Burnout or depression? Understand how to differentiate them and take care of mental health

Exhaustion, when it hits, takes over everything. Your inbox beeps and you want to throw your phone across the room. You are tired of your apartment and can’t bear to leave the apartment. You fumble with words: tell friends you’re tired, fried, or finished.

How do you know if this wave of tiredness signals a case of burnout or outright depression? We asked experts for ways to tell the two apart and how to alleviate the symptoms of both.

What is the difference between burnout and depression?

The concept of burnout, or burnout, comes from workplace psychology, said Angela Neal-Barnett, a professor of psychology at Kent State University and author of “Soothe Your Nerves: The Black Woman’s Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety, Panic and Fear.” ” [Acalme seus nervos: o guia da mulher negra para entender e superar a ansiedade, o pânico e o medo, em português].

Therapists typically associate burnout with work, although researchers are also studying parental burnout when caregivers feel chronically exhausted. Burnout has become a pervasive term in the cultural lexicon, especially during the pandemic.

On TikTok, the trend of “quiet quitting,” or doing the bare minimum on a job, has gone viral as people share stories about feeling drained from overwork and a terrible “hurry culture.”

Workers can get burned out when they feel they have no control over their everyday lives, getting bogged down in the details of tasks. People who are burnt out may feel tired and despise their jobs. They may resent their assignments and those of their peers.

They may also feel irritable and ineffective, as if they just can’t do anything. As for people who interact with others at work, such as healthcare professionals or those in the retail and service industries, they can begin to lose empathy, thinking of patients or customers as just another number or routine task to complete.

There are also a number of physical symptoms that can come with the never-ending stress of burnout: insomnia, headache, gastrointestinal problems.

The WHO (World Health Organization) includes burnout in the International Classification of Diseases, its diagnostic manual, characterizing it as an “occupational phenomenon”, not a medical condition.

Depression, however, is a clinical diagnosis. People with depression often experience anhedonia, the inability to enjoy activities they once enjoyed. “You could be reading a book you loved and now you hate it,” said Jessi Gold, a psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Or you love watching Bravo, but now he doesn’t make you laugh anymore.” With burnout, you may not have the energy for your hobbies. With depression, you may not find anything fun or enjoyable, said Jeanette M. Bennett, an associate professor who studies the health effects of stress at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

As with burnout, people with depression may get too much or too little sleep and may have trouble concentrating. People with depression may isolate themselves from others or feel that it takes a lot of energy to shower or eat.

Depression can induce an overwhelming feeling of sadness and despair. In severe cases, people may begin to think that they are worthless or that life is not worth living. These symptoms tend to last for at least two weeks, Gold and Neal-Barnett said.

A key differentiator is that burnout improves when you take time off work, said Rebecca Brendel, president of the American Psychiatric Association. When you take a vacation, or mental health day, you feel at least a little recharged. Depression doesn’t go away if you change your circumstances. “There’s no such rebound effect,” she said. “It takes more than that.”

A complex combination of genetic and environmental factors can contribute to depression. People who experience a traumatic event, or go through a major life change, are at greater risk of developing depression, as are people who have family members with depression. Burnout itself can also be a risk factor for depression, Neal-Barnett said.

And you can experience both burnout and depression at the same time. “Given the effects of Covid, given racism as a public health crisis in this country, it’s important that we be mindful of this combination,” she said.

What to do if you think you’re sold out

Taking a day off work, if possible, can offer relief from your symptoms. If you’re constantly feeling burnt out, you might consider a career change — which is easier said than done, Gold acknowledged.

“Being able to say, ‘This is a bad place to work, this is it, I quit,’ is a privilege beyond privilege,” she said. There are also smaller ways to set limits, like turning off notifications from your work email or the Slack app at certain times.

If there’s a meeting you always hate, try blocking out five or 10 minutes right afterward to do something that helps you relax, suggested Gold. “Being able to have some control is a burnout prevention,” she said.

You can also try to accentuate the elements of your work that you think are important. Maybe that means mentoring a younger colleague, Gold said, or offering to hand off responsibilities you don’t particularly like to a co-worker in exchange for helping them with a project you’re more interested in.

Exercise can help relieve work-related tension, as can taking a few minutes to decompress — without the phone, Bennett said.

“If you sit at a computer to work, and then you’re on the phone in transport, and then you get home and watch whatever Netflix series you like, that’s all stimulation,” she said. Her brain needs a break to help combat stress — which means stepping away from screens, but also giving yourself a few moments of silence, alone with your thoughts, undistracted.

If you’re struggling with dealing with burnout, consider talking to a mental health professional.

What to do if you think you’re depressed

See a mental health professional, who can help develop a plan to treat and address your symptoms.

In the meantime, start small and simple. If you tell yourself you’re going to take a five-minute walk, you’ll probably end up walking longer, Gold said.

“But when you’re exhausted and sad, it’s hard to make yourself do anything.” Getting out of the house won’t alleviate all of your symptoms, but any kind of movement can help you feel a little better, she said.

You can jot down coping mechanisms that were helpful—call a friend or go for a quick run—and keep the list on your desk or dresser for when you need them. Pay attention to what works, Gold said. “If you don’t like mindfulness, don’t force it,” she said.

“Do the things that really help you feel better when you feel bad.”

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves