musts, oughts, and shoulds. These expectations are based on the things we do that we believe we ‘must’ do or should do to meet the demands of each external pressure (work life, home life, and the outside triggering events (i.e., home renovation, difficulties with a friend). Adjusting the inner pressures that come from expectations, standards, and judgements that one has about oneself can help with burnout symptoms.

What we want to notice

  • When we are working harder and longer and achieving less

  • An inability to pursue recreational and recovery needs

  • Using mood-altering drugs to help cope with the increased demand

  • A change in feelings (loss of sense of humour, resentful, powerlessness, feeling like you have failed, guilt, feeling responsible all the time, increased irritability, anger, loss of patience).

  • Changes in health (compromised immune system, difficulties sleeping) or thinking (thoughts about wanting to leave your work, increased cynicism, preoccupation with survival and your own needs).

What we want to help create awareness around: Brownout

We want to be aware of the symptoms before burnout begins. This is termed the ‘brownout’ period. During this time we want to be aware of (Procter 2013):

  • feelings of being pressured or overstressed,

  • noticing changes in our behaviour and thinking

  • Feeling physically and emotionally exhausted – energy is gone.

Personality factors can also influence burnout. There raw two types of personalities that are more prone to burnout those that are conscientious and hardworking with high drive and those that are highly compassionate and are willing to sacrifice to help others. Being conscious of our personality traits can help us create change in behaviours to help manage burnout.

To help evaluate burnout, please refer to Burnout Questionnaire

Procter, A., Procter, E. (2013). The Essential Guide to Burnout: Overcoming Excess Stress. United Kingdom: Lion Hudson Limited.

Ahola K, Gould R, Virtanen M, Honkonen T, Aromaa A, Lönnqvist J. Occupational burnout as a predictor of disability pension: a population-based cohort study. Occup Environ Med. 2009 May;66(5):284-90; discussion 282-3. doi: 10.1136/oem.2008.038935. Epub 2008 Nov 18. PMID: 19017706.

von Känel R, Bellingrath S, Kudielka BM. Association between burnout and circulating levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in schoolteachers. J Psychosom Res. 2008 Jul;65(1):51-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.02.007. Epub 2008 May 22. PMID: 18582612.

Melamed S, Shirom A, Toker S, Berliner S, Shapira I. Burnout and risk of cardiovascular disease: evidence, possible causal paths, and promising research directions. Psychol Bull. 2006 May;132(3):327-53. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.327. PMID: 16719565.

Sharma, R. R., Cooper, C. L. (2016). Executive Burnout: Eastern and Western Concepts, Models and Approaches for Mitigation. United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.