Is It Depression or Burnout? How to Tell — And Why They Might Be the Same Thing
Struggling with low energy, numbness, or lack of motivation? Learn the difference between depression and burnout — and why both might be signs your nervous system and soul are asking for change.
The Hidden Truth About Burnout & Depression
Most experts separate burnout and depression as two different mental health conditions — and technically, they’re right.
But what if they’re also the same thing at the root?
In my experience supporting high-achieving women,
I’ve found that both burnout and depression often emerge from the same underlying cause: misalignment with your soul and a nervous system stuck in survival mode.
These aren’t just mental or emotional issues. They’re your body screaming for rest, regulation, and a return to your authentic self.
What’s the difference between BURNOUT and DEPRESSION?
Burnout is usually described as “work-related exhaustion” caused by chronic stress. It includes:
Symptoms of Burnout
- Emotional and physical fatigue
- Reduced performance
- Cynicism or detachment
- Feeling “numb” or unmotivated
Depression, on the other hand, is a clinical diagnosis involving:
Symptoms of Depression
- Persistent sadness or emptiness
- Loss of interest in activities
- Changes in sleep or appetite
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feelings of hopelessness
But, here’s the twist.
Burnout AND depression are both simply your body and soul begging for “deep rest.”
Burnout and depression are your body’s way of screaming that it can’t keep going like this.
It can’t sustain the character you’ve been playing.
The mask you’ve been wearing has had you in a constant hamster wheel of performing, of showing the world how *perfect* you are, how *talented* you are, how *skinny* you are, how *pretty* you are, how *smart* you are, how *successful* you are, how *rich* you are.
I’m tired just typing that.
And please know, I spent much of my 38 years on this planet tired, because this was me.
Other roles us high-achievers tend to play for decades that drain your life force energy:
- The overachiever
- The people-pleaser
- The hustler
- The perfectionist
- The over-giver and care-taker
- The fixer
- The controller
These are all PROTECTION MECHANISMS designed to preserve the perfect façade you’ve been carefully curating.
On a survival level, your body has learned it’s not safe to fully be yourself, so your ego works overtime to make sure the world never ‘finds you out.’
After years, your body and spirit gets tired of the charade 🎪 🎭
And if you don’t slow down by CHOICE, your body slows you down by CONSEQUENCE.
The consequence usually manifests first as symptoms of DEPRESSION & BURNOUT (also known as nervous system shutdown).
“Depression and burnout are your system’s way of saying: ‘I can’t keep pretending to be this version of me anymore.’”
This isn’t a weakness because you can’t keep “pushing through.”
It’s a survival response ready to be looked at and alchemized.
Let me explain (getting on my nerdy neuroscience hat 🤓)
A Nervous System Perspective: Burnout & Depression Are Two Sides of the Same Dysregulation
When you stay in fight or flight (sympathetic) mode too long… hustling, performing, chasing success … your body eventually crashes into freeze (dorsal vagal shutdown).
Symptoms of this shutdown state:
- Exhaustion: Not usual fatigue, but complete mental, physical, emotional, spirit depletion.
- Numbness: Typically reaching for unhealthy coping mechanisms like alcohol, sugar or shopping for a quick dopamine life to *feel something*
- Low motivation: It might come off as “lazy” or you no longer have interest hobbies you once loved. The passion you had for your work or business disappears. This often looks like self-care and hygiene going out the door too – sometimes showring, brushing your teeth or exercising are “too much.”
Your body ensures what energy you have left goes to ESSENTIAL bodily functions, not your goals, dreams & thriving. - Isolation: You may not respond to texts for days, you’ll stop going to girl’s nights (and instead have cocktails alone at home) and cancel traditions like Sunday church. You’ll find yourself calling out sick or rescheduling important meetings, no matter what the consequences might be.
- Emptiness, Depersonalization or derealization: No energy for life, like you’re living someone else’s life, feeling like you’re in a dream or you’re standing still while life continues to move. I describe this as a “timelapse” video – time is passing fast and you’re standing still.
Sound familiar? There’s nothing actually wrong with you.
But, this is why you feel both burnout and depression.
So the question isn’t just “what do I have?”
