Why this matters
Burnout, anxiety, and depression can feel similar: tired, low, foggy, wired, detached. Distinguishing them helps you choose the right support and set realistic expectations for recovery.
Working definitions
- Burnout: Syndrome from chronic stress that hasn’t been successfully managed. It can occur in work-related or private contexts. Typical features are exhaustion, mental distance or cynicism, and reduced effectiveness. Not a medical diagnosis.
- Anxiety: Normal life experience up to the point where it becomes a condition marked by excessive worry and avoidance that impairs daily life.
- Depression: Normal life experience up to the point where it becomes persistent low mood and loss of interest with physical and cognitive changes.
Shared signs are fatigue, sleep problems, concentration difficulties, irritability, and withdrawal can occur in all three.
What tilts the diagnosis
- Context: Burnout is tied to occupational or caregiving stress; symptoms ease when workload and relational demands change. Depression and anxiety are not limited to work contexts.
- Mood: Depression centres on persistent low mood and anhedonia across settings; burnout often feels more like emotional blunting or cynicism mostly about role demands.
- Physiology: Chronic stress dysregulates the HPA axis. Anxiety adds hyperarousal and threat bias; depression adds psychomotor change and negative cognitive style.
- Debate you should know about: Some research argues burnout overlaps strongly with depression, so screening for both is prudent (PubMedFrontiers). In practice, we assess the whole picture rather than force a label.
A quick self-check
Ask: When do symptoms peak? What reliably relieves them? If a week away changes little, or hopelessness dominates, screen for depression. If dread, avoidance, or panic rule, prioritise anxiety treatment. If cynicism, depletion, and role-related collapse lead, consider burnout.
Next step:
- Learn more: Burnout Therapy at The Village Clinic
- Practice at home: The Pause: A 2-minute Practice
- Read article: Burnout’s Quiet Disconnection: The Cost of Holding It All Together
- Read article: Still Going, But Running on Empty: Understanding Burnout
- Reach out: Book Your Free Welcome Call
Your Questions, Answered
Yes. Stress and burnout affect the whole body. We’ll consider both psychological and physiological signs.
Yes. Therapy can support pacing, boundary setting and confidence as you re-engage.
Some people notice relief in the first few sessions; deeper change takes longer. We’ll review together and pace the work.
It may be. Many clients look “fine” outwardly while struggling privately. Talking it through can clarify what’s happening.
Absolutely. Therapy often starts with sensations, images, fragments – what’s present now – to build from there.
Many people improve with therapy alone. If you’re considering medication, your GP can advise on options and timing.
You don’t need perfect words to begin. We’ll start with what’s present: sensations, images, fragments of thought.
Sometimes feelings intensify as we pay attention to them. We’ll go at a pace that feels safe and adjust when needed.