Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. Burnout is the outcome when you feel overwhelmed by work, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. You begin to lose motivation, interests as stress piles up. Most people are not aware that a burnout situation is more destructive to them that being overstressed. And a burnout is the outcome of being over-stressed for too long. Of course, to prevent a burnout situation first you need to know the symptoms of a burnout. But first let's learn the difference between stress and burnout:

First and foremost, burnout and stress are not the same thing, though burnout could be the outcome of a very stressful situation for too long time, without you taking care of yourself, like we have learnt in the five pillars of emotional resilience.

Stress, in general, denotes a sense of too much. Too many pressures, which demand too much of you physically, intellectually, psychologically, and emotionally. You are drowning in responsibilities, but still you can feel better when everything is under control.

Burnout, on the other hand, is the sense of being drained. You feel empty of energy, empty of motivation, empty of emotions, empty of caring and love. Alone, helpless, hopeless. People experiencing burnout often don't see any hope of positive change in their situations and they fail to notice that burnout is happening to them.