“There’s pressure to be there 100% for every spinning plate,” she said.
“You can’t let one drop, because that might mean a child not getting attention, a parent not being cared for, or your job suffering.”
So she stages talks and provides online resources for people suffering burnout.
“It isn’t the same as just stress, it’s the feeling of being utterly depleted with nothing left to give.”
Ms Spiller explained that symptoms include waking up absolutely exhausted, despite having had a good night’s sleep, feeling snappy with the people you love or not having the same passion for the things you once enjoyed.
“I think it’s almost impossible to ask the sandwich generation to do it all by themselves, and we need to look – in a societal, structural way – at how can we actually support what is a fairly new problem,” she said.