What is burnout: the symptoms, what happens in your head and what a stress scan measures

In this article, you will find the answer to the question of what exactly burnout is: which symptoms go with it, how burnout differs from being overstressed and from depression, and what happens in your head when you have it. That matters, because burnout symptoms are common among Dutch employees and are still on the rise, and when you know what you are dealing with, you can better see when to ask for help.⁠² The BioProfile stress scan measures how much stress you are carrying and gives you an indication of where you stand today. This is self-insight, to see where you stand and to help you make better lifestyle choices. The scan is not a diagnosis. Finding out what is going on is a job for a doctor.

What exactly is burnout?

The World Health Organization describes burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It has three features: feeling drained or exhausted, a growing mental distance from your work or feeling negative and cynical about it, and doing your work less well.⁠¹ The WHO does not classify burnout as a medical condition. The WHO calls burnout an occupational phenomenon and keeps the term for work. Pressure in other areas of life falls outside it.⁠¹

Thuisarts, the Dutch GPs’ website for patients, puts it in plain words. You have a lot of tension in your life, you cannot manage to cope with that tension, and this has been going on for more than six months.⁠⁴ So burnout lasts well beyond one bad week. It is a long period in which the pressure keeps being greater than what your mind and body can carry.

What is burnout? The symptoms at a glance

Thuisarts lists these symptoms: tiredness and exhaustion, poor sleep, irritability, trouble concentrating, headaches, dizziness, chest pain, stomach complaints, and the feeling that you are losing control over your life.⁠⁴ Much of that list is physical. You feel burnout in your body as well as in your head.

Thuisarts tells burnout apart from being overstressed by how long it lasts. With burnout, the tension has lasted for more than six months, and recovery takes longer than when you are overstressed.⁠⁴

How common burnout symptoms are

In the Nationale Enquête Arbeidsomstandigheden, the national working conditions survey by TNO and CBS, 21 per cent of employees reported burnout symptoms in 2025, up from 19 per cent in 2023. In 2015 the figure was 13 per cent. More than a third of employees, 37 per cent, say more measures are needed against psychosocial workload.⁠² Put simply, about one in five employees notices the signs, and that share is higher than it was ten years ago.

Burnout or depression?

A review of 105 studies with almost 125,000 participants looked at how burnout relates to depression and anxiety. People with more burnout symptoms clearly also had more depressive symptoms, and the same held for anxiety. Even so, the authors conclude that burnout, depression and anxiety are different conditions.⁠³ For you, this means the three can overlap and resemble each other. Telling them apart is a question for your GP.

What happens in your head

A Swedish study compared 40 people with work-related burnout, average age 38, with 70 healthy people, average age 33. The burnout group had been working 60 to 70 hours a week for several years. When asked to dampen their reaction to unpleasant images, the people with burnout managed this less well, as measured by a stronger startle reflex. In their brains, the connection between the amygdala, an emotional centre, and parts of the front of the brain that help regulate emotions was weaker than in the comparison group.⁠⁵ In plain words: the brake on strong feelings worked less well. This is one study comparing two groups, so it shows a difference between those groups and does not show what came first.

What burnout can mean for your body in the long run

A review of 36 studies that followed people over a longer period found that burnout came before later type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, long-term fatigue, pain in muscles and joints, depressive symptoms, and the use of antidepressants or other psychotropic medication. In a Danish study that followed employees in care and services for three years, those with the most burnout symptoms were absent on average 13.6 days a year, against 5.4 days for those with the fewest.⁠⁶ In short, people with burnout were more likely to run into health problems and sick days later on.

What you can do yourself

Thuisarts advises you to take good care of yourself and live healthily, to try to relax, and to keep a regular daily rhythm: get up, eat and go to bed at the same times every day. Ask the people around you for help and support. Sometimes you can keep working or studying in shorter stretches, and sometimes it is better to stop for a while.⁠⁷ You can read more ideas for easing stress in daily life in what helps with stress.

When to see your GP

Tell your GP if you think you might have burnout. If the problems lie at work, talk to your employer and contact the occupational doctor.⁠⁴ Thuisarts does not give a separate list of urgent warning signs for burnout.⁠⁴

What the stress scan measures and what it does not

The stress scan measures how much stress you are carrying today and gives you a baseline. The scan does not tell burnout apart from overstrain, depression or anxiety. The scan is not a diagnosis. Repeat the scan later and you will have two numbers to compare instead of a vague feeling.

In summary

Burnout is chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, marked by exhaustion, distance from your work and doing your work less well.⁠¹ The symptoms are both mental and physical and last longer than six months.⁠⁴ About one in five Dutch employees report these symptoms.⁠² Burnout overlaps with depression and anxiety but is a different condition,⁠³ goes together in the brain with a weaker brake on strong emotions,⁠⁵ and can later be followed by health problems.⁠⁶ A regular daily rhythm and support from others help,⁠⁷ and your GP is the place to go if you think you have burnout.⁠⁴