Burnout: What It Is, How It Affects Us, and the Gentle Power of Adaptogens

Burnout. It’s a word we hear often, but it’s more than just feeling tired or fed up. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged or excessive stress - and it’s becoming alarmingly common.

What Is Burnout?

Defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an “occupational phenomenon”, burnout arises from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It’s characterised by three key dimensions:

1. Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
2. Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to work
3. Reduced professional efficacy

While it’s most commonly associated with the workplace, burnout can also arise from other ongoing demands - caregiving, parenting, studying, or sustained emotional labour.

Burnout differs from stress in that stress tends to involve over-engagement and hyperactivity, whereas burnout is about disengagement and depletion. Over time, it can affect every aspect of a person’s life, contributing to insomnia, anxiety, low immunity, and even serious health problems.

How Many People in the UK Are Affected?

Burnout is no longer a rare or extreme outcome, it’s a growing public health concern.

• A 2024 survey by Mental Health UK revealed that 9 in 10 adults (91%) experienced high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the past year, with 24% saying they felt unable to manage.  
• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that 17.1 million working days were lost due to stress, depression, or anxiety in 2022/23, many of which are linked to symptoms of burnout.

It’s particularly prevalent among healthcare workers, educators, parents of young children, and people in emotionally demanding or high-responsibility roles. But burnout doesn’t discriminate, it can affect anyone. And for some groups, it can be a recurring and deeply personal challenge.

Burnout and Neurodivergence

One such group is neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with ADHD.

People with ADHD often experience life in cycles of hyper-focus and exhaustion. While bursts of productivity and creativity can be intense, they’re frequently followed by emotional, cognitive, and physical depletion, a pattern sometimes described as “ADHD burnout.”

This happens for several reasons:

• Masking (the effort of suppressing or hiding traits to appear “neurotypical”) is exhausting over time.
• Executive dysfunction makes everyday demands more draining.
• Heightened sensitivity to stress can lead to overwhelm more quickly.
• And in a world not always built to accommodate different ways of thinking, just getting through the day can require enormous effort.

Sadly, many neurodivergent people internalise this burnout as personal failure, when in reality it’s often the result of chronic overstimulation and misalignment between their needs and the systems around them.

Why Modern Life Leaves Us Vulnerable

We’re living in an always-on culture: constant notifications, blurred work-life boundaries, and societal pressure to “do more” make true rest hard to come by. Even when we pause, our nervous systems often remain on high alert.

When stress is ongoing, the body’s hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis stays activated. This keeps stress hormones like cortisol elevated, and over time, can lead to HPA axis dysregulation, leaving us fatigued, foggy, and emotionally brittle.

Burnout isn’t just in the mind. It’s physiological. It’s systemic. And recovery takes time.

The Role of Adaptogens in Burnout Recovery

Burnout recovery isn’t about quick fixes. It involves rest, boundaries, support, and in many cases, rebuilding from the inside out.

This is where adaptogens can offer gentle, holistic support. These remarkable herbs and fungi help the body adapt to stress by working with the HPA axis to rebalance cortisol, soothe the nervous system, and support the return to a more regulated state.

Rather than forcing stimulation or sedation, adaptogens modulate the stress response, offering stamina when you’re depleted, calm when you’re wired, and resilience when you’re stretched thin.

Some of our favorite adaptogens are:

 

• Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) – Calms the nervous system and lowers cortisol, particularly helpful for overwhelm and fatigue.

 

• Rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea) – Improves energy, focus, and endurance during stress-induced fatigue.

 

• Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) – A calming, immune-supportive adaptogen that supports restful sleep and emotional resilience.

 

• Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis) – A balancing tonic known to support cognitive function and help the body resist the effects of stress.