What is Silent Burnout?

What is “Silent Burnout?” 

Are you struggling with feeling like you’ve run out of gas and/or overwhelmed by what seems like a never ending list of to-dos, must-dos, and deadlines that leaves you thinking it’s just never good enough? Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stressful life circumstances. It leaves you feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. 

Silent burnout is when this state of exhaustion is developed gradually, and so it frequently goes unnoticed. Individuals will tend to suppress the signs of this build up and continue to push themselves until they can’t anymore. Compared to common signs of burnout, silent burnout does not result in a big ultimate breakdown, which can make it even harder to recognize. A lot of the time, you’ll be left asking yourself “how did I even get to this point?” 

10 Signs You Need a Break 

Like I highlighted previously, silent burnout can easily go undetected for a long time, which makes it difficult to address. 

These are some signs to be cognizant of:

1. Brain Fog 

Brain fog can show up differently for each person. Common symptoms of brain fog are difficulty concentrating or focusing, confusion, fatigue, forgetfulness, losing your train of thought, mental exhaustion, not having the right words, slow thought process and reaction time, or trouble paying attention.

2. Procrastination on important tasks 

Examples of this may be not paying rent/bills on time, not making doctor’s appointments, or pushing off assignments that are due.

3. Neglecting self-care 

When you feel like you have a million things to do and not enough time it is common for people to neglect self-care, like skipping meals, not showering or brushing your teeth, or leaving your room or home in a mess.

4. Cynicism 

Another common sign of silent burnout is being extra critical of yourself. You may notice increased negativity about your work and feelings around “not being good enough.” 

5. Unexplained physical symptoms 

You may have started to notice frequent or unexplainable headaches, muscle aches, or even increased susceptibility to illness, like the flu or colds. It’s also common to experience stomach problems more frequently, like indigestion or changes in appetite. Then there’s the big fatigue. You may notice feelings of being drained or exhausted no matter how much you rest or despite getting enough sleep the night before. While silent burnout seems like a predominantly mental impediment, it comes with a lot of physical symptoms as well.

6. Decreased creativity/problem-solving abilities 

People going through silent burnout also report a feeling of “hitting the wall.” There may be decreased productivity and or the ability to solve problems at work or in everyday life that you were once able to do. When experiencing burnout you struggle with concentration, which can directly start to affect traits like creativity and overall performance.

7. Emotional numbness/detachment 

Similar to the symptoms of cynicism, you start to feel emotionally detached from your work or responsibilities, may even be described as feeling “empty.” There may start to be feelings of being numb or distant from people or activities that usually brought you positive emotions.

8. Sleep disturbances 

Sleep disturbances with silent burnout can look like not being able to sleep at all, insomnia, or sleeping far too much, hypoinsomnia.

9. Increased irritability 

It is common for people to feel like they have a short temper or easily angered by things that didn’t bother them as much or being bothered by things that used to not irritate them. Burnout can even start to cause people to take out their frustrations out on others.

10. Loss of enjoyment in activities 

You may have noticed a decrease in pleasure in activities that used to or normally brought you enjoyment. 

Recovery 

After realizing you’re going through silent burnout, the next step to recovering is figuring out what is causing it. It’s important to name the parts of your life that are draining you. This isn’t always the easiest thing to do on your own, so you may need to seek help. Once you’re able to name the source of your stress, you can create distance for yourself. 

Now it may not always be the case that you have the privilege to leave a toxic job immediately, or cut out a complicated family member. If that’s not possible right now, then you can choose to focus on prioritizing your health. Get more sleep, eat better, and exercise, whatever you can to get back on track. This may not be leaving the job, but finding ways to get off the night shift, or meal prepping at the beginning of the week to make sure you’re eating, or asking to switch to a different team at work. These may all be things you’re telling yourself you can’t do, but there are small changes you can bravely implement for healthy change. 

Another aspect of recovery is self-reflecting. You may not be able to change everything right away, but after self-reflection and considering what went wrong, you can make the few changes you value the most and will have the most positive impact. However the biggest part of this is simply change. Something has to be different in order to improve your health. Nothing changes if nothing changes. It may also be that you can’t do everything on your own. You may have to ask for help, whether that be a professional, family, friends, or a work supervisor. Sometimes prioritizing yourself is asking for a helping hand. 

You can find a safe space to process your burnout and receive support in individual therapy with a professional counselor. You can explore different interpersonal dynamics that are contributing to the silent burnout, vocational satisfaction, or talk about emotional regulation and/or stress management. You may also benefit from speaking to a behavioral health specialist about current life factors or choices that are contributing to your silent burnout.