Spot the Signs Before It’s Too Late

In a world where people have normalized burnout, it’s become a blanket statement and buzzword overused and misunderstood. Burnout doesn’t just take a toll on your work life and affects your productivity and promotability; it also seeps into your relationships, mental state, and physical health.

After mentally collapsing 12 years ago, I learned that high achievers think we must push through one more barrier to break the glass holding the trophy to our next achievement.

Here’s the thing about high achievers: we are DIFFERENT. We are NEVER satisfied with anything we accomplish, and we have more trophies and awards than any of our peers and family, yet we think one more thing will satiate our desire, and then we can rest. Burnout doesn’t just take a toll on our work life; it seeps into our relationships, mental state, and physical health.

But what’s happening to so many of us is that we are breaking and collapsing. We have been in a critical burnout stage for years and do not know the signs, and by the time we realize we’re in trouble, the road back is so blurry and long that some people just give up and die.

Living by the motto that we will win or die, so many people are dying from preventable medical conditions or taking their own lives because the path back to wholeness is unknown.

It’s time to shift the conversation from Burnout Prevention to Burnout RECOVERY because so many people are burnt out and don’t know how to return to wholeness. 

My goal with this article is to share insight into the advanced and critical stages of burnout so you can self-identify and change your behaviors and habits BEFORE life makes you change. We shouldn’t all have to learn this lesson the hard way. 

Using Herbert Freudenberger’s 12-Stage Burnout Model as a guide, let’s break down Advanced Burnout (Stages 7–9) and Critical Burnout (Stages 10–12). More importantly, let’s look at actionable strategies to reclaim yourself.

Advanced Burnout (Stages 7–9): Withdrawal, Negative Impact, and Depersonalization

At this stage, burnout moves from internal discomfort to external breakdown. You stop engaging with life, your relationships suffer, and you feel like a shadow of yourself. Here’s how to spot it:

Signs to Watch:

• Social Withdrawal: You start dodging texts, bailing on friends, and cocooning yourself in isolation. You tell yourself, “I just need to be alone,” but the loneliness grows heavier each day.
• Negative Impact on Others: Your exhaustion turns into irritability. Snapping at small things, forgetting commitments, or being emotionally absent starts to erode relationships. Loved ones may say, “You’re not yourself anymore.”
• Depersonalization: You become disconnected from your work, loved ones, and yourself. You go through the motions but feel empty, asking, “Who am I, really?”

Your Next Steps for Recovery:

1. Reconnect, Even in Small Ways: Burnout thrives in isolation. Commit to one small act of connection each day with someone who brings you joy and not someone you’re sharing misery with. 
2. Let It Out—Forgiveness First: Holding onto resentment, especially toward yourself, is exhausting. Start with a forgiveness ritual: write a letter to yourself or others releasing old grudges. Then burn it and say, “I release you so that I can save myself.” Get some of your past woes out of your head and heart, and LET IT GO! 
3. Reclaim You: When your job or business becomes your entire identity, burnout is inevitable. Reconnect with activities that used to light you up—even for 10 minutes a day. Ask yourself: “What would I do if work didn’t define me?” Start there.

Critical Burnout (Stages 10–12): The Breaking Point—Inner Emptiness and Collapse

I’ve met so many people here, and they deny that anything is wrong with them. They have normalized stress, high-functioning anxiety, and depression. They drink multiple shots of espresso to get them up in the morning and then need to wind down with wine or other alcoholic beverages at night. 

Although they mentally deny that they aren’t perfect, their inner voice is diabolical, and they self-medicate to numb themselves. They spend hours on social media wishing they were somewhere else, were with someone else, and were someone else. WHOA. This is the most dangerous stage. 

Signs to Watch:

• Inner Emptiness: You feel hollow, numb, and disconnected. You may reach for quick “fixes” like alcohol, overeating, or endless scrolling to escape the void.
• Depression: Life feels heavy, joyless, and hopeless. Even getting out of bed becomes a monumental task.
• Physical/Mental Breakdown: Chronic fatigue, insomnia, panic attacks, and frequent illness are warning lights you can’t ignore. Your body is waving a red flag: stop and rest now.

Immediate Steps for Recovery:

1. Seek Professional Help—Today: This is not the time to push through. Seek a therapist, coach, or specialist to support your recovery. Getting help is not a weakness; it’s a strength in action.
2. Simplify and Slow Down: You won’t lose momentum if you slow down. You will actually be able to do more with less effort. This technique alone assisted us with tripling 15 salaries in the past five years. Focus on three daily restorative tasks.
3. Take Two Weeks Off From Work: Use this time to rest and sleep. Don’t use it to run errands and organize your house. Or read seven books.  You need to rest your mind. Healing is not negotiable. 

If you’re at this stage, take two weeks off from work. You don’t have to quit your job, but you do need to be different in your job. I’ve seen many experts recommend leaving your job, but your job is not the root cause of your burnout. It only exacerbates your habits and refusal to make yourself a priority.

Moving Forward: Make the Decision to Heal

Burnout happens when we avoid hard decisions, believing the cost of change is too high. But staying stuck in burnout costs far more: your health, relationships, and joy. Some people die at their desks because they couldn’t make the DECISION to put themselves first.

Don’t let that be you.

What's your Burnout Score? Click HERE to take my free quiz and get a detailed report about where you are.

**What are some techniques you can offer that helped you recover from burnout?

Christy Rutherford is an international speaker, 8x author, and founder of Vision Finder International, a leadership development company that assists organizations with employee retention through burnout recovery and prevention. She has spoken to thousands of people in leadership positions worldwide in organizations such as JP Morgan, Facebook, Harvard Medical School, and Investment News, to name a few.

Christy believes employee retention and burnout recovery are inextricably linked and has prevented hundreds of leaders from burning out, assisted 50 with burnout recovery and assisted 30 with alleviating stress-related illnesses (high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, lupus, fibroids, etc.)