#straightfromcait: Top Burnout Symptoms According To You (Dear Gentle Listeners)

Burnout quietly hijacks your focus, your memory, your sleep, and eventually, your sense of self.

In this #straightfromcait episode, Cait Donovan unpacks the results of a burnout symptoms survey answered by over 150 listeners. What shows up again and again? Brain fog. Forgetfulness. Sleep issues. That heavy, unshakable sense of dread. She walks through the patterns in these responses with honesty and insight, weaving in what we know about how burnout affects the brain and what it feels like to lose your ability to think clearly or remember what used to bring you joy.

Have you ever found yourself feeling disconnected from who you are? Struggling to rest even when you finally have time? Wondering why everything feels harder than it used to? Cait gets it. She’s been there, and she knows how isolating it can feel. This episode offers language for what you’ve been living through and a reminder that self-abandonment doesn’t have to be your default setting. Healing starts when you begin listening to yourself again.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction

01:30 How the Burnout Survey Was Conducted

02:33 Why Burnout Impacts Your Brain

07:26 The Emotional Weight of Dread

10:39 When You Can’t Think, Plan, or Remember

13:50 How Burnout Disrupts Sleep and Fuels Anxiety

16:22 Shame, Guilt, and the Struggle to Rest

18:29 Burnout and the Loss of Self

21:02 Reclaiming Compassion in the Healing Process

Links

Connect with Cait:

Cait Donovan is a keynote speaker, author, and host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, specializing in burnout, mis/match, and sustainable performance at work. She partners with corporate leaders, teams, and professional associations through keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions that treat burnout as data, not failure, to help organizations reduce burnout without blame or shame and build healthier, high performing cultures.

To bring Cait to your organization or event, book an inquiry call here: https://bit.ly/bookcait

Learn more about Cait’s speaking work: https://www.caitdonovan.com/speaking

Short on time? Watch this 3-min video: https://bit.ly/caitdreel2025

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm