Burnout symptoms: recognising them before your body gives out

I know burnout symptoms from the inside. Before I became a sophrologist, I spent years working in start-ups, in a job I loved, with a level of tiredness I thought was normal. Until the day it was not. I burnt out, and it was while I was getting back on my feet that I discovered sophrology.

If you are reading this, you may be asking the question for yourself or for someone close to you. You have been exhausted for months, you sleep badly, everything irritates you, and you wonder whether you are "just tired". I am not going to tell you whether it is burnout: that is a doctor's job. What I can do is help you recognise the signs, understand how they build up, and know what to do now.

What burnout really is

The word is everywhere, and people end up using it for a busy week. Burnout is something else. The World Health Organization describes it as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It classes it as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition, and describes three dimensions:

• exhaustion, the feeling of being drained of energy;
• a growing distance from your job, with cynicism or rejection of work you used to enjoy;
• reduced effectiveness at work.

The INRS, the French reference body for health and safety at work, makes a point that struck a chord with me: burnout often affects people who are deeply committed to what they do. It appears when the gap becomes too wide between how you see your job and what the work really is. You wear yourself out precisely because you care about doing it well.

The risk factors the INRS lists are mostly about how work is organised: overload and time pressure, little control over your own work, lack of support, a sense of unfairness, insecurity. So it is not a question of personal weakness. I say this often in my sessions, because guilt is part of the picture.

Burnout symptoms, from body to behaviour

France's national health insurance, Assurance maladie, describes the signs of burnout on its page about fatigue: they come on gradually, and the tiredness goes hand in hand with emotional, cognitive, physical and behavioural changes. The INRS gives a very similar list. What I would like you to keep in mind is the change itself: little by little, you are no longer quite yourself.

In your body

Tiredness first, the kind a weekend no longer fixes. Then sleep goes off track, along with headaches, back or neck pain, muscle tension, cramps, dizziness, loss of appetite and digestive problems. A review of 36 prospective studies carried out in Brazil found that burnout predicts musculoskeletal pain, headaches, digestive issues and prolonged fatigue, as well as cardiovascular problems. The body ends up footing the bill.

In your emotions

Irritability, oversensitivity, sadness, lack of drive, anxiety. And sometimes the opposite: no emotion at all, a kind of emptiness. The INRS also mentions feeling powerless, losing self-confidence and pessimism.

In your head

Forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, difficulty making simple decisions or getting through tasks you used to do without thinking. You read the same email three times. You make mistakes that are not like you.

In your behaviour

You withdraw, isolate yourself, become more aggressive or more cynical, have less patience and empathy for colleagues or clients. You start to doubt your own abilities. And addictive habits creep in: an extra glass in the evening, pills to sleep, your phone until one in the morning.

None of these signs on its own means burnout. The INRS points out that they are not specific. What matters is how many there are, how long they last and how they connect to work.

How it creeps in without you noticing

We picture burnout as a sudden collapse. In reality, the collapse comes at the end. Before that, there are months of compensating: you work later, drop exercise, cancel on friends, and tell yourself it will get better once this project is over.

Looking back, my signs had been there for a long time. I saw them, and I did not want to look at them. I thought tiredness was the normal price of a job I loved. It is a very common trap. You are not blind, you are busy holding on.

What I often hear from the people who come to see me is this: "I thought it would pass." Burnout does not pass by gritting your teeth. The longer you hold on, the more likely your body is to decide for you.

The small signals not to brush aside

These are the ones you notice first, and the ones that are easiest to dismiss:

• Sunday evenings that fill you with dread;
• holidays that are no longer enough to recover;
• the feeling of rushing all day without finishing anything;
• people close to you saying you have changed;
• pleasure fading, even in things you used to love.

Burnout, depression or plain tiredness: why a doctor has to decide

Many people look for an online test to find out where they stand. I understand the reflex, but those tests can reassure or alarm you for the wrong reasons. A questionnaire can help you put words to what you are going through, but it cannot tell you where your exhaustion comes from.

The reason is simple. The same signs can come from depression, an anxiety disorder, an adjustment disorder, or a physical cause. France's national health insurance lists anaemia and an underactive thyroid among the possible causes of lasting tiredness. And the INRS notes that burnout itself can develop into depression or anxiety.

Telling these apart is a doctor's job. Mine, as a sophrologist, is not to tell you what you have. I would rather say it plainly: sophrology does not replace medical advice.

What you can do this week

If you recognise yourself here, a few simple steps can help you see more clearly while you wait for your medical appointment. They do not fix burnout, they help you look at the situation honestly.

Take stock in writing

Spend ten minutes writing down, without censoring yourself:

1. How long have you been feeling like this?
2. Which of the signs on this page do you recognise?
3. What has changed in your work or your life over the past few months?
4. What have you stopped doing that used to do you good?

Take this sheet with you to the doctor. When you are exhausted, it is easy to play everything down once you are sitting in the surgery.

Breathe to bring the pressure down

An exercise I often teach: breathe in through your nose for a count of four, then breathe out gently through your mouth for a count of six or eight, for two or three minutes. Do it in the morning before opening your emails and at night when you go to bed. Lengthening the out-breath helps your body step out of alert mode for a while. I have gathered more ideas in my article on managing stress and emotions.

Protect your sleep

Sleep is often the first thing to go, and it makes everything else feel heavier. Regular bedtimes, no emails after a set time, a quiet moment before sleep: small things, but they count.

Talk about it

To someone close to you, or a colleague you trust. Burnout isolates you, and saying "I am not OK" is already a first step out of that isolation.

When to see a doctor, and how I can support you

See your GP if you have recognised several signs on this page for a few weeks, if you can no longer recover, or if you are drinking more or taking more medication. If you are employed in France, you can also ask to see your occupational doctor. And if your doctor signs you off work, there is nothing shameful about it.

If you have dark thoughts or thoughts of suicide, do not wait. In France, call the 3114, the national suicide prevention line, free and available day and night, or 15 in an emergency. Elsewhere, contact your local emergency number.

What I offer comes afterwards, or alongside, in addition to medical care. Sophrology helps you sleep more calmly, release tension and recognise your limits before you cross them. In sessions we go at your pace, with no performance goal, which is often new for people coming out of burnout.

I see people at my practice as a sophrologist in Bordeaux, on rue Ducau, and I offer online sophrology when travelling feels like too much. My background, burnout included, is on my about page. And if you would like to know what working together looks like, everything is on the page about sophrology for adults.