The earlier you spot the signs of burnout, the easier it will be for you to get help and recover from it. That’s why it’s so important to raise awareness about burnout instead of simply dismissing it as “laziness” like most people tend to do. So if you or anyone you know may be suffering from mental or emotional burnout, reach out to a healthcare professional and talk to them about it.

Spot the signs and seek help

Do you find yourself snappy and easily irritated suddenly? Do you often feel emotionally out of control nowadays but can't explain why? Well, moodiness and irritability are common but often overlooked signs of burnout. Lazy people, on the other hand, are a stark contrast to this, because they are often very relaxed, laidback, placid, and unaffected by things.

4. You've become moody and irritable

Earlier, you used to have things you were passionate about but now, may be struggling to find interest or enjoyment in it anymore. Whether it’s creativity, writing, sport, or just your academic/professional performance in general, burnout can make it seem hard for you to do the things you once loved or felt passionate about. You might even come to hate or resent it because of how much you overworked yourself and pushed yourself to the brink because of it.

3. You used to be passionate

One of the most distressing warning signs that someone may be emotionally and physically burnt out is if they start neglecting their self-care and socially withdrawing from others which wasn't the case before. There can be changes in the eating and/or sleeping patterns & stopping any effort to groom themselves or look good.This is because you feel so easily exhausted by even the simplest of tasks

5. You've neglected your self care

You might be experiencing depersonalization, or the “persistent feeling of being detached from one’s self” People with known depersonalization (H/O trauma/substance abuse) have described feeling a strange sort of emotional numbness and emptiness, like they were “watching their life from outside of themselves” or “going through the motions of every day as if on autopilot.” They don’t feel like themselves anymore, donot get engaged by anything, and constantly struggle with an overwhelming sense of helplessness and inability to take back control of their lives.

1. You feel disconnected from everything

If you were simply a lazy person, then it would stand to reason that you’ve always been a lazy person, maybe with a few rare exceptions. But if you used to be self-motivated and high achieving, often excelling in certain areas, and have only recently become exhausted, apathetic, and unmotivated, then it’s more likely that you’re suffering from burnout and not laziness like most people would think.

2. You used to be motivated

Burnouts develop in stages. So all of the points mentioned before – won’t just happen overnight. Studies show that there are actually five major stages of burnout, each with increasing degrees of severity: the honeymoon phase,the onset of stress, chronic stress, burnout,and habitual burnout.By the time you reach the fifth and final stage, burnout has already become so embedded in your life that the experience of mental and physical fatigue become more persistent and harder to treat.

6. These changes have happened gradually