August 2026

Burnout

• What Is Burnout?
• Ashwagandha – Grounding Your Nervous System
• Skullcap – Finding Calm at the End of the Rope
• Lion’s Mane – Tending To Your Nerves

What is burnout?

Some common symptoms of burnout

Although fatigue is part of the picture of burnout, burnout has many more pervasive symptoms; it is a whole body experience.  

Low vitality

The person experiencing burnout feels deep exhaustion and malaise. It is the type of exhaustion that is not relieved by sleep, making it hard to get out of bed in the morning. They might opt to use stimulants such as coffee or sweets to function.

Another aspect of vitality that is diminished in burnout is libido. 

Reduced cognitive capacities

Those with burnout may have slow processing or feel “brain fog.” Memory loss is common. They may struggle to follow complex conversations or read, remember, and focus on tasks for more than a few minutes.

Emotional dysregulation

People who experience burnout often become emotionally dysregulated, which may manifest as a tendency to cry. They might feel frazzled or “at the end of their rope,” which makes them inclined to “flip out” over small, trivial matters. 

At the same time, they might be overwhelmed with anxiety. 

Plunged interest and motivation

People with burnout might lose interest and motivation in activities that they once considered fun. The loss of interest stems from depleted resources. 

It is important to note that under the heavy blanket of exhaustion, the burnout person remembers what brought him joy but lacks the energy to engage. 

This is like a phone with a 2% battery: the hardware and software are intact, but there is not enough power.

Somatic symptoms

Long term exposure to stress leads to sensory hypersensitivity. Every noise, touch, or light is experienced as a “personal attack.” 

Stiff neck and shoulders are common in people with burnout, as well as digestive complaints such as constipation and indigestion, and cardiovascular complaints, such as heart palpitations and high blood pressure.

Sleep distruptions

Although they are tired people with burnout, struggle to fall and stay asleep. They feel “tired and wired,” unable to settle down and get a rejuvenating sleep. The body does not anticipate “safety,” leading to shallow, restless sleep that might be disturbed by dreams that fail to reach deep, restorative sleep stages.

Stress response 101

The autonomic nervous system is a fast acting automatic response to changes within and outside the body. It manages all life sustaing functions and maintains stability over time. For the autonomic nervous system to maintain stability or allostasis, it needs to balance the two branches: the parasympathetic branch, a rest and digest response, and the sympathetic branch, a fight-or-flight and fawn response. 

When one of these branches is activated, the other is inhibited. A healthy nervous system can move with ease between these two autonomic responses in adaptation to the organism’s needs. 

Stress and the HPA axis

Hormones manage the stress response. The command post of all hormones is the hypothalamus. When your hypothalamus senses changes in the inner or outer environment that it interprets as a threat, it produces  corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH).

The pituitary responds to an increase in CRH by secreting adrenocorticotropic hormone

(ACTH) into systemic circulation. ACTH travels through the bloodstream to the adrenal cortex.

The adrenal cortex responds by synthesizing and releasing cortisol, a glucocorticoid steroid hormone, into systemic circulation.

Cortisol increases the body’s capacity to fight or flee by elevating blood glucose, prioritizing energy for immediate survival functions, suppressing inflammation, and enhancing alertness, sensory processing, and memory. 

Rising cortisol signals the hypothalamus and pituitary glands to stop secreting CRH and ACTH, thereby suppressing the stress response. 

The stress response was designed to be a short term response only.

From stress to burnout

Burnout is not a static condition; instead, it’s the accumulation of various steps that lead to total depletion of resources. 

First step – The high

In the first step, high cortisol, DHEA, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, along with slightly elevated thyroid function, reflect the body’s efforts to mobilize resources.

Subjectively, it might feel like heightened energy and productivity, a sense of purpose and capability, and adaptive social and emotional functions. You might feel fatigue, but you can push through. Although you might feel mildly anxious, you are motivated. 

Second phase – Compensating

Your body’s capacity to handle stress and your energy reserves are unique to you. This is why the time you move from the first phase to the second is indevidual: it can be weeks for some, months for others.

Running at high gear for longer than your body’s capacity allows means the body needs to find ways to compensate for dwindling resources, leading to hormonal changes that can raise red flags.

How does your hormone look on the 2nd stage:

Cortisol

Cortisol levels remain elevated, but the circadian cycle begins to flatten, meaning the morning peak loses its momentum, making it hard to get up in the morning; at the same time, evening cortisol levels don’t drop as they should, so you count sheep or toss and turn in bed. 

DHEA

DHEA is a substrate of estrogen and testosterone, and is regulated by ACTH, the same pituitary hormone that regulates cortisol. 

