Burnout is when a person reaches a state of total mental, physical and emotional exhaustion and it has some similar signs and symptoms to a nervous breakdown. Your doctor can prescribe medicines for many mental health conditions, and refer you to other healthcare professionals, such as psychologists or psychiatrists.
Generally, a nervous breakdown means that a person can't function as usual. For example, a person may: Call in sick to work for days or longer. Avoid social events and miss appointments.
While burnout is not a mental health disorder, it is closely tied to a few. Burnout can be a cause of a mental health disorder, but mental health conditions can also cause burnout. According to a study conducted by the University of Macedonia, burnout has an interconnected relationship with both depression and anxiety.
Habitual Burnout. The final stage of burnout is habitual burnout. This means that the symptoms of burnout are so embedded in your life that you are likely to experience a significant ongoing mental, physical or emotional problem, as opposed to occasionally experiencing stress or burnout.
It is displayed in hostility, anger, frustration, and an inability to effectively cope with these negative emotions. Chronic stress that goes on for months or longer should be addressed with self-help relaxation techniques to prevent an escalation to mental health issues.
Signs of Burnout
Signs and symptoms can be subtle at first. But the longer they go unaddressed, the worse they can become, which can lead to a breakdown. Many burnout symptoms can feel like symptoms of stress, but there are three ways to differentiate them: Feeling tired or exhausted.
childhood trauma can also lead to what is known as “burnout.” This is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion from chronic stress.
Physical symptoms will become intense, leading to chronic headaches, stomach issues and gastrointestinal problems. Friends and family members may also notice behavioral changes. If left untreated, burnout can become a part of your everyday life and eventually lead to anxiety or depression.
Signs vary from person to person, and can depend upon the underlying cause. People who feel they are having a nervous breakdown can: have anxiety that they can't manage. feel isolated — disinterested in the company of family and friends, or withdrawing from usual daily activities.
A psychotic breakdown is any nervous breakdown that triggers symptoms of psychosis, which refers to losing touch with reality. Psychosis is more often associated with very serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, but anyone can experience these symptoms if stress becomes overwhelming, triggering a breakdown.
A nervous breakdown, which is a loss of the ability to function in everyday life, may last for a few hours or a few weeks.
A nervous breakdown usually lasts for a few hours to a few weeks, but in some cases it can last a few months or even a few years.
A nervous breakdown (also called a mental breakdown) is a term that describes a period of extreme mental or emotional stress. The stress is so great that the person is unable to perform normal day-to-day activities. The term “nervous breakdown” isn't a clinical one.
Treatment. See your primary care doctor or a mental health professional for help with symptoms of a mental breakdown. Your treatment will vary depending on your symptoms and the underlying causes of your stress. It may include recommendations for lifestyle changes, short-term psychotherapy, or medications.
A separate research review that looked at 15 high-quality studies on the cognitive effects of burnout found "executive attentional and memory systems appear to suffer in association with burnout, and cognitive functioning is impaired in burned-out individuals," APS also notes.
According to a study conducted on 109 firefighters in Korea, burnout symptoms in those with a high sense of calling was significantly associated with an increased risk of PTSD [21].
Emotional signs and symptoms of burnout
Detachment, feeling alone in the world. Loss of motivation. Increasingly cynical and negative outlook.
If you're having a mental breakdown, your intense reaction to stress can feel a lot like other mental health conditions like chronic stress, anxiety and depression. Burnout, where a person experiences too much stress over long periods, also has some similar signs and symptoms to a mental breakdown.
Burnout can lower your extraversion, making you less outgoing and energetic in social situations³⁶. Burnout can lower your agreeableness, making you more cynical and hostile towards others³⁴⁶. Burnout can increase your neuroticism, making you more prone to stress and emotional distress²³⁴⁶.
The problem with burnout, then, is that our bodily systems become deprioritised for too long, and as a result we can experience additional physical symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, fainting, heart palpitations and chest and muscle pain, among other things.
Vandenabeele says symptoms of burnout include insomnia or interrupted sleep, a weakened immune system, nausea and headaches along with low mood and irritability. He explains: “If you notice these symptoms in yourself, or someone else, seeking medical help is an important first step.”
Since burnout affects people differently, recovery time hinges on how a person experiences work-related exhaustion. Because of this variation, recovery time can take anywhere from a few weeks to several years.
When your day to day life is an endless cycle with a plate that's just too full to carry, eventually your arms have no choice but to collapse. It's a constant battle: if you don't work hard enough everything builds up but if you work too hard, eventually your body collapses from shear exhaustion.