You’re highly irritable and easily overwhelmed
Things that never bothered you before are starting to aggravate you. Snapping at your coworkers and getting vexed over small mistakes are both manifestations of a burnt-out mind. You may have bottled up your feelings and ignored the warning signs from your body, resulting in you acting like an irritable, overwhelmed mess.
You dread going to work
If you wake up with a pit at the bottom of your stomach, already dreading the day ahead, you may want to reassess your working life. We can’t enjoy work every single day, but forever dreading clocking in is an indicator that’s something wrong – likely that your job is exhausting your mind, body, and soul.
You get little sleep
Burnout often affects your sleep cycle. No matter how mentally drained you may feel during the day – counting down the hours until you can return to the warm embrace of your bed – you may find yourself unable to sleep. Work-related anxieties can keep you awake into the early hours, clock-watching until your alarm goes off.
You don’t take care of yourself
You may fail to properly take care of yourself; forgetting to shower, failing to groom, ignoring housework, or overlooking bill payments. If you’re burnt out from work, it’s likely that the workplace is soaking up all of your energy, leaving your other responsibilities to fall to the wayside.
You have no energy
Lethargy, apathy, and tiredness are all key signs that you’re experiencing work-induced burnout. It can affect every aspect of your life, ranging from work itself to your personal care. Burnout can make it difficult to focus, making everything feel as though it takes ten times more effort.
You feel hopeless and trapped
Life seems like an endless cycle: work, sleep, repeat. You could feel like you have no other options, doomed to constantly redo the same pattern over and over again. This can lead to feelings of despair, scared to take a break from your soul-crushing job to focus on making ends meet.
You experience depersonalization
The world around you may feel unreal, bathed in a mental fog that makes you feel detached from reality. You could be going through the motions, with little care for the outcome of your actions. Colleagues and work tasks may feel lifeless, your life seeming like an endless checklist to tick off with no reprieve.
You’re isolated
All work and no play leads to an unfulfilling life. Burnout makes you withdraw into yourself, lacking the time or mental capacity to deal with socializing. Retreating further into yourself will only make you feel worse, darkening your headspace until you feel completely alone in the world.
Increased negativity
A cynical mindset shows that you lack the mental capacity to effectively deal with day-to-day life, even outside of work. Constantly looking for the negatives, expecting the worst outcome, and having trust issues can all stem from having a poor work-life balance, leading to a miserable existence.
Striving for perfection
Perfectionism can lead you to set unrealistic goals, becoming highly self-critical when you don’t meet your own unobtainable standards. You may think that if you work just that tad bit harder, if you secure that next big client or put in those extra few hours, you’ll achieve a calmer mindset. Unfortunately, perfectionism is a fruitless pursuit, which only furthers your feelings of exhaustion.