The real question is: what is my body trying to tell m
The Ego vs Soul Lens: When Productivity Masks a Deeper Void
From a soul perspective, depression and burnout often begin when we start living from ego:
- Hustling for validation
- Achieving to feel worthy
- Saying yes to everything out of fear we’ll fall behind
But the soul doesn’t play by those rules.
When you ignore your soul long enough, it stops whispering — and starts screaming.
Depression and burnout are not failures — they are feedback: That you’re on the wrong path and it’s time for a redirect.
These symptoms of dis-ease are loving invitations to come home to yourself.
The Hustle–Burnout–Depression Loop (and Why It Lasts for Decades)
Many high-achievers unknowingly get trapped in this cycle:
- Hustle: Driven by fear of not being enough, not doing enough, or being left behind.
- Burnout: Nervous system overload — body and mind crash.
- Depression: Deep fatigue, disconnection, and soul-level grief from misalignment.
- Bypassing: Rest feels unsafe. So they numb out, suppress, or “push through.”
Repeat: They start hustling again to escape the discomfort… and the loop continues.
THIS is the cycle that eventually leads to the DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL … when your capacity goes to zero, you have no energy left to continue and you’re forced to face the survival patterns that have kept you in this feast-and-famine cycle your entire life.
So… How Do You Break the Loop?
Here’s your roadmap to come back into alignment, vitality, and regulated success:
1. Honor the pause
(my story of healing depression)
Give yourself permission to feel tired.
Rest is not weakness — it’s required to heal.
Your body isn’t betraying you. It’s begging to be heard.
For decades, I carried a low-grade heaviness that I labeled as “depression.” But looking back, it wasn’t that I was broken — I was just stuck in constant hustle and high-functioning survival mode.
The truth is, I never felt safe to rest. I didn’t know how to just be tired or feel sadness without trying to fix it.
So instead of slowing down, I’d get up and do something to override the discomfort:
✔️ Buy a new supplement.
✔️ Tweak my sleep schedule.
✔️ Start fasting or biohacking for a dopamine hit.
Anything to avoid the stillness.
But during my dark night of the soul, my body gave me no choice.
I had no energy left to push, to perform, or to fix anything.
For the first time, I just let myself be in the darkness — and got curious about what it was trying to say.
Within two weeks, something shifted.
Not because I did anything. But because I finally stopped doing.
And then, out of nowhere, I felt a feeling I hadn’t felt in years: JOY.
Sometimes, the deepest healing isn’t in pushing through or “overcoming” the discomfort… it’s in finally allowing space for it to exist.
2. Regulate Your Nervous System Daily
One of the most overlooked, yet powerful ways to heal from burnout and depression is by consistently regulating your nervous system. When you’re stuck in chronic stress, survival mode, or emotional overwhelm, your body and brain can’t access the safety needed for true rest, healing, and clarity. That’s why nervous system regulation isn’t a luxury — it’s a daily, non-negotiable practice.
Incorporate somatic (body-based) tools like:
- EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique / Tapping): A gentle acupressure technique that calms the stress response and rewires anxious thought patterns.
- Breathwork: Intentional breathing exercises that activate your parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous system, helping to release stored tension and increase emotional resilience.
- Vagus Nerve Activation: Simple practices like humming, gargling, or cold exposure that stimulate the vagus nerve, reducing inflammation and calming the body.
- Grounding: Connecting with nature, physical touch, or mindful movement (like walking barefoot on grass, stretching, or gentle yoga) to bring your body out of fight-or-flight and into the present moment.
Remember — healing doesn’t come from occasional big gestures but from small, consistent acts of safety and regulation.
Over time, these daily practices create deep repair, restore your sense of self & build resilience against future overwhelm.
3. Listen to Your Soul’s Voice
Burnout and depression often happen when you’ve been living by everyone else’s expectations, constantly performing, or making decisions rooted in fear and obligation rather than desire and authenticity. To begin reconnecting with yourself, you have to start tuning in to your own inner guidance — the quiet, steady voice beneath the noise of survival mode.
Each day, take a moment to pause and ask yourself:
- “What would feel true for me today?”
Not what you should do, not what’s expected, but what feels aligned and nourishing in this moment. - “What am I doing out of fear instead of love?”
This question gently exposes the places where self-protection, people-pleasing, or perfectionism might be running the show, so you can start choosing differently.
