What is depression?
Depression is a mental illness characterized by 3 main symptoms: For a diagnosis of depression, at least 2 of these symptoms must occur. Depression is divided into mild, moderate and severe. When a severe depression is diagnosed, all 3 main symptoms occur.
- A clearly depressed mood with deep sadness
- A pronounced drive reduction
- Loss of interest
- Lack of joyfulness
In addition to the main symptoms there are secondary symptoms. These include among others:
- Sleep disorders (a
Men suffering from depression in particular often show increased irritability and aggressive behaviour. Treatment of moderate and severe depression is usually carried out by means of drug and/or psychotherapeutic therapy, which can last from months to years. Would you like to learn more about this topic?
What is burnout?
The burnout syndrome is also a mental illness. The name is derived from the English, “burnout” means something like burning out. At present, the burnout syndrome is not yet one of the diseases explicitly included in the classification of mental disorders.
At first it was rather a kind of “fashionable term”, but in the meantime it has also established itself in medical language. A burnout syndrome usually begins insidiously. In the fully developed stage it occurs: this means that the affected persons distance themselves more and more from everything in the course of their illness.
There is an increasing indifference towards things that were otherwise important, especially in professional life. The main cause for the development of the burnout syndrome is constant stress, primarily stress of an occupational nature. A lack of recognition for professional achievements also plays a decisive role. – a strong experience of being overburdened
- Exhaustion
- Marked drop in performance
- The feeling of constant failure
- A so-called depersonalisation
What is the connection between burnout and depression?
The main connection between burnout syndrome and depression is that they overlap to some extent in terms of symptoms. Both diseases can lead to a feeling of being overwhelmed and to a reduction of drive with a drop in performance. The mood is also depressed in both diseases.
Typically, both diseases are also associated with sleep disorders. In the past there was the term exhaustion depression. The burnout syndrome has replaced this term, so to speak, except that it is not a depression in the narrower sense, even though the symptoms overlap in many areas.
It is very important that a burnout syndrome that goes untreated can develop into a depression. From a hierarchical point of view, severe depression is an even more threatening clinical picture than burnout syndrome, even though burnout syndrome is very distressing for those affected. Concrete suicidal thoughts in particular, however, occur significantly more often in depression than in burnout syndrome.
Depression is therefore the consequence of an untreated burnout syndrome. This shows how important it is to recognise a burnout syndrome and to treat it adequately. Currently, there are – in contrast to depression – no recommendations for drug treatment of burnout syndrome.
In the following article you will learn how to treat a burnout syndrome properly: Treatment of Burnout Syndrome. Psychotherapeutic methods are used in particular. If there are clear depressive symptoms at the same time, the use of antidepressants should be considered. Often a sick note is also necessary. The affected person must first of all get out of the environment that overstrains him or her and develop strategies that help them to deal better with the triggering situations.
