When Stress Becomes Chronic
Stress and emotion are deeply intertwined: the appraisal processes discussed earlier in this course (is this a threat? do I have the resources to cope?) directly shape which emotion — fear, frustration, or a sense of challenge — accompanies a stressor, and that emotional coloring in turn shapes how a person copes. Chronic, unrelenting stress does not just produce isolated emotional episodes; it can reshape a person's baseline emotional functioning over time.
One well-studied outcome of chronic, particularly WORK-related stress is burnout, formalized by Christina Maslach as a three-component syndrome distinct from ordinary daily stress or a single stressful episode. Emotional exhaustion is the feeling of being emotionally overextended and drained, with nothing further to give. Depersonalization (sometimes called cynicism) is a detached, callous, or cynical response toward the people one works with or serves, functioning as a defensive emotional distancing. Reduced personal accomplishment is a diminished sense of competence and effectiveness in one's work, even when performance may not have objectively declined.
| Component | What it feels like |
|---|---|
| Emotional exhaustion | Drained, overextended, nothing left to give |
| Depersonalization (cynicism) | Detached, callous, distanced from others |
| Reduced personal accomplishment | Diminished sense of competence and effectiveness |
Burnout is distinct from Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome discussed earlier in this course: GAS describes a general PHYSIOLOGICAL stress-response pattern applicable to almost any sustained stressor, while burnout describes a more specific PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL syndrome, most closely tied to chronic stress in social or occupational roles that involve sustained emotional engagement with other people, like healthcare, teaching, or caregiving professions.
Common pitfall: treating burnout as simply "being very tired" or a synonym for ordinary stress. Burnout is a specific three-component syndrome — emotional exhaustion is only one piece, alongside depersonalization and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment, which do not necessarily track raw fatigue at all.