These three words are used all the time interchangeably. However, these are not the same, and this kind of confusion can delay the treatment someone needs.
All of us know that feeling of carrying too much. The tight chest preceding a deadline, the fatigue after a tough month, the mornings when getting out of bed feels really hard.
We have descriptions for it: way too easy to reach for the words “stressed,” “burned out,” or “depressed.” And those words too often do not line up with what is going on inside of us.
That distance between the word and reality matters a lot more than some people realize. Stress, burnout, and clinical depression cleave towards one another in some respects, but different causation, different durations, and different recovery journeys can characterize them.
The first step to the right support is knowing which one you are dealing with.
What Stress Actually Is
Stress is not a condition, but rather a response. Your nervous system goes on high alert when something needs more from you than what is available. Your heart rate rises. Your focus sharpens. You start to feel the pressure of a situation growing on you.
This is your body performing its designed function. Stress is beneficial in short-term stakes. Pacing requires you to meet a deadline, react in a crisis, or prepare for something huge.
Indications that your experience is stressful
- You can pinpoint a specific trigger, like a work deadline, an argument with the girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse/kids, or financial stress
- The emotions are related to a specific context, and expect some respite after it is over
- You still manage to have fun somewhere in your life
- The period of stress is accompanied by physical symptoms, such as headaches, tension, or not sleeping well
- You are worried or afraid, but not completely demotivated
Stress is what we call reactive behaviors. Eliminate the source and address the symptoms. That’s what distinguishes it from the one that follows.
When Stress Becomes Burnout
Burnout is stress without an off switch. Chronic fatigue, on the other hand, develops gradually – often over months of continued exertion with insufficient rest. While stress is high intensity and a sense of urgency, burnout feels empty.
Burnout, people also say, is a form of numbness. They are not unhappy, but they are not engaged either. That drive that was once so innate goes missing. You start to feel like the work that was meaningful now is useless. Rest does not seem to help.
Indications That What You’re Experiencing Is Burnout
- Chronic burning out that doesn’t get better with either rest, or vacations
- Feeling distant from your job, colleagues or family
- Awful feeling of not being good enough, even after people told you that you’re doing all right
- Certainly, cynicism or irritability that was not evident before
- Chronic physical criteria, such as those that are ambiguous but last a long time, recurring illnesses, chronic tension or digestive issues
- Not caring about things you used to care about
Burnout isn’t a personal fault. It is the result of giving more than your environment returns, long enough that body and mind simply stop responding in effort.
The silver lining is that burnout tends to be recoverable with sufficient lifestyle changes.
Things like rest, boundaries, cutting back on work, and therapy likely make a real difference. But it does require intervention. Pushing through almost never works and usually makes it worse.
What Clinical Depression Looks Like
Clinical depression is a disorder. And that makes a big difference, because it shows the brain is not just responding to outside pressure. Even when nothing particularly difficult is happening in a persons life, they can have clinical depression. It sometimes lacks a recognizable stimulus.|
Unlike stress, when circumstances improve, it does not tend to ease. It does not heal with rest or different surroundings, unlike a burnout.
It consists of alterations in mood, cognition, and physical functioning which are persistent, pervasive, and not something an individual can just direct well.
How to tell if what you are experiencing is clinical depression
- Persistent low mood for most of the day on almost every day for a period of two weeks or longer
- Decreased interest or pleasure in activities – including things unrelated to work – that you once enjoyed
- Unintended increase or decrease in appetite or weight
- Sleep neither too long nor too short, no matter how fatigued you are.
- Trouble concentrating, making decisions or remembering things
- Forgetting or being unable to talk correctly, or think clearly
- In more severe cases, the thoughts of dying or self-harm
These symptoms are not a lack of willpower, work ethic, or bad attitude. They are clinical signs of a disorder that can be effectively treated by a professional, such as with therapy, medication, or both.
Importance of Right Distinction
Someone who is stressed out may need to slow down and change their schedule. A person who is suffering from burnout may require therapy, major lifestyle changes, and healing time.
But someone with clinical depression does not just need a listening ear – they need skilled psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
People also confuse stress with depression and then try to steamroll their way through it and wonder why that doesn’t help. In well-intentioned ways, burnout is mistaken for laziness, and people then self-blame rather than effectively addressing the problem.
When to Seek Professional Support
- You have symptoms that last longer than two weeks and do not improve
- You have difficulty performing day-to-day activities
- You have been feeling awful
- Trying to rest, take a break, or talk to family did not help
Get in Touch
Our outpatient mental health and counseling services at IHAWS in Wilmington, Delaware, can help people face these very circumstances. If you are feeling burnt out and running on empty from the stressors of life or something deeper that you don’t understand, we offer a hearing space for you and an individualized road map to success in your life. Our services include individual counseling, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, with telehealth options.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation