Burnout… Is It Still Me?

When you feel like you’ve lost yourself — but yet, you’re still somehow in there, I promise. The light you used to feel deep inside is also still there. Not gone, but perhaps a bit burning weaker only.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and barely recognised the person staring back at you?

Not because your face has changed, but because the real you feels as if it has gone somewhere…
That spark you used to have — the laughter, the drive, the “you-ness” that once lit up your world — it feels distant to you now. Or worse, like it belonged to someone else…

That’s what burnout can do.

It doesn’t just make you tired. It chips away at who you are.
Slowly, quietly, until one day you wake up and wonder:
“Where did I go?”

Burnout is no longer a rare crisis — it’s become a silent epidemic, especially here in the UK. 

In London alone, where life moves at breakneck speed, more people than ever are silently struggling with exhaustion that goes far beyond just being tired. It depletes you emotionally and physically — dimming your motivation, disconnecting you from joy, and turning even small tasks into uphill battles.

The pressures of modern work, family expectations, financial stress, and relentless digital overwhelm are pushing nervous systems past their limits. That’s exactly why I wrote this article — because burnout is real, it’s happening now. 

And most importantly and what I want you to know here is that: you don’t have to go through it alone. Help is available, and healing is possible, even when it feels like the light has gone out.

Burnout is not all in your head, it’s also in your brain.

When you feel low or exhausted for a long time, your brain starts to change how it functions.
It stops giving you the chemicals that make life feel enjoyable — like dopamine and serotonin — and starts producing more of the ones that make everything feel hard, heavy, and hopeless. And, what’s even more serious and worrying, they affect your internal organs every day. Quietly, daily… 

Imagine someone is living in a state of chronic stress, anxiety, or emotional suppression. This doesn’t mean they’re screaming or crying — it might just be ongoing pressure, burnout, loneliness, or unresolved trauma simmering under the surface.

Each day, their brain triggers the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to:

• High Cortisol (the stress hormone), affecting your whole immune system (meaning more frequent colds, viruses, slow healing) and disrupting your sleep. And much more.
• Adrenaline/Noradrenaline injection. Meant for short bursts, but chronic exposure keeps the body in a ‘fight or flight’ state. Which means increased heart rate & blood pressure, digestive system slowdown (the body prioritises survival, not digestion — causing bloating, acid reflux, constipation or diarrhoea) as well as blood sugar imbalance, meaning a risk of insulin resistance or diabetes.
• Pro-inflammatory Cytokines – which are chemical messengers released under chronic emotional stress and trauma, effecting the system by giving you a low-grade inflammation (a silent contributor to autoimmune conditions, e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid issues), as well as brain fog & mood issues, only worsening depression and anxiety. Not forgetting an increased risk of neurodegeneration, meaning a higher risk for cognitive decline, dementia, or Alzheimer’s in later life…

So, in short, these chemicals don’t just change how you feel — they in fact reshape how your whole body operates, long term. 

They switch your body from a state of healing, growth, and balance into one of breakdown, inflammation, burnout and emergency — but, seemingly, without an obvious cause. 

Over time, the body starts to misfire; not because it’s weak. Your body’s been stuck in defence mode for too long. And it becomes more and more exhausted, and tired…

In Simple Words:

It’s like the body is shouting “I’m in danger” — every single day.
And eventually, the organs believe it.

And, eventually, also the brain just wants to shut down — not because it’s weak, but because it’s trying to protect your vital body functions, so that you continue to operate at all. 

There’s even a part of the brain scientists now call the “quit button.”
When things feel too much for too long, your brain quietly decides:

“We can’t keep going like this.”
So it dims the lights inside. Not because it’s broken… But because it’s tired.

If this sounds like you, please know this:

You are not lazy.
You haven’t failed.
You’re not broken.
What you are is overwhelmed

And very likely, feeling all alone with it. This feeling of burnout can be so isolating… because who can you really talk to about it?
But this real “you” that you miss — the one who laughed more, dreamed more, felt more — she or he is still there, I can promise you that. 
It is just buried underneath all the survival you’ve had to do.

Healing doesn’t mean pretending you’re OK.

It means you can finally be allowed not to always ‘be OK’.
It means being met — gently, safely — by someone who knows how to walk with you through it, not around it. 

This is the kind of work I do with my clients.
Not “fixing” you.
Not pushing you to be more productive.
Just helping you reconnect with the real you — the one who still lives beneath the stress and the struggle, waiting for space to breathe again. And heal.

Your brain can also come back and heal.

Science shows us that even when the brain dims the lights, motivation and joy can return — especially when you’re guided gently, when you feel safe, and when you stop trying to push through alone. 

Perhaps, just trust me on that now, and I know it’s hard to trust when I just say it. But, I can say it because I’ve seen it many times. Few things make me happier than witnessing that transformation — when I see my clients smile and finally feel like themselves again. Like coming back home… 

So, if this speaks to something inside you — a quiet ache, or a tired voice that says “please help me feel like me again” — know this:

You’re not too far gone.
You don’t have to do this alone.
And healing doesn’t have to hurt.

There is still this same bright light inside of you and it’s so worth going for it. All you need to do is to light it and allow it to shine again.

With warmth,
Renata