Signs of Burnout and How Therapy Can Help You Heal
Here’s the Gist
Burnout isn’t just exhaustion — it’s emotional and physical depletion that can mimic trauma symptoms.
The signs often show up in your body, your mood, and your relationships before you realize how drained you are.
Ignoring burnout keeps your nervous system in survival mode and deepens feelings of disconnection and irritability.
Recovery requires more than a weekend off — it takes rest, boundaries, and, often, therapy to rebuild balance.
Trauma therapy helps identify the root causes driving burnout and teaches sustainable strategies for long-term recovery.
Burnout Is More Than Being Tired
We live in a culture that glorifies busyness. You’re expected to be productive at work, emotionally available at home, and constantly “on.” But no one talks about what happens when you’ve been running at that pace for too long.
That’s burnout — the slow erosion of energy, motivation, and connection.
Burnout isn’t just being tired. It’s a full-body, full-mind depletion that affects how you think, feel, and function. For many men, burnout doesn’t show up as tears or collapse. It shows up as irritability, withdrawal, or the sense that nothing feels good anymore.
And if you’ve got a trauma history, burnout hits even harder. Trauma primes your nervous system to stay on alert, making it harder to rest or recover. The same patterns that once kept you safe — pushing through, not complaining, taking care of everyone else first — become the very things that keep you stuck.
The good news? Burnout isn’t permanent. But it does require you to stop trying to “tough it out” and start addressing what’s underneath.
Recognizing the Signs of Burnout
Burnout can be sneaky. It rarely starts overnight — it creeps in quietly until one day you realize that you’re running on fumes and have been for months.
Here are some of the most common signs:
Physical Signs
Constant fatigue, even after sleep
Frequent headaches or muscle tension
Changes in appetite or sleep patterns
Getting sick more often or slower recovery from illness
Emotional Signs
Feeling detached, numb, or cynical
Losing motivation or sense of purpose
Irritability that seems out of proportion
Feeling anxious, restless, or on edge
Difficulty finding joy in things that used to help you recharge
Behavioral Signs
Pulling away from relationships
Using alcohol, food, or screens to numb out
Overworking or, on the flip side, procrastinating on everything
Forgetfulness or trouble focusing
For men with trauma, these signs can blur with trauma symptoms: hypervigilance, emotional shutdown, or difficulty trusting others. Burnout amplifies those responses — your body and mind trying to protect you from one more thing to handle.
If you notice yourself snapping at people you care about, feeling resentful toward your responsibilities, or fantasizing about quitting everything just to feel peace, it’s time to pay attention.
Why Ignoring Burnout Makes It Worse
Burnout doesn’t resolve on its own. Ignoring it doesn’t make it disappear — it just makes it more ingrained.
When you keep pushing through burnout, your nervous system never gets the chance to reset. Instead, it stays locked in a cycle of stress hormones, sleepless nights, and emotional shutdown. That chronic state of survival mode leads to bigger problems:
1. Physical Breakdown
Prolonged stress can weaken your immune system, raise blood pressure, and increase the risk of heart disease. Your body can only handle so much before it starts signaling that something has to change.
2. Emotional Numbness
When burnout continues unchecked, it can start to look like depression — low mood, hopelessness, disinterest in relationships or hobbies. You might not even realize you’ve shut down emotionally until someone points it out.
3. Relationship Strain
Burnout changes how you show up with others. You may feel distant, irritable, or unable to communicate what you need. That disconnect can create conflict or distance, especially if your partner doesn’t understand what’s happening.
4. Reinforcing Trauma Patterns
For men with trauma, ignoring burnout often means reinforcing old beliefs: “I can’t ask for help,” “I should be able to handle this,” or “If I slow down, everything will fall apart.” Those thoughts may have helped you survive before, but they’re not serving you now.
The longer burnout goes unaddressed, the more it reinforces the very coping strategies that keep you disconnected from your own needs.
How Therapy Helps With Burnout Recovery
Recovery from burnout isn’t about quitting your job or disappearing into the woods (tempting as that might sound some days). It’s about creating balance, restoring energy, and rebuilding a healthier relationship with work, responsibility, and rest.
