Burnout vs Stress

What are the Differences and Why it Matters

So many people seem to be burnt out.

The word has become so widely used that it has started to lose its meaning a little. It is applied equally to someone who has had a difficult week and someone who has been running on empty for three years and can no longer get out of bed with anything that resembles motivation.

This matters, because burnout and stress are not the same thing. They feel different and they operate differently. Most importantly, they need different responses. Treating burnout like stress, or stress like burnout, can make both worse.

What Is Stress?

Stress is the body’s response to demand. When we perceive a threat, the nervous system activates, flooding the body with cortisol and adrenaline, bringing with it a sharpening of focus, and the ability to respond physcially.

In short bursts this is really useful. It allows us to meet a deadline, navigate a crisis, or perform under pressure.

When the demand is continuous though, and recovery never comes, problems arise. This can cause sleep and concentration issues and patience can thin.

This is chronic stress. It is what most people are experiencing when they reach out for support.

The key feature of stress, even chronic stress, is that there is still fuel in the tank. The person is struggling, often significantly, but they are still engaged and they still care and try. Often they try harder than ever, which sustains the stress.

What Is Burnout?

Burnout is what happens when the tank is completely empty.

As defined by Christina Maslach, burnout has three core components: exhaustion, cynicism, and a reduced sense of efficacy. You feel like nothing you do makes a difference.

Where stress is characterised by over engagement, too much feeling, too much urgency, too much pressure, burnout is often characterised by the opposite.

People experiencing burnout have typically been under significant stress for a prolonged period without adequate recovery. They have pushed through, kept going, told themselves it would ease off soon, but at some point, the system has simply stopped responding to that instruction.

Burnout is not laziness. It is not weakness. It is a physiological response to sustained depletion.