Brain health · Sanctum

Burnout and collapse

This is not ordinary tiredness. It is a collapse that takes everything, the focus, the words, the ability to look after yourself, the tolerance for noise and people, gone all at once, and a recovery that is slow and frightening. You hit a wall, and the wall does not move for a long time.

When a brain spends years masking, compensating and overriding its own limits, the bill eventually comes in. Burnout here is not weakness or a breakdown of character. It is a nervous system that has run on empty for too long and finally stops, and it usually follows a long stretch of holding it together.

Because the person looked fine right up until they did not, the collapse gets mistaken for depression, or laziness, or giving up, and the years of effort that led to it go unseen. People are pushed to push through, which is the one thing that makes it worse.

We look at the run-up, not just the crash, because burnout is the cost of everything that came before it. None of this is a diagnosis. It is what we explore with you. If you are in the thick of it and struggling, you do not have to manage alone. Your GP can help, and the Samaritans are on 116 123.

Written by Dr Asad RaffiConsultant Psychiatrist · Founder & Medical Director