WHEN YOU’RE IN OVERDRIVE

Be on the alert for signs you’re teetering on the edge of burnout:

You care less about everything

Maybe you decide to phone in a big project for work, or you don’t care as much as you should when someone else in the household leaves a pile of sweaty gym clothes on your wooden floor. This could mean your cortisol levels aren’t spiking and falling as they should, and when that’s out of whack, it can make you a little less engaged with what’s going on in your life, for better or worse.

You’re harder on yourself than usual

If your inner mean girl starts snarking that you’re not doing enough, or that your effort is weak, it may just be because you’re fried. But she may have a point: While cortisol puts you in get-stuff-done mode, chronic elevation from stress (caused by cortisol) is not good for your brain.

You try to numb your feelings

Are you relying on an unhealthy habit (booze, sugar, binge-watching) to take the edge off how you really feel? It might be because your brain is craving something that feels good after days and days of no fun. But these quick fixes are likely to do you more harm in the long run.

When you’ve entered a period of chronic stress (think: two weeks of mental craze), your cortisol levels stay steadily elevated. The glucocorticoid receptors in your hippocampus get overworked, which creates brain fog and memory problems over time.

When your stress response has been in this state for weeks, you’ve officially hit burnout mode. It’ll stay that way – unless you reset it by moving your bod, eating healthily, and meditating to help turn off your fight-or-flight response.