Is it stress, or is it burnout?
Most people in high-demand jobs are used to stress. Long shifts, constant pressure, not enough time, not enough support. Stress comes with the territory. Stress is typically time-limited and can often serve a functional purpose. However burnout typically occurs when we stop returning to baseline. Burnout is our body’s warning system letting you know you are on overload.
Rest is not restorative, time off is not rejuvenating, and every day feels like a struggle. What used to feel like “pushing through” starts to feel like your normal state. Feeling exhausted, tense, or depleted stops registering as unusual. You stop noticing how far from ‘okay’ you actually are because you’ve adjusted to functioning in a depleted state. This is why burnout is often missed, especially in high-demand professions like healthcare, EMS, education, and public safety. You may think “I’m still doing my job, I’m still showing up”, but burnout has incredibly high costs to yourself and those around you.
It can show up look as persistent fatigue, muscle tension that never fully releases, headaches, or a general sense that you never feel fully recovered even when you’ve had time off. You may have difficulty falling asleep, or sleep that doesn’t feel restorative. Workout recovery is less effective, and usually eating habits tend to get worse as well.
Mentally and emotionally, things start to shift in less obvious ways. Some people feel more reactive than usual, with small stressors hitting harder than they should. Others go in the opposite direction and feel flatter, less responsive, like their emotional range has narrowed. Relationships can suffer as well, as communication becomes less clear and typically emotions run higher. Depending on how deep the burnout runs, maladaptive coping mechanisms can show up, such as use or overuse of substances, excessive engagement with distractions, isolating/withdrawing, and so on.
The most insidious risk with burnout may be shifts in judgement. Because over time you have learned to ‘function’ with this level of depletion, you may not notice when errors in judgement occur. Someone with hypoglycemia may not initially notice low blood sugar, but to outside others it may be obvious they are impaired. By the time people reach out for help, they’re often measuring themselves against who they used to be, or against what they think they should be able to handle. The conclusion is usually the same: they should be doing better than this, and something must be wrong with them. Fortunately that is an erroneous conclusion; there’s nothing wrong with you, you are just operating impaired, and that can be addressed.
If this sounds familiar, it’s worth talking it through with someone who understands how burnout actually develops in high-demand work. This is the kind of thing therapy is meant for- sorting out what’s burnout versus what you’ve been telling yourself about it, and what needs to change for things to actually get better.
If you’re at the point where this is starting to feel like your baseline, don’t wait for it to get worse before addressing it. Reach out and schedule an appointment with us. We look forward to helping you recover.
