Burnout is not a mood disorder. Point.

The first great difficulty in the treatment of Burnout is born because it is considered a psychiatric or mental problem.

It's not.

It's not a depressive or anxious problem.

It's not a mood disorder.

It just isn't. How can I be so sure of this? Because the success of commonly prescribed treatments - both behavioral and pharmacological - is limited to none.

The origin of the misunderstanding arises from assuming that the body does not act because the mind does not want to. It follows that this is the problem: the mind not wanting to. We often confuse fatigue, sleep disturbance and frustration that we feel because the body no longer responds as it once did, and is not able to perform as it once did, as symptoms of depression and anxiety.

At this point, the easiest option is to treat "for the evidence" and prescribe antidepressants and anxiolytics.

But treating burnout syndrome with antidepressants and anxiolytics is not only not effective, it can be counterproductive, as is so often reported. Focusing treatments on "making the mind want to" is almost as wrong as telling these people that "being tired is normal".

It's not normal to be tired!

It may be usual, it may be frequent and it may even be what most people feel. But it is only normal for those who do, live and go by what is average and "normal", not for those who want more than the norm. Those who are content to be normal will never seek the best possible.

Anyone who reaches the state of burnout is, by definition, someone who has set out on something that has gone beyond their physical, mental or emotional limits. Whether it be a professional or personal project, physical or mental, they have put so much of their focus and energy into that goal that they have exceeded their limit, gone beyond what they could. They are dreamers, focused and highly ambitious people, for whom the average and the norm is the starting point and never the ending point or the goal of anything.

They reached the state of burnout for exactly why they were not content to be in the norm.

It is therefore extremely frustrating to be told that 'being tired', 'everyone sleeps badly', 'it's the age' or similar is normal. Frustrating and unfair!

burnout is not a mood disorder, and as long as you continue to approach it as such, thousands of people will see their success limited by their body - and that can never happen!