What is burnout and what does it mean?

You might have uttered the phrase, “I’m feeling burned out” without thinking much about what it means. Historically, burnout hasn’t been clearly defined or well-understood. Last summer, the World Health Organization officially began recognizing it as a medical syndrome, which it describes as a form of unmanaged, chronic workplace stress. This is a huge step in formally recognizing this modern-day epidemic, but it’s still not recognized in the DSM (the bible of psychology/psychiatry). And here at Flourish, we found this definition too vague to be helpful.

We dove deep to uncover the truth about burnout, researching and working with hundreds of burned out professionals.

Our work indicates that while it can have a multitude of causes and a whole constellation of symptoms, at its very core, burnout is a state of emotional exhaustion that leaves you feeling drained and overwhelmed by daily life. It can be accompanied by physical and/or mental exhaustion.

Years before starting Flourish, my co-founder Naveed had landed his dream job traveling the world working to alleviate poverty. It gave him a sense of meaning, but the job’s constant travel demands left him perpetually exhausted. He started making unhealthy eating choices and struggled to maintain important relationships since he was emotionally drained from the road warrior life.

As Naveed’s work life and personal life bled together, he started dreading going into the office. Naveed eventually found himself struggling to get out of bed every morning, hitting the snooze button as many as six to eight times before dragging himself up. Despite achieving all he had hoped for in his career, he felt increasingly pressured, in over his head, and deeply unhappy. This led to a sense of shame since he felt like a fraud. Then the panic attacks hit, and he felt he had no choice but to quit. Only later, after taking time off to recover and reflect, did Naveed realize he had been suffering from severe burnout. It’s important to know that while some burnout sufferers are acutely aware they’re burned out, others don’t yet realize what’s causing their symptoms.

The signs of burnout can feel physical, but it often feels mental and emotional too. We’ve found that the core experience is emotional exhaustion, which creates a multitude of symptoms felt by Naveed and visualized below. Symptoms can vary from person to person, though most who are suffering feel a lack of motivation that can translate to physical fatigue that isn’t cured by rest. In other words, that Sunday Netflix binge session may be relaxing temporarily, but it isn’t enough to cure burnout — and it can actually make you feel worse if you’re just using it to escape and avoid emotions.

Burnout may cause you to express emotions in ways that are outside the norm for you, such as crying spells, angry outbursts, or just being irritable. It’s also common to feel a heavy sense of burden, where even small tasks like paying bills can be overwhelming. Emotional exhaustion can also leave you with a sense of loneliness, and as Naveed did, you may feel ashamed of yourself for struggling and try to hide it. If left unaddressed, it can lead to serious health consequences such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type II diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic.

We get it — when you’re burned out, it’s easy to beat yourself up. You probably wonder why your friends and colleagues are able to easily balance the same things you struggle to keep up with. Bear in mind that you never know what’s going on with someone else internally. With the data showing how common burnout is, it’s likely some of your teammates are also struggling with it but adept at hiding it.

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