Therapy plays a key role in that recovery — not by offering “self-care tips,” but by helping you understand and change the deeper patterns driving burnout in the first place.
Here’s how:
1. Understanding What’s Fueling Burnout
Burnout doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Often, it’s tied to underlying trauma, perfectionism, or chronic guilt. In therapy, we look at what’s fueling your exhaustion — whether it’s over-responsibility, unresolved trauma, or the belief that your worth is tied to your productivity.
When you see the bigger picture, you can stop blaming yourself and start addressing the root cause.
2. Relearning How to Rest
If you’ve lived in survival mode for years, rest can feel unsafe. Your body doesn’t know how to relax because it associates stillness with danger.
Evidence-based trauma therapy (like CPT or PE) helps retrain your brain and nervous system to recognize that rest isn’t a threat — it’s recovery. Over time, you learn how to slow down without feeling like you’re falling apart.
3. Rebuilding Boundaries
Burnout thrives in the absence of boundaries. Therapy gives you tools to set limits with work, relationships, and your own expectations.
That might mean learning to say no, delegating, or recognizing when you’re taking responsibility for things that aren’t yours to fix. Setting boundaries doesn’t make you weak or selfish — it makes you sustainable.
4. Regaining Perspective and Purpose
Burnout can make life feel small — like all you do is work, worry, and repeat. Therapy helps widen that lens again. You rediscover what actually matters and start aligning your time and energy with your real values, not the ones you inherited or were pressured into.
5. Building a Healthier Nervous System
Through trauma-focused work, therapy helps regulate your nervous system so it’s not constantly running on high alert. That means fewer spikes of irritability, more emotional control, and the ability to actually enjoy calm moments.
In short, therapy isn’t about making you softer. It’s about helping you regain access to your full range — strength, calm, focus, and connection — instead of just the survival instinct that’s been driving everything.
Burnout Recovery: Practical Steps to Start Now
You don’t have to wait until you hit rock bottom to start making changes. Here are some steps you can start today to begin pulling yourself out of burnout:
1. Take Honest Inventory
Ask yourself: What’s draining me most right now? What actually restores me? Most people can name the first list easily. The second takes a little more thought — which tells you exactly where you need to focus.
2. Give Yourself Permission to Rest
Rest isn’t earned after you crash. It’s required to keep going. Start with small, intentional breaks — ten minutes away from screens, eating lunch without multitasking, or going to bed 30 minutes earlier.
3. Reconnect With Your Body
Physical movement helps reset stress hormones. It doesn’t have to be a workout — a short walk, stretching, or breathing exercises can remind your body you’re safe enough to relax.
4. Set Micro-Boundaries
If big boundaries feel too intimidating, start small. Say no to one extra obligation this week. Let a call go to voicemail. Every small act of protection for your energy builds momentum.
5. Consider Professional Support
If you’re trying to fix burnout alone and keep ending up in the same place, that’s a sign you don’t need more willpower — you need more support. A trauma-informed therapist can help you untangle the patterns that keep you cycling through exhaustion and avoidance.
You Don’t Have to Keep Running on Empty
Burnout can make you feel trapped — like your only options are to keep grinding or let everything fall apart. But there’s another path.
You can rebuild balance without losing your edge. You can rest without falling behind. You can learn to show up in your life again — not from obligation, but from strength.
If you’ve been running on empty for too long, therapy can help you reset.
Schedule a free consultation call to see if we’d be a good fit to work together and help you recover from burnout in a way that lasts.
About the Author
Brittany Shannon, Ph.D., is a trauma therapist for men with more than 10 years of experience. She trained in the VA system, working with veterans at both outpatient and residential levels of care, and brings that expertise into her private practice today. Based in Kentucky, Dr. Shannon offers virtual therapy across all 43 PSYPACT states, specializing in trauma recovery, PTSD treatment, and men’s mental health. Her work focuses on helping men heal from painful experiences, break free from survival mode, and move forward with clarity and confidence.
You don’t have to keep pushing through this on your own.