DHEA is an antagonist to cortisol; it buffers some of cortisol’s more damaging effects, particularly on the brain and immune system.

In healthy short term stress conditions, DHEA and cortisol will be slightly elevated. However, in the long term, DHEA will begin to decline. The adrenals have been sustaining high output for long enough that DHEA synthesis starts to suffer. This is significant because DHEA is neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and counterbalances many of cortisol’s catabolic effects.

When the ratio between cortisol and DHEA shifts upward, the balance tips toward net catabolic, pro-inflammatory physiology.

Pregnenolone

Pregnenolone is the mother hormone; it is the precursor steroid for cortisol, DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, and estrogens. Under sustained cortisol production, more pregnenolone is converted to cortisol at the expense of other downstream hormones, leading to a decline in reproductive hormones and DHEA, shifting the entire hormonal ecosystem.

Glucocorticoid receptor

The hypothalamus is a small area at the base of the brain, just above the pituitary gland, where the endocrine and nervous systems converge; it plays a critical role in the feedback loop that suppresses cortisol secretion. 

When cortisol receptors in the hippocampus, hypothalamus, and pituitary are chronically overstimulated, they become less sensitive. The negative feedback loop is becoming less efficient, which means cortisol stays elevated longer after stressors because the braking signal is weakening.

Subjectively, that might feel like exhaustion that is not remedied by a good night’s sleep, a reactive, irritable mood, brain fog and focus issues, social withdrawal, and anxiety. First signs of somatic complaints start to appear: gut issues, tension headaches, tense muscles, and pain or frequent illness. 

The person in stage two might be trying to press on, but they might notice that achieving their desired outcome becomes harder; they might try to compensate with coffee or other stimulants, only to accelerate their progress towards total dysregulation. 

Third stage – dysregulation

When the compensation strategies fail, people become burned out. 

How does your hormone look on the 3rd stage:

Cortisol

Cortisol, which was elevated in stages one and two, may now be low to flatlined. 

The circadian cycle is profoundly dysregulated; cortisol is low in the morning when it should be high and not meaningfully lower in the evening, which means you struggle to get up from bed in the morning but also have a hard time falling asleep. 

DHEA 

is substantially depleted, and with it, its neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory functions are substantially compromised.

Systemic hormonal dysregulation

The endocrine system functions like a very complex orchestra. Each hormone has its own unique sound, but they all work together to create homeostasis. When all hormones function well, they create harmony. However, when one hormone is out of tune, it sounds like a cacophony.

Chronic high cortisol has a profound effect on all the other hormones:

Reproductive hormones are often significantly disrupted: low testosterone in men, menstrual irregularities in women, and estrogen dominance relative to progesterone, leading to heavy bleeding and fibroids.

Thyroid function is frequently suppressed as the body tries to conserve energy.

Insulin sensitivity may be disrupted from months of cortisol-driven glucose dysregulation.

Melatonin rhythm is often disrupted because the circadian cycle is dysregulated.

Burnout & Neuroinflammation

Over time, burnout leads to neuroinflammation, which becomes more pronounced in stages two and three.

While in stage one, as cortisol’s anti-inflammatory function is largely intact, in stage two, as glucocorticoid receptor sensitivity begins to decline in immune cells, the anti-inflammatory signaling that cortisol provides becomes less effective. Immune cells, particularly macrophages and microglia, become increasingly resistant to cortisol’s suppressive signals. The result is an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Microglia are the brain’s resident immune cells. Under normal conditions, they perform surveillance, pruning, and maintenance functions. Under chronic inflammatory signaling, they shift into an activated state, causing local low grade inflammation within the brain tissue itself. 

Signs of brainflammation

The hippocampus has the highest density of glucocorticoid receptors, making it particularly vulnerable to cortisol exposure, which can enhance inflammation. At the same time,  its high metabolic demand increases oxidative stress and promotes inflammation.

The hippocampus is critical for emotional processing and memory consolidation. Prolonged burnout can reduce neural connections and may lead to:

• Memory and cognitive dysfunction
• Overactive stress response with no brakes
• Anxiety and emotional reactivity without proportion to present circumstances.
• Cognitive rigidity with black and white.

A dysregulated endocrine system and neuroinflammation can become a beast that feeds itself. Where burnout feeds hormonal imbalance and brain inflammation, and these, in turn, increase stress and burnout. 

The worst thing a burnout person can do is use stimulants. It is as if you owe the bank money, and, instead of committing to a payment plan, you borrow more. 

For the burnout person, the best thing is to nourish, ground, and calm the nervous system.