Am I Experiencing Burnout or Am I Just Tired?

By Adele Baini, senior Occupational Therapist.

We all feel tired from time to time. But when that tiredness starts to feel different like a deep, emotional soul exhaustion that doesn’t lift even after rest, it may be more than simple fatigue.
So how do you tell the difference between being tired and being burned out?

As an occupational therapist who’s worked with countless women in caring professions, nurses, teachers, allied health professionals, and mothers, I’ve seen how easy it is to brush off early signs of burnout as “just being tired.”
But understanding the difference is important, because how you recover depends on what’s really going on.

Here’s how to tell the difference, and most importantly, what to do about it.

1. Physical Tiredness Improves with Rest - Burnout Doesn’t

If you’re just tired, a good night’s sleep, a weekend off, or a short break often restores your energy. But with burnout, rest doesn’t feel restorative. You might sleep for ten hours and still wake up exhausted. Your mind doesn’t switch off. You feel emotionally flat, numb, or overwhelmed even after rest.

What to do:

• Prioritise true rest, not just sleep, but restorative pauses throughout your day (gentle walks, screen-free moments, quiet mindful cup of tea or coffee).
  

• Notice if your fatigue feels emotional or existential, that’s a clue you need nervous system and emotional replenishment, not just physical rest.

• This is what I mean:

  • Physical fatigue = your body is tired.

  • Emotional fatigue = your heart feels heavy from holding others’ emotions or ongoing stress.

  • Existential fatigue = your spirit feels weary because you’re questioning why you’re doing what you’re doing, or whether it still aligns with who you are.

  • In other words, existential exhaustion is that deep, soul-level tiredness that comes when your work or life starts to feel disconnected from meaning or purpose.

    It can present as:

  • You’re weary before the day even starts.

  • You feel flat or numb, even after sleeping well.

  • You’re questioning your purpose, your work, or your identity.

  • You find yourself saying, “I just can’t keep doing this”

  • “I’m doing everything I’m supposed to, but it doesn’t feel like me anymore.”

  • “I used to care so deeply, but now I feel numb.”

  • “What’s the point of all this?”

  These are existential questions, they’re not about sleep or stress, but about being.

  From an occupational therapy perspective, this speaks to occupational identity and meaning; who we are beneath what we do. OT isn’t just about function or productivity; it’s equally about being, the inner experience of self, purpose, and presence that gives our doing its depth and meaning.

  • Try my 1-Minute Reset Rituals (coming soon) for micro-moments of recovery during your workday.

  Try gentle grounding, self-compassion, connection, creativity, reflection, and rest that nourishes your being, not just your doing. This is in my signature program The Soulful Reset Method (also coming soon!)
  

2. Tiredness is Temporary - BurnoutLingers and Deepens

Tiredness usually follows a period of exertion: a long shift, a tough week, a busy season. Burnout, on the other hand, builds gradually and can last for months (or even years) if unaddressed.
It’s the cumulative effect of giving more than you replenish, often in emotionally demanding roles.

Occupational therapy lens:
From a Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) perspective, burnout emerges when the balance between who we are (our values, energy, needs), what we do (our roles and tasks), and the environment we do it in (workplace culture, home demands) becomes misaligned.

Try this reflection:

• What part of this triad feels out of sync right now - you, your environment, or your occupations (daily roles and tasks)?

• Where can small adjustments create more alignment?
  

3. Burnout Involves Emotional Detachment and Cynicism

Feeling a little cranky after a long week is normal. But if you’ve started to feel detached from your work or the people you care for, like you’re on autopilot, just going through the motions, it may be burnout.
Cynicism, irritability, and feeling “nothing” where you once felt empathy are hallmark signs.

What to do:

• Pause before automatically saying “yes” to more.

• Create emotional boundaries between you and your work.

• Reconnect with one meaningful task or ritual each day that helps you remember why you started this work in the first place.
  

