How to Tell If You’re Suffering From Burnout: Tools That Help Determine
- Jennifer Olson-Madden, PhD
- Aug 30
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
If you’ve been wondering, “Am I burned out…or just stressed?” you’re not alone. As a virtual psychologist who works with high-achieving professionals, I see many clients who look “fine” on the outside but feel exhausted, detached, and ineffective on the inside.
This guide walks you through research-backed ways to recognize burnout, including how psychologists measure it, simple self-check prompts you can use today, and what to do next if the signs fit your experience.
Burnout vs. “Regular” Stress
The World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, characterized by three core features: exhaustion, mental distance or cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. Importantly, it refers to phenomena in the occupational context (i.e., work), not every kind of life stress.
The Maslach Model: The Gold Standard for Understanding Burnout
Christina Maslach’s decades of research shaped how clinicians and organizations understand burnout. Her measure—the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)—assesses three dimensions:
Emotional Exhaustion (feeling used up, depleted)
Depersonalization / Cynicism (detaching from or feeling negative toward work or the people you serve)
Reduced Personal Accomplishment / Professional Efficacy (feeling ineffective or that your work doesn’t matter)
The MBI is the most widely used measure of burnout in research and practice and is available through a licensed publisher.
Maslach and Michael Leiter also identified six “Areas of Worklife” that strongly influence burnout risk: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. The larger the mismatch between you and your work in these areas (e.g., workload too heavy, values misaligned), the higher the risk for burnout; better “fit” promotes engagement.
Quick self-reflection using the Maslach lens
Ask yourself:
Exhaustion: Do I end most workdays drained, with little left for life outside work?
Cynicism: Am I more irritable, negative, or detached about my job or clients than I used to be?
Efficacy: Even when I work hard, do I feel like I’m not making a meaningful difference?
If you’re nodding along to two or more, you may be drifting into burnout territory.
Evidence-Based Tools You Can Use (or Ask Your Therapist About)
You don’t have to guess. Several validated questionnaires can help you understand where you stand. Here’s a plain-English tour:
Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)
Best for: A research-grade assessment of the three classic burnout dimensions.
Access: Licensed tool (often used in clinical/organizational settings). Ask a clinician or your organization about access.
Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI)
What it measures: Personal, work-related, and client-related burnout across 19 items.
Why it helps: It’s open-access (free to use) and has solid reliability/validity across settings.
Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI)
What it measures: Exhaustion and disengagement from work (16 items).
Why it helps: Brief, useful for screening and tracking change during treatment or organizational interventions.
ProQOL (Professional Quality of Life Scale)
What it measures: Compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress—especially useful for helpers, clinicians, educators, and first responders.
Access: Free manual and scoring guidance.
Mini-Z Burnout Survey (for clinicians/healthcare teams)
What it measures: A quick screening item for burnout plus questions about your practice environment (workload, chaos, control).
Why it helps: Designed for fast use in healthcare systems to guide well-being initiatives.
Note: Screeners provide indicators, not diagnoses. They’re most powerful when paired with a conversation about your Areas of Worklife and values fit.
Three Real-World Case Snapshots
Names and details are altered to protect confidentiality; these vignettes reflect common patterns I see in my virtual Colorado therapy practice.
Maya, 39, Attorney — “Exhausted but can’t stop”
Maya wakes up tired, powers through intense days, and feels numb by 3 p.m. She used to love mentoring associates, but now avoids it. She rates high on exhaustion and notices growing cynicism (“Clients are impossible; nothing changes”). Her CBI flags high personal and work-related burnout. In therapy, we map her Areas of Worklife—massive workload and low control—and create a two-tier plan: immediate burnout recovery habits (sleep, boundaries around email), and a medium-term renegotiation of caseload and “availability.” Over weeks, her energy improves, and she begins differentiating “urgent” from “performative urgent,” which reduces overload.
Luis, 45, Hospitalist — “I care, but I’m checked out”
Luis still cares about patients but feels detached on shift. An OLBI shows elevated disengagement, moderate exhaustion. On the Mini-Z, he marks high “chaos” and low “control,” which we share with his team lead to spark system fixes (smoother handoffs, realistic staffing). Personally, he re-introduces micro-moments of meaning (1 minute to connect with a patient’s family, a debrief with colleagues). Disengagement eases as the environment changes, and he reconnects with the “why” of his work.
Priya, 33, Product Manager — “Great at work, lousy at feeling effective”
Priya’s performance reviews are stellar, but she feels ineffective. An MBI profile suggests reduced professional efficacy without marked exhaustion. We explore values misalignment and missing reward (recognition and growth) using the Areas of Worklife lens. She schedules regular “impact reviews” to track wins, seeks a mentorship pathway, and experiments with task crafting. Her sense of efficacy rebounds as work aligns with her strengths.
A Five-Step, Research-Informed Self-Assessment You Can Do This Week
Name your signals.
Circle the Maslach dimensions that resonate -- exhaustion, cynicism, inefficacy.
Add physical clues (sleep disruption, headaches), emotional symptoms (irritability, dread on Sundays), and behavioral signs (procrastination, social withdrawal).
Take a validated screener.
