[johnfn]

I mean, if one guy is talking about a broken leg, and a second comes by and says "ah yeah, I scraped my knee once too, I had to use a band-aid in order to solve it," I think it's entirely valid to say that those are not comparable experiences. I feel that you are arguing they are different degrees of the same thing. That may be true, but it's true in such a thin sense that it doesn't really contribute to a conversation.

[kelseyfrog]

That's a great example that I agree with. Also consider the "You haven't had a real fracture unless there's bone sticking out of your skin." to the person who has a hairline.

What I'm saying is that it's especially easy to get caught up in this mindset when discussing mental health topics. The existence of "real" burnout artificially introduces the concept of "fake" burnout.

Let's be clear, the concept of burnout and worn out is more compassionate, descriptive, and most importantly has the important consequence that I'm interested in avoiding: not turning into a who has it worse spiral that ultimately ends in people with burnout not being able to identify it because someone else has it worse.

It's this class of false negative that I believe is important to have a conversation about. These people often go unnoticed, because despite having burnout will not identify it as such because someone has it worse.

I get that you're interested in the false positive case, and that's fair. I understand that if too many people misidentify worn out as burnout that it can make burnt out people feel like people aren't able to understand their circumstances as severe, but I trust you'll consider both types of error as important and deserving the attention they do.

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

Another way of saying this is that burnout exists on a spectrum and that catching it early when you're on the worn-out side is way better then waiting till its gets to the full burn out side.

[darkerside]

Well, in this case, the article author is talking about a sprained ankle, and top level poster is dismissing his experience because he broke his ankle once.

[blue039]

The article author is saying "I sprained my ankle and it was extremely painful to the point I could not do anything". You can ice an ankle (take a little time off) and have it fixed.

The parent is saying "I broke my ankle - fractured in several places I was crippled and needed surgery you did not experience a broken ankle". You cannot fix this problem by icing it. You need a systemic reduction in everything.

The author is conflating a sprained ankle with a broken one. The parent is saying that is not true. A lot of people who have sprained their ankles have come into this topic to tell everyone "WELL ACKTHUALLY" in the most obnoxiously stereotypical HN way possible thereby diluting the actual meaning of the parent's statement. There are far too many HNers who have a permanent craniorectal issue.

[darkerside]

Most disagreements really just boil down to what is the most important thing to be talking about. And I tend to side with the person who started the conversation because they had something to say.

> If you can be restored from simply doing a different task, then its not real burnout.

You're not wrong, it's just that you seem not to realize this statement was a "well actually", probably because you happen to agree with it.

[jemmyw]

I fractured my wrist last year and the doctor was debating if it was possibly a fracture that needed a an x-ray or a sprain. I said it wasn't that painful and he replied that a sprain can be more painful than a break so that's not really a good metric. Hopefully that dilutes things a little more for you.

[klyrs]

Technically speaking, a sprain can be worse than a break. Bones heal. Tendons don't.