These simple check-ins reconnect you to your inner compass — the part of you that knows what you need, what matters to you and how you actually want to live.
Over time, this practice helps you rebuild trust with yourself and break free from the patterns keeping you stuck. ⛓️💥
4. Rewire Your Identity + Patterns
Burnout and depression aren’t just about stress or exhaustion — they’re the result of deeply ingrained identity patterns and survival strategies your nervous system learned to rely on.
If you’ve built your worth around being the overachiever, the fixer, the perfectionist, or the one who holds everything together, it can feel terrifying to slow down, rest or choose yourself.
The key to lasting healing is to gently rewire those patterns at the root.
This isn’t about willpower. Affirmations, talk therapy and journaling won’t do the trick either.
It’s about creating safety in your body and nervous system to show up differently.
This happens on a BODY level NOT a MIND level.
Use nervous system-friendly rewiring practices like:
Safe Exposure: Gradually practicing things like saying no, resting without guilt, or receiving support — in small, manageable doses — while regulating your nervous system in the process.
Somatic Affirmations: Speaking gentle, body-based truths out loud while placing a hand on your heart or body. Example: “It’s safe for me to rest. I am enough, even when I’m still.”
Inner Child Work: Tending to the younger parts of you that learned survival meant overachieving, people-pleasing, or staying small, and offering them the reassurance and safety they didn’t receive back then.
5. Create SUCCESS on YOUR TERMS
One of the biggest causes of burnout and depression — especially for high-achieving, purpose-driven women — is chasing a version of success that was never designed to honor your humanity, nervous system, or soul. It’s time to redefine what success looks and feels like for you.
Success doesn’t have to mean hustle, depletion, or constant self-sacrifice.
You can make money, grow your impact, and serve your purpose in ways that feel nourishing, spacious, and sustainable.
The first step is getting clear on what aligned success means for you.
Start here:
- Define Your Core Values:
What truly matters to you? What do you want your work and life to be rooted in — freedom, creativity, integrity, impact, rest, joy? Write them down. - Identify What Feels Heavy vs. What Feels Light:
Make a list of everything you’re currently doing in your work or life. Notice what energizes you and what consistently drains you. The draining things often reveal where you’re living out of alignment. - Explore Spacious Business + Career Models:
Look into approaches that naturally create more room for rest, creativity, and embodiment — like:- Running seasonal offers or programs (instead of year-round)
- High-ticket, low-volume services
- Passive income through digital products, courses, or affiliate partnerships
- Asynchronous coaching, consulting, or memberships
- Project-based freelance or contract work
- Building in scheduled rest weeks or creative sabbaticals
- Check In with Your Nervous System:
Does the idea of your current workload feel expansive or contracting? Does your vision of “success” feel safe in your body, or does it immediately trigger pressure and tension? Your nervous system is your greatest guide in determining what’s truly aligned.
The truth is: you don’t have to sacrifice yourself to succeed.
There’s a way to create a business, career, and life that honors both your ambitions and your well-being.
That’s exactly what we support you in inside Soma WELLth™ — building success using what expands your body so you never burnout again.
Burnout and depression are a call to lead from your body, align with your soul and create success from truth and regulation
You’re Not Broken — You’re Being Rebuilt
Whether you call it burnout or depression, if you’re feeling stuck, heavy, or disconnected — you’re not alone.
You’re also not broken.
You’re simply being invited into a new season — one where you lead from your body, align with your soul, and create success from a place of deep regulation and truth.
👇 RESOURCES TO HELP 👇
Mental Wellness Guide & Workbook
For creators, leaders & entrepreneurs.
Heal from years of stress, burnout and anxiety and learn how to optimize your energy, focus, performance & mental fitness, so you can have way more impact and income.
Break Free Activation 90 Min. Session
The 1:1 Break Free Activation is a 90-minute deep dive designed to identify the root causes of burnout and self-sabotage, map out a personalized strategy for increased energy and flow, and rewire hidden survival patterns to help you achieve effortless success without burnout.
Soma WELLth 3 Month Program
A premium, 1:1 90-day container with intuitive business strategy, deep somatic healing and nervous system rewiring to help you work with your body—not against it—to create sustainable success, WELLth and actual fulfillment … while doing less.