Often first there is denial, then sometimes medical uncertainty and always a long reconstruction: people who have experienced burnout testify to very heterogeneous care and the difficulty in finding places to be heard for what is not considered an illness.
“I was working non-stop, without a break. I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t sleeping. I was in constant pain all over. I cried a lot. I was fainting at work,” recounts Julie (name changed), 28. “The signs were there, but I didn’t know them,” explains this civil servant in French Guiana.
When the occupational physician tells her that she is in burnout and must be put on leave, Julie feels "a lot of guilt" and struggles to accept the situation.
Although burnout, defined by physical and emotional exhaustion, a negative view of others and of work and a feeling of ineffectiveness or loss of meaning, affects many men and even more women, the figures remain incomplete.
According to Public Health France, 5.91% of women and 2.71% of men experienced work-related psychological distress in 2019, twice as many as in 2007, but these figures do not specifically measure burnout.
Considered a syndrome or psychosocial risk rather than a disease, burnout is not listed in the Social Security tables of occupational illnesses, which complicates its recognition as such. The employee must prove that their condition is caused by their work and that it results in a permanent disability of at least 25%.
Recognition sometimes comes through classification, after an acute crisis, as a work-related accident.
A recent report from the Health Insurance noted that mental illnesses recognized as occupational diseases had more than doubled between 2020 and 2024 but amounted to only 1,805. Nearly two-thirds of the applications for recognition in 2024 came from women.
Burnout is poorly recognized and is treated very differently by healthcare professionals.
"This pathology of collective violence at work is dealt with in a rather rudimentary way by Social Security," which "doesn't want it," says psychologist Marie Pezé, founder of the Suffering and Work network, which brings together some 200 specialized consultations.
With both psychological and somatic aspects (cognitive disorders, etc.), burnout is "very complex to treat," she emphasizes. In addition to psychotherapy, treatment often requires "specialists in new work organizations, social security law, and labor law."
The French National Authority for Health (HAS) recommends that the attending physician coordinate care, in conjunction with the occupational physician.
– “In nature” –
Solène, a nurse in Toulouse, found herself "paralyzed in bed" following an excessive workload combined with a situation of workplace harassment. After being diagnosed with burnout by her general practitioner, she consulted a psychiatrist.
“I received very poor care because I wasn’t treated at a clinic specializing in burnout,” explains this woman in her forties, regretting that she “was treated like someone with depression.” “There’s a lack of support structures just for listening to people with this condition.”
Solène says she was "saved" by an "exceptional psychologist" and EMDR sessions (a psychotherapy that uses eye movements).
For Brigitte Vaudolon, vice-president of the Federation of Psychosocial Risk Interventionists, "what works is multidisciplinary support, where the person can rebuild themselves psychologically, but also rethink their professional trajectory."
But not all burnout victims are lucky enough to find professionals who work well together.
“We’re left to fend for ourselves,” sighs Catherine. A middle school teacher in the North, she reports having contacted “about twenty” doctors to get approval for a part-time therapeutic work arrangement after her burnout.
Working in the banking sector in Loire-Atlantique, Anne-Marie, for her part, relied on "alternative medicines" (sophrology, kinesiology, etc.) to treat her burnout because she had "the means".
She also emphasizes the importance of the "collective" in overcoming this ordeal. Within a support group, "we work on self-esteem, self-confidence, (...) limiting beliefs, the gaze of others," she notes.
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