4. Burnout Affects Identity and Meaning

Tiredness impacts energy. Burnout impacts identity. You might start questioning who you are outside of your roles, or feel lost, purposeless, or disillusioned.
This is often where the soul-level exhaustion shows up, what I call “identity fatigue.”

Occupational therapy insight:
When our meaningful occupations become sources of chronic stress instead of fulfillment, it erodes our sense of purpose. That’s when we need to recalibrate our doing with our being.

Try these journal prompts:

“Which parts of me have I neglected while caring for others?”
“What activities once made me feel alive that I no longer make time for?”

5. Burnout Shows Up in the Body

Your body is often the first to signal that something is off. Frequent headaches, gut issues, muscle tension, and insomnia are common physical manifestations of chronic stress and dysregulation.
Your nervous system is trying to communicate that it’s been “switched on” for too long.

What to do:

• Start with one simple nervous system reset each day:

  • Lengthen your exhale

  • Soften your shoulders

  • Ground your feet on the floor
    

• Notice how your body feels before and after each mini-reset. This builds interoceptive awareness (your ability to sense and respond to internal cues).
  

6. Burnout Is a Nervous System Imbalance, Not a Personal Failure

Burnout is not a sign of weakness. It’s your body and mind asking for recalibration. It happens when your sympathetic (fight-flight) system has been running the show, and your parasympathetic (rest-digest) system can’t catch up.

OT meets neuroscience:
Your nervous system thrives on: rhythm and balance, work and rest, giving and receiving, focus and flow. Without conscious rebalancing, the system stays in overdrive.

Try this:

• Create a pause ritual at the end of your workday.

  • Step outside.

  • Take three deep breaths.

  • Imagine mentally closing the door to work and opening the door to home.
    This gentle transition helps your body and brain shift gears.
    

7. Burnout Recovery Requires More Than Self-Care

Self-care helps, but it’s not enough if the root cause remains. Burnout recovery is about reconnection -to self, to purpose, to joy.
It’s about rebuilding your rhythms from the inside out.

Practical steps:

• Reassess your workload and boundaries.

• Seek meaningful supervision or peer support.

• Integrate reflective practices like journaling, mindful movement, or creative expression.

• Remember: the goal isn’t to return to your old normal, but to create a new rhythm that supports your well-being.
  

A Gentle Reminder

If rest hasn’t been helping, and you’ve started to feel emotionally flat, detached, or constantly drained - it’s time to pause, not push.

You deserve more than survival.
You deserve restoration, reconnection, and renewal.

Remember too that as a healthcare worker, teacher, or anyone in a caring profession, you’re operating within a demanding system.

Acknowledging this matters deeply, because so much of what drains you is not personal; it’s systemic. You’re often working in environments that are under-resourced, emotionally heavy, and built around constant giving.

There are pressures you can’t simply “self-care” your way out of: unrealistic workloads, chronic understaffing, vicarious trauma, and the emotional weight of holding space for others day after day.

Recognising what is yours to manage and what is a symptom of the system is part of healing. It helps you release self-blame and shift from “What’s wrong with me?” to “No wonder I feel exhausted.”

From an occupational therapy perspective, this awareness creates space for compassionate adjustment. Instead of pushing harder, you can focus on micro-shifts within your control: your rhythms, your recovery rituals, your boundaries, and the way you reconnect with meaning in your daily occupations.

True renewal doesn’t mean ignoring the system you work within. It means reclaiming your agency inside it - tending to what’s within reach while acknowledging what’s not

Ready to Begin Your Soulful Reset?

The Soulful Reset Method™ is a 6-week self-paced journey that helps women in caring professions recover from burnout, regulate their nervous systems, and reconnect with their purpose through guided journaling, creative activities, and therapeutic rituals.

Full launch coming soon!

In the meantime, you can start small with a free 3-day Emotional Reset Journal - a gentle, evidence-based way to reconnect with yourself and begin healing from emotional fatigue.

You could also try my 1-Minute Reset Rituals (coming soon) for micro-moments of recovery during your workday. Stay tuned!

With kindness and compassion,

Adele Baini