Burnout and depression have some similar symptoms but different causes, outcomes, and treatments. Knowing how depression and burnout differ is important to getting the right diagnosis and the best treatments. In the paragraphs below, we will talk about the key differences between these mental health challenges and how you can move forward if you have one (or both) of them.
What is Burnout?
Burnout is a state of exhaustion brought about by prolonged exposure to chronic workplace stressors. Originally seen in human services occupations such as nursing and social work, it is now found in a wide range of jobs. There has been more interest in this condition since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when staff shortages, layoffs, and the transition to remote work led to burnout at previously unseen levels.
What Are the Symptoms of Burnout?
Burnout has three sets of symptoms:
1. Overwhelming physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion.
2. A feeling of detachment or disengagement from work. This can include negative attitudes toward patients or clients and a sense that the job has lost its meaning. It can result in irritability and anger toward work, the workplace, work colleagues, and even life outside work.
3. Reduced productivity and a feeling that one is ineffective at one’s work.
What Causes Burnout?
These six aspects of work are often found to lead to burnout:
- Heavy workload with insufficient opportunities to refresh, reset, or work on professional development.
- Lack of community or collegiality at work.
- Inadequate control over the job and how it is done. People with burnout may feel that they don’t have the resources or the autonomy to make decisions and that they are not able to predict their upcoming workload or what they will be working on.
- A mismatch between the rewards of the job and the amount of time and effort put into it.
- Lots of fairness and respectful treatment in the workplace
- Incongruence between the individual’s values and the organization’s values
What Are the Effects of Burnout?
Burnout can lead to a wide range of negative outcomes, including sleep disturbances, headaches, anxiety, gastrointestinal issues, and relationship problems. These outcomes can affect the person who has burnout, their organization, their clients or patients, and their family and friends.
What is Depression?
Depression is a psychological condition characterized by feelings of sadness, despair, hopelessness, lack of motivation, and inability to enjoy oneself. Depression can range in severity from mild to severe.
What Are the Symptoms of Depression?
The most common symptoms of depression are:
- Persistent feelings of sadness or despair.
- Loss of interest in things that the person previously enjoyed.
- Hopelessness and the feeling that one is unable to bring about change in one’s own life.
- Increase or decrease in appetite.
- Changes in sleep patterns such as insomnia or sleeping too much.
- Fatigue or persistent lack of energy.
- Perception of personal worthlessness.
- Feelings of guilt that are out of proportion with the situation.
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions.
- Agitation or irritability, sometimes rising to the level of anger.
- Recurring thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
Is Burnout a Type of Depression?
Burnout has many of the same characteristics as depression: hopelessness, fatigue, and negative emotions are common in both depression and burnout. Burnout and depression often co-occur, and research indicates that having burnout increases the risk of developing depression, and having depression increases the chances that someone will get burnout.
At the same time, not everyone who has burnout meets the criteria for depression, and not everyone with depression develops all the symptoms of burnout. For example, someone who has been diagnosed with depression may still feel highly engaged with and motivated by their work. In contrast, someone with burnout may not experience the level of despair that is common in some types of depression.
How Do Depression and Burnout Differ?
As discussed above, there is an overlap between depression and burnout, as well as between anxiety and burnout. However, there are important distinctions between them:
- Burnout is specifically related to workplace stressors, whereas depression is a broader condition that can be related to a variety of stressors, genetic influences, biochemical factors, and more.
- The symptoms of burnout are primarily work-related and center on the person’s thoughts and feelings about their work, whereas the symptoms of depression affect many areas of the person’s functioning, including work, hobbies, relationships, and daily activities.
- Burnout primarily concerns the person’s relationship with their work, while depression concerns the individual, their relationship with the world, and their relationship with the self.
- Treatment for burnout focuses on reducing the sources of stress that led to the burnout. Interventions such as adjusting the person’s workload, improving work-life balance, finding sources of support in the workplace, and taking real breaks from work. Depression, on the other hand, is commonly treated by counselling, medication, and lifestyle changes such as adopting a healthier diet and an exercise routine.
Note that these distinctions can be more theoretical than practical. Both burnout and depression interfere with your ability to live your life to the fullest. Recognizing this and taking steps to improve your mental health is more important than determining whether you have burnout, depression, or both burnout and depression.
Final Thoughts
Burnout and depression are related but distinct. They have different causes, symptoms, outcomes, and treatments. At the same time, people experiencing these conditions often lack the energy or emotional resources to figure out which one they have and how to move forward.
Feelings of hopelessness are common in both these conditions, but there are resources available to you, and you can make progress even in a fragile or depleted mental state. Consulting with your family doctor is a good first step as they can administer diagnostic tests to home in on your main mental health challenges and recommend treatment.
For additional support, working with a mental health counsellor can be invaluable. In counselling, you can explore the sources of your burnout or depression, work through any issues that may be exacerbating them, and collaborate with your counsellor on strategies to improve your mental health.
If you are struggling with burnout or depression, the skilled, caring team at Kari Walton Counselling can help. We are here to help you sort through your feelings, identify the things that are having the greatest impact on your mental health, and figure out a way through the storm. We offer a range of treatment options, including cognitive-behavioural therapy, hypnotherapy, and group therapy.
Contact us today to make an appointment. Let’s talk.
References:
Harvard Business Review; 6 Causes of Burnout, and How to Avoid Them: https://hbr.org/2019/07/6-causes-of-burnout-and-how-to-avoid-them
MDPI Behavioral Sciences: Should Burnout Be Conceptualized as a Mental Disorder? https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/12/3/82