27. April 2026

How to recognise burnout

We talk a lot about how stress can lead to burnout, but what exactly is it and how do you recognise if you're suffering from burnout? As an online counsellor who specialises in support clients to overcome burn out, I wanted to lay out exactly what burnout is and what we can do about it.

First of all, it's natural to feel stressed sometimes. The world we live in today is complicated, can be hectic and there are often many demands on our time and energy. We can't always have it all and that can be really frustrating when you add in the social pressure that we suffer from these days. Social media means we always have access to a million people who seem to be achieving so much and feeling happy and fulfilled in their lives. Obviously, though, we only see a snapshot and it's hardly the truth behind the scenes much of the time.

When stress turns into burnout

So what is the difference between stress and burnout. Stress comes and goes. You can feel fine, then overwhelmed and snappy, then relaxed, then rushed and harried. It fluctuates. Often a day off, some time by yourself to reset, being creative or spending time with loved ones can help you to reduce your stress levels. This is where mindfulness- practising being present and focusing on each moment as it comes- and spending time in nature or listening to music can really help.

Burnout is a different beast, and it can creep up on you if you're not regularly checking in with yourself. Burnout is when stress builds to a point where your nervous system just can't relax. You might go around saying you're 'fine', but you're making mistakes because your brainpower is stretched, you're getting upset more easily because your body is already wound tight, you're forgetting things as you try to do too much, and you find yourself simply unable to engage with what used to bring you joy.

Signs of burnout

Burnout may look a little different individually as our nervous systems sometimes work in different ways, but here are some examples of symptoms that might mean you're feeling burnout.

• You feel numb to both joys and troubles - everything is just another thing to manage
• Change in appetite, as you struggle to listen to your body's needs
• Change in sleep pattern, as cortisol interrupts your REM cycle
• Physical, emotional and mental exhaustion, the kind that sleep doesn't cure
• Avoiding opportunities for reflection, such as speaking to your supervisor
• Inability to process life events- both joy and grief can be put on pause when you're already feeling overwhelmed
• Other symptoms may be physical, such as digestion issues or chronic pain

How burnout affects daily life

Burnout is often cited as a reason why people take a leave of absence from work. They are simply unable to function anymore and may have had an emotional breakdown leading to the decision to take a break. Sometimes the decision is made for you by management, which is no easier.

Working to the point of burnout is unsafe and unfortunately carries social connotations of shame, as we compare ourselves with our colleagues and wonder why it was us who couldn't cope. That line of thinking is unproductive and unfair. We never know what other people are dealing with, or what experiences wired their system to deal with situations in different ways. That colleague that seems to handle a traumatic scene in A&E then enjoy their birthday party that evening? Perhaps their system had to learn to compartmentalise well due to an abundance of traumatic incidents earlier in life. Appearing to cope better in the moment is not always indication of a healthy system.

Jobs with a higher risk of burnout

Unfortunately, many people are exposed to stressful and traumatic situations as part of their line of work on a regular basis. I'm thinking now of those in our front-line services, such as nurses, firefighters, surgeons, police and first responders. These are jobs where it's not just the stress of a deadline but potentially someone's life on the line, and the adrenaline still surging through your body hours later may make dealing with other tasks harder, or make it more difficult to empathise with your loved ones, who may have also had a trying day in their own way.

There are also many roles in which we're not just expected to do our jobs but support others too, often carrying an emotional load that is not purely our own as we worry for the students in our care, the patients on our ward, the clients who confess to struggling with cost of living. Not only are we often carrying around our own concerns but those of other people too, which is why counsellors train for years to put down those emotions and reset in order to continue to support our clients long term. Not many jobs give that kind of training.

What to do about burnout

If you think you may be suffering from burnout, I'm sorry but it's simply not possible to just try harder and overcome it. Taking a break or making a change may feel like one of the hardest challenges, but unlike stress where we can vent and feel better, burnout needs a far more comprehensive system reboot. Teachers who run on empty all term may recognise that halfway through the summer holidays they start to feel more like themselves again rather than a robot. This is what I'm talking about. Finding a way to detach from the sources of pressure is the best way to heal your nervous system, because trying to rest a muscle while it's still carrying a weight is nearly impossible.

Not everyone can just take time off work, obviously. Financial concerns are a large reason why most people who burn out don't stop when they're stressed but press on until they're literally unable to continue. If you can get support while you try to get on top of the situation, then great, that's still showing up for yourself the best way you can.

For many of my clients, this has looked like getting counselling alongside trying to work with their management, and their support system at home, to lighten the load, mentally and physically. Unlike a chat with a friend where a) you might feel too bad about yourself to admit how burned out you are, b) you may not want to bring the mood down- after all this is your relaxing time, and c) they might start giving you advice that isn't helpful, a counsellor is here to provide a place for you to unburden, to talk until the feelings pours out, to put down the emotional weight you've been carrying and trust that they can take it.

I don't give my clients advice. You know your situation in far more detail that I can. What I will do is validate your experience. I'll remind you of your little achievements each day to encourage self-compassion. And what I may do is challenge your assumptions to prompt change. I will Never judge you for how you've coped with a situation. Ever.

Overcoming burnout

Some of my clients have found their marriage strengthened when they started communicating their needs more openly, asking to share the mental load at home, bravely shaking up their status quo over the course of weeks or months, resulting in a true partnership that supported them when work got tough again.

Some haven't always decided to leave the job that was causing the distress, whether through workload, stress or bullying, but instead, by tapping into their inner strength and recognising their resources, they felt better equipped to handle it. When they felt truly seen and understood, validated and unburden of any guilt and shame, their stress levels reduced naturally.

Some found that by sharing their inner world with me, they remembered their values, their authentic hopes and desires, and started making decisions (even small ones) from that healthier places, living more intentionally as a result.

Preventing burnout

When we're stressed to the point of burnout, one of the most important things that falls by the wayside is the ability to prioritise ourselves. Perhaps, this was never a strength of yours and that's made the issue worse. Because if you're unable to prioritise yourself, you will not be looking after your body's needs and you will not be putting boundaries in place to support your mental health.

To give you an idea of what I mean, have you ever felt you needed to work so hard that you couldn't take a break to feed yourself, or even factor in a toilet break? Have you ever had a million things to do but agreed to do another presentation or take on another responsibility, because you felt socially pressured to do so? You wouldn't be alone if these are familiar to you.

Prioritising your needs can look small on the outside but make a big difference to your mental state and protect you from burnout. This might look like adjusting the temperature of your workspace to make yourself more comfortable. It may look like taking a walk around the block during your break instead of staying at your desk. It might be putting healthy fuel in your body instead of indulging in fast food to make yourself feel better (very hard when approaching burnout unless you have a supportive loved one to help you out here.) It may look like asking someone else to make dinner or take ownership of the laundry at home so that you can reduce your mental load. It may look like restructuring your schedule around when you notice you have more or less energy. Again, I will not advise you on what to do because I trust that you know what you really need, you've just been too burned out to notice.

Prioritising yourself should look like reaching out for support because you recognise that you deserve to feel better than this. Life should be better than burnout. It's never too early or late to start the conversation.

If you've been affected by anything in this article, I'd love to hear from you.