At a time when productivity defines almost everything, burnout has emerged as an embedded part of urban lifestyle.

It is normalised, negotiated and even romanticised. Emotional exhaustion disguises itself as independence. Social interactions become fragile. Consequently, it convinces people to believe that isolation is a close, warm, comfortable friend.

But when exhaustion makes connection feel unbearable, people may begin to mistake disappearing as healing. It arrives as a sudden urge to disconnect from everyone who once felt familiar. The need for rest transforms into resistance to being perceived. One starts to cancel plans, leave messages unread, and take emotional detachment as peace.

Being constantly around social settings sometimes demands solitude, space and time entirely for oneself. But when these demands are directed towards social avoidance and isolation, they can carry severe psychological impacts.

Dr Purshottam Adhikari is a mental health advocate currently serving as a consultant psychiatrist and managing director at Spandan Healthcare and Diagnostics in Raniban. He dives deeper into burnout and isolation.

Why does burnout convince people that isolation is healing?

Because initially, isolation is a true sense of relief.

At some point, when one has stretched themselves emotionally for far too long, isolation is where there is no longer any demand on them. Solitude is soothing. Being isolated seems less taxing than being under constant pressure.

However, that does not mean that solitude will heal you as well. Solitude can revive us temporarily. Isolation can make us lonelier.

At what point does exhaustion stop being ‘just stress’ and start defining the way people see relationships and connection?

There are certain aspects of stress that need consideration once exhaustion begins to affect the relationship between an individual and others. Talking with anyone becomes almost impossible; writing texts or receiving replies is equally tough. The individuals whom they consider close seem to be becoming emotionally burdensome. In such circumstances, it is not just physically exhausting but emotionally exhausting as well.

Individuals who feel exhausted are not devoid of emotions towards others; they simply lack the capacity to express them at this time.

How can someone tell the difference between healthy solitude and burnout-driven withdrawal from life?

The solitude that is experienced in a healthy way will make one feel more at peace, mentally sharper, and even more open to life than ever before. The solitude caused by burnout will leave one feeling more emotionally numb and less connected, eventually making one more distant.

One possible way of testing the two could be asking:

‘Is it because I need to recharge—or because I have no more energy for people?’

Can burnout create an emotional numbness where being alone feels safer than being understood?

Indeed. Patients experiencing burnout develop such a level of emotional deadness that they perceive interacting with others as something emotionally taxing rather than something enjoyable.

For someone to understand you, they have to be emotionally receptive, which an overly fatigued person lacks the capacity for. Therefore, they tend to withdraw not because they want to, but because it is a safer emotion-based choice.

Is the desire to disappear from everyone during burnout actually a coping mechanism, or can it become self-destructive over time?

It may be both. The desire to disappear can sometimes suggest that a person requires time away from all the stress. However, when such seclusion is prolonged, the results are likely to be very destructive indeed. The longer a person stays away from the world, the more difficult it ultimately becomes to mingle. Protection will become captivity.

What can people do to reconnect with others when burnout has made isolation feel emotionally addictive?

Rarely does recovery start with an eruption of social energy. It generally begins small.

Reaching out to answer one email. Meeting one good friend. Spending time with someone else without feeling like you have to be “okay.” People who are burned out don’t require an immediate jump-start into social activity; what they require is an emotionally safe connection.

Healing frequently starts the moment someone realises they don’t have to prove their worthiness to be close.

When a person is experiencing burnout and social isolation, how should those around them respond?

The best way to help a person experiencing burnout and isolation is to show compassion and empathy.

It is worth noting that many individuals experiencing burnout tend to isolate themselves from the outside world, not because they no longer care about anything, but due to emotional exhaustion. Pressuring them to act may worsen their situation even more.

Small actions of support really mean a lot—communicating with them, being there to talk to them all the time, without expecting anything back in return.