The
exhaustion, when it hits, is all-consuming. Your inbox chimes and you
want to fling your phone across the room. You are sick of your apartment; you
cannot stand to leave your apartment. You fumble for the right word: You tell
friends you are tired or fried or just done.
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How do you know if this wave of weariness signals a
case of burnout or full-blown depression? We asked experts for ways to tell the
difference between the two, and how to alleviate the symptoms of both.
What’s
the difference between burnout and depression?
The concept of burnout comes
from workplace psychology, said Angela Neal-Barnett, a psychology professor at
Kent State University and author of “Soothe Your Nerves: The Black Woman’s
Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety, Panic and Fear.” Typically,
therapists associate burnout with work, although researchers are also studying
parental burnout, when caregivers feel chronically exhausted. Burnout has
become pervasive in the cultural lexicon, especially during the pandemic.
Workers can become burned out when they feel like
they do not have control over their day-to-day lives, getting bogged down in
the minutiae of their tasks. People who are burned out may feel depleted and
cynical about their jobs; they can resent their assignments and co-workers.
They might feel irritable and ineffective, like they just cannot get anything
done. For people who interact with others in their jobs, like health care
workers or people in the retail and service industries, they might start to
lose empathy, thinking of patients or customers as just another number or a
rote task to complete. There are also a litany of physical symptoms that can
come with the unending stress of burnout: insomnia, headaches, and
gastrointestinal issues.
The 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 treasured. With burnout, you might not have energy for your hobbies;
with depression, you might not find them fun or pleasant at all, said Jeanette
M. Bennett, an associate professor who studies the effects of stress on health
at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
As with burnout, people with depression may sleep
too much or too little, and may struggle to focus. People with depression may
isolate themselves from others; they may feel like it takes a lot of energy to
shower or eat. Depression can induce an overwhelming sense of sadness and
hopelessness. In severe cases, people with depression may start having thoughts
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 gets better
when you step away from work, said Dr Rebecca Brendel, president of the
American Psychiatric Association. When you take vacation time, or a mental health day,
you feel at least slightly recharged. Depression does not go away if you change
your circumstances. “There’s not that bounce-back effect,” she said. “It takes
more than that.”
What
to do if you think you are burned out
Taking a mental health day
or a “sad day” off work, if you are able to, can offer a reprieve from your
symptoms. If you feel constantly burned out, you might want to consider a
career change — which is easier said than done, Gold acknowledged. “Being able
to say, ‘This is a bad workplace, that’s it, I quit,’ is a privilege beyond
privilege,” she said. There are smaller ways to set boundaries, like turning
off notifications from your work email or Slack at certain hours. If there is
one meeting you consistently dread, try to block off five or 10 minutes right
after to do something that can help you relax, Gold suggested. “Being able to
have some control is a preventer from burnout,” she said.
You can also try to accentuate the elements of your
job that you find meaningful. Maybe that means mentoring a more junior
colleague, Gold said, or offering to hand off responsibilities you enjoy less
to a co-worker in favor of helping them with a project you’re more interested
in.
Exercise can help relieve work-related tension, as
can carving out even a few minutes to decompress — without your phone, Bennett
said. “If you sit on a computer for your job, and then you are on your phone
while you’re commuting, and then you come home and watch whatever Netflix
series you’re into — all of that is stimulation,” she said. Your brain needs a
break so that it can help buffer against stress — which means stepping away
from screens, but also giving yourself a few moments of quiet, sitting with
your thoughts, without distractions.
If you are struggling to cope with burnout, consider
speaking with a mental health professional.
What
to do if you think you are depressed
Reach out to a
mental health
provider, 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 on a five-minute walk, you’ll probably end up walking for
longer than that, Gold said. “But it’s hard when you’re exhausted and sad to
make yourself do anything.” Getting out of the house won’t alleviate all your
symptoms, but any kind of movement can help you feel a bit better, she said.
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