Stress is a response to pressure, anxiety is ongoing worry even when the pressure is gone, and burnout is long-term emotional and physical exhaustion. While they overlap, they are not the same – and knowing the difference matters.
Can we maybe cut the kids some slack instead? Can we give them the love, support, and encouragement they need?
Parenting isn’t easy, but we do need to lead the way.
We often use many of the terms related to stress, anxiety, and burnout interchangeably, and some of the symptoms overlap, so it can be helpful to spend some time understanding the similarities and differences between the 3 conditions.
Here is a description of stress vs anxiety vs burnout that may help.