#PositivelyStressed – Week 29

You know all the signs – exhaustion (mental, physical, emotional), cynicism, and reduced effectiveness – in other words: BURNOUT.

While the DSM-5 does not formally recognize “burnout” as a mental health disorder, the WHO now recognizes it as an occupational syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed.

I could stop here and simply talk about burnout itself – but plenty of others already have. Instead, I want to shine a light on one of the most damaging myths about burnout – and it doesn’t show up while you are going through it. It shows up after.

After going through burnout, a healthy person would take a step back, slow down, and rebuild healthy boundaries. The problem? Too often they’re labeled as “not dedicated anymore.”

This “lack of dedication fallacy” twists recovery into laziness, disengagement, or weakness. In reality, it’s the opposite!

Think of an athlete like Wrexham’s “Super Paul Mullin”. After a punctured lung incident on the field and when he had spinal surgery, no one questioned his dedication when he spent months in rehab instead of sprinting right back onto the pitch. Everyone understood recovery was part of staying in the game.

Yet in the workplace, when someone practices the same discipline – healing before performing – it’s branded as “slacking”. That stigma only fuels the burnout cycle and prevents true recovery.

Burnout doesn’t happen because people don’t care enough. It happens when the demands of work and life overwhelm the body’s resources. And workplaces subtly or overtly reward nonstop grinding while penalizing those who pace themselves. That’s how the myth of “hustle = dedication” takes root.

In truth, recovery from burnout – like all of mental health – is about sustainability. Returning after burnout isn’t about proving toughness. It’s about restructuring workload, boundaries, and expectations so that it doesn’t happen again!

What if we flipped the script?

The professionals who recover and return with honesty about their limits and a renewed perspective on their work, aren’t showing weakness. They’re showing maturity, humility, and strength.

The next time you see someone moving more deliberately after burnout or another mental health crisis, remember – recovery takes time and discipline.

True dedication doesn’t burn itself out, it is preserved so that it can continue showing up for the long haul.

And that is how we live #PositivelyStressed.