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For more than two decades, people have walked into my therapy office and told me they were burned out. Most of them weren't actually burned out.Corporate wellness programs and social media carousels that gloss over the topic are leading to incorrect self-diagnoses. People are using "I'm burned out" the way they used to say "I'm tired."Once you've concluded you have burnout, you'll look for evidence to confirm it. Every time you feel bored in a meeting or overwhelmed by a full schedule, you'll chalk it up to more evidence that you're burned out.I understand the temptation. Calling it burnout makes the feeling feel legitimate. But if you mislabel overwhelm as burnout, you'll reach for solutions that don't fit the problem.Burnout, as the World Health Organization defines it, is chronic workplace stress that has gone unmanaged for so long it produces three things: exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced effectiveness at work. Overwhelm is a temporary issue that can be addressed by tackling the problem at hand. If you insist you're burned out, you might think the only solution is quitting your job — and miss out on taking the action that would actually give you relief.Here are five signs you're overwhelmed, not burned out.1. You still care.If you're frustrated about the obstacles that stand in your way and prevent you from turning in your best work, you're overwhelmed. If you've genuinely stopped caring about the outcome, that's closer to burnout.
