Emotional exhaustion is a state of feeling emotionally worn-out and drained as a result of accumulated stress from your personal or work life. Emotional exhaustion is one of the signs of a burnout. Anyone experiencing long-term stress can become emotionally exhausted and overwhelmed. In difficult times, emotional exhaustion can sneak up on you. Highly empathetic and sensitive people are usually the ones who suffer from this kind of fatigue. It exhausts all of our emotional resources, leaving us with nothing to give other people.