▲Hanging out with people who love to complain won't help your mood or outlook, so try to avoid them as much as you can.

▲Where stress involves too much (on your plate), burnout is about not enough: feeling empty and mentally exhausted, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring.

▲Feeling physically and emotionally depleted, which may entail headaches, stomachaches, and appetite or sleeping changes that further the exhaustion.

▲Included in the feeling of being overwhelmed, people with burnout may stop socializing and reaching out to family and friends. You push your support system away when you need it most.

▲An immense dissatisfaction leads to fantasies about running away or embarking on 'Eat, Pray, Love' types of trips. Extreme cases may include resorting to drugs, alcohol, or food to numb emotional pain.

▲Many people attribute burnout to first-responder professionals and corporate heads, but just like doctors and business executives, parents and creative professionals experience burnout as well.

▲Do you feel like your day is rife with tasks that are either mind-numbing or overwhelming? Do you feel like nothing you do makes a difference or is appreciated? Burnout doesn't hit all at once, which is why it can be hard to identify. Here are the symptoms.

▲Burnout can cause people to lose their temper very quickly with friends, co-workers, and family members, making every day a bad day. Regular tasks become difficult, especially when things don't go as planned.

▲You lose the sense of meaning and accomplishment in your work, and that space is instead filled with a sense of failure and self-doubt.

▲Stress may be unavoidable, but burnout is preventable! Following these steps may help you extinguish the burn before it bursts into flames.

▲The person experiencing burnout may not realize the root cause and may consequently begin blaming others and wholly denying the internal problems.

▲When you're plagued with burnout, you're not performing at your best.

▲Burnout can actually lower your immune system, as your mind affects your body, making you more susceptible to colds, the flu, and insomnia.

▲Since for many people quitting their job isn't an option, try to find new value in it, or focus on the parts you enjoy. If there's no joy there, find meaning in your life elsewhere, preferably in the things having that job allows you to do.

▲Eating a healthy diet can be a natural antidepressant. Be sure to incorporate mood-boosting foods.

▲You don't need to read the news every morning or every night, and keeping up with the success and highlights of people on social media will only make you feel worse.

▲Starting a new job or task can often make people feel that they must overwork themselves to catch up, but too much ambition can lead to burnout.

▲Whether it's going for a walk, visiting a new café, watching one of your favorite shows, or cooking a nice meal, do something special every day.

▲And flexible ones! Deadlines are a huge source of stress, and when we prioritize a project over our health, we sacrifice the needs of our bodies.

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Social contact is nature's antidote to stress. When you vocalize your problems, they immediately feel smaller, and even just being around a positive presence can calm your nervous system. The people you're interacting with don't have to provide solutions—they just have to hear you.

And this contact can also be virtual.

▲Creativity is a wonderful way to combat burnout. Try a new art form, start a craft project, or invest time in an old hobby. Putting energy into non-stressful activities stimulates healthy productivity in parts of your life outside of work.

▲Being helpful to others even in small ways like listening, validating their feelings, or other small gestures can foster a deeper happiness in yourself and can actually reduce your own stress levels.

▲Whenever you feel the effects of stress, it's important to reach out for help. If asking feels difficult, try setting up a regular check-in with close friends or family so that you always feel supported.

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Don’t try to push past the exhaustion! There are three easy steps: first, recognize the signs; then reverse the damage by finding support; and, lastly, build resilience by taking care of your physical and emotional health.

▲Our bodies need time to reset, which is why healthy sleep habits are essential. Relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation also activate a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response.

▲Prioritizing your self-care is integral to avoiding burnout. Not only is exercise good for our physical health, it can also give us an emotional boost, even if it's just going for a walk during lunch break.

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If you're sitting in front of a computer all day, leave the screens off when work is over. It's also important to have a base of friends or activities separate from work so you can cultivate a rich non-work life.

▲Joining a cause, sport, or a community group that is meaningful to you can provide a space to connect with like-minded people, which can be a source of more positive energy and motivation.

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If you feel like you're alone, it's never too late to build new friendships. Find Facebook groups you can relate to and introduce yourself, for example. Or if you prefer, get in touch with people you haven't spoken to in a long time.

Branching out into new social circles can be the exciting and refreshing change you need.

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Burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion characterized by feelings of depletion, detachment, cynicism, and a reduction of efficacy. The World Health Organization recognized burnout as a syndrome stemming from "chronic workplace stress. "Many factors can cause the excessive and prolonged stress that leads to burnout, whether it’s your profession, caring for family, working long hours, or witnessing upsetting news every day. There are so many reasons to be stressed, and we often accept that as the norm. We’re taught that we have to work harder than everyone else if we want to succeed, and we’re encouraged to value career success over our own well-being. But it’s catching up to us.

The syndrome essentially drains the joy out of your life, making problems seem insurmountable while also making it difficult to muster up the energy to care about anyone or anything, let alone take care of yourself. It can threaten your job, your relationships, and your health, and it’s an increasingly prevalent issue that only gets worse without the knowledge to fix it. We’ve all encountered stress and unhappiness at work, but we’ve been trained to believe that taking a vacation will "recharge" us. More and more, however, people’s burnout worsens when they return and find that nothing has changed.

Unfortunately, burnout is deeper than temporarily feeling overwhelmed. What makes it even more difficult is that burnout isn’t always easy to spot. Plus, it doesn’t go away on its own and, if left untreated, it can lead to serious physical and psychological illnesses like depression, heart disease, and diabetes. But don’t get stressed out by this!

Check out the following gallery to see warning signs and effective techniques for both preventing and handling burnout.