How to Recover from Burnout: The First Step (and Why It’s Not a Spa Day)
Let’s start strong: you can’t recover from burnout with a face mask and a cup of herbal tea.
You can’t bubble bath your way out of systemic overwhelm. And you definitely can’t gratitude-journal your way through emotional depletion if your nervous system is fried and your brain feels like it’s buffering.
Burnout is not just tiredness with better branding.
It’s not a bad day.
It’s not fixed by one early night and a green smoothie.
And yet, most of us treat it like an inconvenience rather than the massive, blinking red warning light it is.
So let’s talk about the first step to actual recovery. Not the Pinterest version. The real, often uncomfortable, but deeply important beginning.
Step One: You Have to Name It
That’s it. That’s the first step.
You have to stop calling it "just a rough patch" or "I’ve just got a lot on right now" and actually acknowledge it: this is burnout.
Not stress. Not low motivation. Burnout.
It matters because you can’t recover from something you refuse to name. As long as you're pretending you're fine, you'll keep operating like you're fine. And burnout loves that. It thrives in denial, in over-functioning, in the gap between what you feel and what you perform.
It will let you smile and wave while you're slowly unraveling on the inside.
Burnout Feels Subtle Until It Doesn't
No one wakes up one day dramatically burnt out. It creeps in slowly.
At first, you miss a lunch break here and there. You start sighing a lot. Maybe you feel a bit snappy with people who haven’t technically done anything wrong.
Then it escalates. You’re exhausted after simple tasks. You forget things you normally wouldn’t. You stop caring about things you used to care deeply about.
Eventually, even your hobbies feel like admin.
By the time you're Googling "what else can I do with my OT degree that isn’t OT", it's already here.
Why Naming Burnout Feels So Uncomfortable
Because no one wants to be that person.
We’re told burnout is for people who can’t cope. People who aren’t resilient. People who failed to manage their time, their stress, their inbox.
So we delay naming it. We tell ourselves everyone feels like this. That it’s normal to wake up anxious and go to bed wired. That we’re just being dramatic, or weak, or hormonal.
Spoiler: it’s not normal. It might be common, but it’s not normal. And pretending otherwise only keeps you stuck.
Naming it doesn’t make you fragile. It makes you honest. And honesty is the entry point to change.
What Naming Burnout Might Sound Like
"I’m not just tired, I’m completely depleted."
"I don’t feel like myself anymore."
"Even things I usually enjoy feel like chores."
"I can’t focus. I can’t rest. I’m constantly overwhelmed."
"Everything feels too loud."
You don’t need a full clinical checklist to admit you’re not okay. If you’re constantly pushing through and secretly wondering if you can keep going like this, it’s worth paying attention.
Why This Step Matters So Much
You can’t fix what you won’t face. That’s not just self-help fluff. It’s psychology.
Naming something moves it from the vague fog of discomfort into something you can actually address. It breaks the illusion that this is just how things have to be.
When you name it, you stop fighting yourself and start seeing the real problem: the system, the workload, the pressure, the expectations, the mismatch between what you need and what you’re experiencing.
That shift in perspective changes everything.
What Happens Next
No, naming it doesn’t fix it. But it gives you permission to start.
To rest. To step back. To question. To reassess.
You might:
Talk to your GP or a therapist.
Take proper time off - not pretend-time-off where you're still checking emails.
Rework your boundaries, your routines, or your expectations.
Lower the bar (because right now, survival is enough).
You might do nothing immediately. Just sit with the truth. And that’s okay too.
The point is: once you name it, you can stop pretending to be okay. And that’s where recovery begins.
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
Burnout isn’t fixed with a new planner or another productivity app.
Nor is it fixed with taking a week of annual leave.
It’s fixed, slowly, with honesty, rest, boundaries and often some very boring but necessary decisions.
It’s not glamorous. But it’s effective.
You don’t have to wait until you’re at breaking point. You don’t have to hit rock bottom before you get to say, “This isn’t working for me anymore.”
You can say it now. You can name it now.
That’s not failure. That’s self-respect.
Final Thoughts
The first step to burnout recovery isn’t action. It’s admission.
So if you’re sitting here wondering if you’re burnt out, this is your sign: you probably are.
You’re not broken. You’re burnt out. And that means there’s something to recover from.
Name it.
That’s step one.
Everything else comes after.
