You tell yourself you’re burned out because that’s something everybody says these days.
And the ugly truth is, most of those people are probably right. Everything drains you, you find other people exhausting and annoying, you keep snapping at everyone, and the moment you get home, all you want to do is take a nap. But that did nothing to make you feel better.
It might not be burnout at all. It might be trauma, and so many survivors mistake trauma for stress. On the surface, burnout and trauma often look the same. It’s no wonder people mistake them for one another.
It’s incredibly important to understand the difference between them because if you keep calling trauma burnout, you’ll never be able to process it and heal. It’ll get stuck with you forever.
Let’s see how we can start healing.
The Fine Line Between Stress and Trauma
When you’re pushed too hard for too long, you burn out.
It only shows up (or you notice it) after months or even years of nonstop stress, like an extremely demanding job or trying to handle financial pressure. But trauma comes from something very different. It’s the result of a painful experience like violence or abuse.
Once the pressure’s off, burnout usually lifts. You might take some time off work or have fewer responsibilities.
Basically, as serious as burnout is, it doesn’t take much to help with it. Unfortunately, trauma doesn’t go away that easily. Even when everything seems to be working great, trauma can pull you back into old pain.
This is one of the reasons why survivors call trauma burnout. It’s easier to say you’re stressed than it is to admit you’re traumatized.
Sometimes, trauma will require more than therapy.
Abuse- and Trauma-related Statistics
California is a great (‘great’ being used in an unfortunate context) example of both abuse and trauma shaping society.
Here are some data points related to both:
Abuse:
- Domestic violence calls and reports rose from 160,357 in 2023 to 163,024 in 2024. – California Department of Justice
- California had 1.78 fatalities per 100,000 children in child abuse/neglect cases (2023). – Child Welfare, California
- In 2020, California had 391,546 (43.5 per 1,000 children) cases where children were subject to at least one case of abuse/neglect. – Kidsdata
- California gets each month gets 15,000+ statewide reports of abuse for elderly citizens and dependent adults (a total of 202,549 cases in 2024). – ElderAbuseAwareness
Trauma:
- 62.3% adults had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), with 16.3% having 4+;(2011-2017 data). – Office of the California Surgeon General
- Approx. 96,600 California’s veterans live with PTSD. – California Veterans
If you find yourself (or a loved one) a victim of any such suffering, don’t hesitate to look for legal help.
Injury Lawyer Team is one of many examples of law firms that’ve helped numerous citizens protect their legal rights. While receiving fair compensation and finally getting justice might not have healed them, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
How Trauma Disguises Itself as ‘Burnout’
You have zero motivation, no energy, you feel drained at work, even at home, and you procrastinate. And while you might think that it’s the long hours at work that are causing this, it could actually be your manager who’s triggering some past trauma by speaking to you in a certain way.
What also often happens is that people start isolating themselves – even from people they love and trust – and blame that distancing on social burnout, but when in actuality, it’s the feeling of ‘closeness’ that’s triggering a past fear of being betrayed or abandoned again, so your subconscious defense mechanism activates and it distances you from potential harm – no one can leave you or betray you if there’s no one around… right?
Great plan ‘on paper’. But in reality, it’s gloomy, and it’s only placing a bandage on a wound that hasn’t even started healing. A wound you’ve been carrying around with you for years (sometimes even decades).
Even sleeping can be tricky because you lie awake and blame deadlines for it when you’re actually hypervigilant because of trauma.
Signs That Point to Trauma (Instead of Burnout)
Even if you notice the signs that there might be more than just burnout, you still might not get all the answers. At least you’ve made the first step, and now you know what you’re dealing with.
Emotional
When trauma is behind what you’re feeling, your emotions don’t match what’s happening around you.
Your life could be awesome, but you could still feel guilty or ashamed about it, which makes zero sense unless you know what’s REALLY going on. It could also be that you’re always swinging between extremes; you’re angry right now, and then you’re exceptionally happy in an hour. You may even start to feel completely numb. Another really common sign is feeling unsafe regardless of the situation you’re currently in.
These are leftovers from your past, and they have nothing to do with your present.
Physical
Trauma can also show up in your body.
Are you living with constant tension? Headaches? Stomachaches? No doctor can explain what’s going on because there seems to be nothing wrong. Your body might overreact to small things, like jumping after somebody slams the door or your heart racing for no apparent reason.
Another big cue is sleep. Too much work usually makes you restless at night, but sleep problems that stem from trauma usually involve nightmares or waking up in panic. It’s almost as if your body is refusing to relax.
Cognitive
Regular stress doesn’t do the same thing to your mind as trauma.
Gaps in memory and flashes of disturbing images are dead giveaways of trauma. On a subconscious level, you might be avoiding people (sometimes a certain type of people, but sometimes people in general), you might be avoiding places, or even situations – anything that might remind you of something traumatic you went through.
Sometimes people ‘cope’ with trauma by making themselves numb with substances (alcohol and drugs), or sometimes they’re engaging in risky behavior, and you might mistake them for adrenaline junkies, while in reality they’re trying to connect with something, fill a hole that was left there since they were little.
What’s most scary is that people doing these things might not even recognize why they’re destroying themselves. You also often see people throwing themselves into working 24/7, so that they don’t have time to process anything else, or they’re too exhausted to do so.
None of this is burnout; it’s your brain trying to manage (avoid) pain that hasn’t been handled.
Behavioral Cues
If you’re burned out, you’re tired and need to rest, so you pull back because of that.
But with trauma, withdrawal goes deeper, and the reason you isolate yourself is that closeness and trust feel threatening. You might push people away or sabotage relationships. It could also go the other way, where you’re unable to set boundaries with people.
You won’t get any better if you take some time off because the root issue won’t be resolved.
Healing
Therapy used to be such a taboo subject, and many perceived people going to therapy as weak. Now that there’s more data on it and its outcomes, it’s become clear that therapy can be extremely important when dealing with trauma and finally – resolving it.
The type of therapy you opt for doesn’t matter. EMDR, cognitive behavioral therapy, group support, and even one-on-one sessions – all have shown promising results with trauma and abuse victims.
Unlike burnout, which gets easier as stress goes down, trauma needs to be handled intentionally because it won’t go away on its own.
You might not see it the way you see a bruise, a scar, or blood. But it’s there. Both your body and your mind know it.
Whatever route you decide to take, remember to give yourself time because healing doesn’t happen overnight.
Conclusion
Both burnout and trauma are serious; if left ignored and unattended, they’ll lead to serious complications.
But healing burnout is easy to do with time. For trauma, you need another remedy, because time won’t do it. You need assertiveness and the willingness to heal. The reason why trauma is so problematic when it comes to treating it is that it has a way of disguising itself as stress.
But once you see the difference, you can start fighting the right battle. And no. It won’t be easy, nor will it be a quick fix.
But once you’re healed, you’ll finally be the ‘100% of you’ that you once were.
