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Recovery is a very individual process. I believe the most important thing is to stop looking for that one thing, the golden tip that will 'fix' or 'heal' you. First of all, recovery is a life long process of finding balance and working on yourself. And that's not just for burnout but for all mental health struggles. You can get better and live a beautiful life, but it's important to stay mindful and use the tools that work for you.

For some meditation made the difference, for others it was nature, painting, medication, changing jobs, religion, therapy, leaving an unhealthy relationship, self-knowlegde, self-acceptance, knowing their self-worth, grief, building or be part of a community... But for most, it was a combination of things.

So for me, it was a 4 year long journey of getting out of my comfort zone, trying out new things (and failing lots of them), self-knowledge but most of all acceptance. Acceptance of who I am as a person, of my situation, my limitations and my strengths. For a long time, I read books or followed advice from others who once were burned out, doing exactly what they did, and get frustrated that I wasn't getting better and they did, leaving me feeling even more lonely en failed than I already did.

I do think it's great to get inspired by the journey of others and what has helped them, to try new things yourself, but it's important to follow your own path and be honest with yourself about what helps and doesn't help you.

So you'll find a lot of things on my blog that helped me, but it's okay if it doesn't work for you. A lot of the things I tried didn't help me either. Just take a breath, be proud of yourself for trying, give yourself some time to recover, build up energy to try something new and be kind to yourself.

When you're burned out, you don't function the way you normally would. You want to, but you can't.

Tasks that used to be effortless now require a tremendous amount of energy and, in many cases, are no longer possible.

Burnout is therefore a stress syndrome: due to the overload of stress, the production of stress hormones is disrupted, and your stress system no longer functions as it should.

The stress system has, in a way, crashed, causing the body to no longer be able to recover sufficiently on its own. This not only affects how you handle stressful situations but also has an impact on your entire organism. It begins with changes in groups of nerve cells in your brain, your hormone balance, and your immune system, leading to various psychological and physical issues.

Symptoms can vary greatly from person to person, but these four characteristics form the foundation:

1. Exhaustion

   • Physical exhaustion ("your body is tired") and psychological exhaustion ("feeling 'spent' and 'empty'").

1. Memory, Concentration, and Performance Problems

   • For example, working more slowly or making mistakes.

1. Emotional Loss of Control

   • Intense emotional reactions such as anger or unexpected or uncontrolable crying spells, you have little control over your emotions, you feels impatience.

1. Mental Distancing

   • Taking a step back from work, social, and/or personal situations. In many cases, there is strong resistance to work, and individuals withdraw mentally or physically.

People who are burned out experience many symptoms that can also occur in depression. They are often tired, gloomy, listless, and emotionally imbalanced. However, we must not confuse them.

The crucial difference between burnout and depression is that someone with burnout wants to but cannot due to a lack of energy, while someone with depression could but does not want to.

You could say that burnout is an energy disorder, and depression is a mood disorder.

In burnout, there is total exhaustion, making the individual almost incapable of anything. Due to this total exhaustion, burnout exhibits symptoms such as being unable to walk or run, severe loss of concentration, and an inability to tolerate stimuli.

In depression, the person can still perform these activities, but the motivation for the activity is lacking.

Another difference is that burnout is the result of prolonged overload (accumulated over many years), while depression can occur without overload.

FROM BURNOUT TO DEPRESSION

If burnout is not adequately treated, there is a risk that it may progress to depression. This is firstly due to the challenging personal situation in which one finds themselves with burnout. There is no energy for enjoyable activities, feelings of fatigue and sadness prevail, and trust in the body's recovery is temporarily lost. Secondly, the prolonged disruption of the hormonal balance resulting from burnout plays a role in the development of depression.

DISRUPTED HORMONAL BALANCE

If you have burnout, your hormonal balance is disrupted. There is an excess of adrenaline and insufficient melatonin and cortisol. This is in contrast to people with depression, who often have a very high cortisol level.

DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Because there are so many similarities and the difference is challenging to discern, it is crucial for recovery and treatment to make an accurate diagnosis. Always consult a general practitioner to rule out other diseases and a burnout expert to confirm whether it is burnout or depression-related burnout.

Burnout can result from persistent stress, but it is not the same as too much stress. In the case of excessive stress or burnout, there is pressure that demands too much both physically and mentally. Stressed individuals can still imagine that if they get everything under control, they will feel better. They can recharge their bodies through rest and relaxation.

In burnout, the stress system has crashed, leading to neurohormonal changes in the body that keep it in a constant state of stress. The body can no longer recover sufficiently on its own. Being burnt out means being mentally exhausted, feeling empty, devoid of all motivation, and caring very little. Relaxing and resting no longer recharge the body.

You can compare it to continuously inflating a flat bicycle tire.

People experiencing burnout often see no hope for positive change in their situation. If excessive stress feels like drowning in responsibilities, burnout is a sensation of being dried up.

I would love to provide you with an exact number, as I was genuinely eager to know that when I was burned out. However, it truly depends on the stage you're in, whether there's underlying trauma, depression, if you're able to get the necessary help, how your current social situation is, how your work environment reacts, whether you're able to get the needed rest or if you need to take care of others (by yourself), how supportive your environment is,...

Just to give an indication: In the case of being overstressed, you should consider a recovery time up to 3 to 9 months. For burnout, you should anticipate 1 to 2 years of recovery when receiving the right assistance. For depression resulting from an untreated burnout or burnout with underlying trauma, this recovery period can be even longer.

But again, I have seen people with a dysregulated stress system due to trauma get back up in a couple of months, only to collapse after a year. I have seen individuals who were burned out recover in less than a year because they had the resources to get all the help they needed. I have seen people who were overstressed but unable to access the help they needed, be unwell for over 9 months. It depends on so many variables.

The most important thing I've learned is not to compare yourself with others, but rather to compare your current state with how you were the day, week, or month before, and gauge your progress in that way.