If you have access to the MBI, that’s excellent. If not, try the CBI or OLBI for a quick snapshot; helpers might consider ProQOL. Save your scores; they’re a baseline, not a verdict.
Map your Areas of Worklife.
For each area—workload, control, reward, community, fairness, values—rate your fit from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Which two mismatches feel most urgent to improve? That’s where change often moves the needle fastest.
Identify one high-leverage experiment.
If exhaustion dominates: reduce after-hours digital load, protect sleep, and renegotiate scope.
If cynicism dominates: build community (1 genuine connection per day), reconnect with beneficiaries of your work, and schedule meaning-making tasks earlier in the day.
If inefficacy dominates: ask for feedback, track “wins,” and craft tasks toward strengths (even 10–20% of your week helps).
Decide your support level.
If symptoms persist >4–6 weeks, are severe, or interfere with health/relationships, it’s time for therapy. If you’re in Denver, I provide evidence-based burnout treatment (CBT, ACT, mindfulness) and can collaborate with your workplace when helpful.
When Is It NOT Burnout?
Because burnout is specific to work, it’s possible to feel exhausted and low because of depression, trauma, burnout-induced anxiety, or a medical issue. A licensed professional can help you differentiate and coordinate care. (The WHO’s burnout definition is a helpful anchor for this distinction.)
What I Tell Clients About Next Steps
Measure, don’t marinate. A clinician can provide you with a screener to get a baseline, then repeat in 4–6 weeks to see if your changes help. (CBI/OLBI/ProQOL are easy starting points.)
Fix the fit. Sustainable recovery usually requires tweaks to the work environment (expectations, control, recognition) and to personal habits and boundaries. The Areas of Worklife can guide an honest conversation with your team.
Align with values. Burnout often signals that how you’re working isn’t how you want to live. Clarifying values—and aligning time with them—is energizing and protective.
Get professional support. An experienced burnout therapist can help you unhook from perfectionism and fear-driven overwork, build skills for boundaries and recovery, and chart a values-based path forward.
Burnout FAQs
🪫Is there a single best “burnout test”?
No single test fits everyone. The MBI is the research gold standard (licensed), while CBI and OLBI are robust, accessible options for self-screening. Helpers often benefit from the ProQOL.
🪫Can burnout be diagnosed?
Burnout is recognized by the WHO as an occupational phenomenon—not a medical diagnosis—but its impacts are very real and treatable. A clinician can help you differentiate burnout from other conditions.
🪫I’m a clinician—what quick tool can my team use?
Consider the Mini-Z survey to screen for burnout and identify practice environment issues that contribute to it.
🪫How long does recovery take?
It varies. Many people notice improvements within weeks when they reduce overload, improve recovery habits, and address work-fit issues; deeper changes can unfold over months.
Take a Compassionate Next Step With Online Burnout Therapy in Denver, Colorado
If this guide sounded uncomfortably familiar, you don’t have to untangle it alone. I offer support to high-achieving adults, professionals, and parents under pressure around the Denver metro area and beyond through my online Colorado practice.
My goal is to help clients recover from burnout using ACT, CBT, mindfulness, and practical workplace strategies. If you’re ready, let’s talk about a plan that fits your life and values. Here are steps you can take today:
Work toward overcoming burnout and stress by first scheduling a free 15-minute consultation.
Express your concerns and learn practical coping strategies by meeting with an online burnout therapist in Denver, CO.
Learn how to care for yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically while releasing the burden of unnecessary pressure.
Online Therapy in Denver, CO: Other Services I Offer
Therapy for burnout can help you recognize when stress has gone beyond its limits and give you the tools to prevent it from taking over your life. With support, you can learn healthier coping skills, reduce the weight of constant exhaustion, and begin moving toward a calmer, more balanced future.
Although burnout recovery is a central part of my Denver-based online therapy practice, I also provide care in other important areas of mental health. My work includes helping clients manage anxiety disorders by easing cycles of worry and tension, offering trauma-informed therapy for those working through painful experiences, and providing guidance during major life transitions like career shifts, relationship changes, or identity growth. For clients navigating relationship stress, I create a safe space to strengthen communication, repair trust, and cultivate healthier connections.
Alongside therapy, I also offer professional assessments and individualized treatment plans that address each client’s unique needs. To learn more, I encourage you to visit my website, explore valuable insights on my mental health blog. You can also download my free e-book for additional tools and follow me on X, Instagram, and LinkedIn for ongoing support and resources.
When you’re ready to take the next step toward emotional wellness, reach out:
💻Through email at jennifer@drolsonmadden.com
📱By phone at 720-588-3823
📝Via my website’s contact form
About the Author
Dr. Jennifer Olson-Madden is a licensed psychologist in Denver, CO, specializing in helping individuals identify and overcome burnout before it takes a greater toll on their lives. With advanced training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and mindfulness approaches, she equips clients with practical tools to recognize early warning signs of burnout and manage stress more effectively. With more than two decades of experience treating anxiety, trauma, chronic stress, and burnout, Dr. Olson-Madden integrates evidence-based strategies with a compassionate approach to care. She not only teaches these skills in therapy but also applies them in her own life, modeling resilience and balance for the clients she serves.
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