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Recovering from Burnout and Depression

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Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#81

Post by crush-n-spread »

losteric wrote: post #54
crush-n-spread wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I submit that the working person greatly benefits from having a strongly held, over-arching life goal. Then even if he or she is working a soul-draining job for, say, a social media company, they will be content knowing it is a necessary step towards their goal.

What do you mean by "goals"? I've met too many people hopelessly throwing themselves against a wall trying to "achieve their dreams"... they see themselves as a Hollywood-esque main character, either aiming unrealistically high or shooting for mundane gimmes. Without a broader vision, those that pick reasonably scoped goals may still end up depressed by their small wins that add up to nothing. Modern mss media and im…

Yes, I concur that resistance to burnout depends on having a broader context to your life and humanity as a whole. If you understand your own life within the perspective of the billions of humans that have lived and died before you, and that will live after you, it adds a very resilient drive and resistance to small setbacks.

Personally, I was able to achieve this using the recursive why, or chained why, which is a thinking pattern I'll describe here:

1. Come up with a random statement about anything at all.

2. Ask "Why?" about that statement.

3. When you come up with a reasonable answer, ask "Why?" to your stated answer.

4. Repeat step three until you arrive at the meaning of life

This really works. I did this riding the bus for hours when I was a kid because I had no friends. Now it's like I live on another planet compared to people who have not done this. Stoic, content, and driven is the result

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#82

Post by pasbesoin »

55555 wrote: post #15

I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. Why is it so hard to make yourself work? Probably because you actually should be doing something else with your life. If someone paid you money to kick a dog, you'd feel a strong urge to do something else. That's because you shouldn't kick dogs. But when we feel the same urge t…

You know that feeling when half your mind is filling up the spare moments with the thought/feeling, "I'm screwing myself, here."

Yeah.

Whether you're "doing the right thing", "paying your dues", or just fighting your instincts and hoping that eventually, he/she will come to like you the same way.

One of my greatest challenges in life, has been to fight the messaging that put me on that track -- or the delusion I initiated. And, figuring out which it is and to what extent.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#83

Post by graphitezepp »

jly wrote: post #64
55555 wrote: post #15

I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. Why is it so hard to make yourself work? Probably because you actually should be doing something else with your life. If someone paid you money to kick a dog, you'd feel a strong urge to do something else. That's because you shouldn't kick dogs. But when we feel the same urge t…

I think this is more true than many would like to admit. Maybe 'most work' as meaningless isn't the way I would phrase it, but I know many including myself that are often creatively and technically challenged, work an average number of hours, but feel the mental stress of burnout purely because of the guilt and resentment of spending so much time on the specific job function, itself. To put it a little more abstract…

Yup exhausting to have this world view isn't it? And rising depression rates suggest, to me at least, that people that think this way are becoming more common.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#84

Post by projektir »

taway_1212 wrote: post #63
crush-n-spread wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I submit that the working person greatly benefits from having a strongly held, over-arching life goal. Then even if he or she is working a soul-draining job for, say, a social media company, they will be content knowing it is a necessary step towards their goal.

Most people are not driven really, so this advice won't work for them.

The lack of drive is itself the issue, though.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#85

Post by ido »

chatmasta wrote: post #42
rjeli wrote: post #2

Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?

Probably just confirmation bias given the fact that a) you mostly read articles/blogs targeted at SWE professionals, and b) software engineers are far more likely to blog about their career experience than any other profession. I'm sure if you read some trade magazines targeted at lawyers, etc you'd find similar sentiments. Another, slightly more cynical interpretation is that software engineers are "special snowflak…

I have often encountered coworkers bragging about how long they worked.

Been working as a programmer professionally since 2001.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#86

Post by draw_down »

lr4444lr wrote: post #73
backpropaganda wrote: post #66

If any of you are suffering from depression, you should seriously try microdosing LSD.

While I'm sure there are a few causes of depression and contextual life events and personalities for which LSD might be useful, it's downright irresponsible to suggest that "if any reader" suffers from depression he should turn to narcotics.

I appreciate the suggestion myself.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#87

Post by backpropaganda »

disfadbish wrote: post #79
backpropaganda wrote: post #66

If any of you are suffering from depression, you should seriously try microdosing LSD.

I would if I could get it, unless you live in CA and know people it isn't exactly easy to get.

You can buy 1p-LSD. It's legal and can be obtained using legal routes using your real name, and has the same behaviour has LSD. You can read up about it.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#88

Post by temp-dude-87844 »

backpropaganda wrote: post #87
disfadbish wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would if I could get it, unless you live in CA and know people it isn't exactly easy to get.

You can buy 1p-LSD. It's legal and can be obtained using legal routes using your real name, and has the same behaviour has LSD. You can read up about it.

In the US, in this enforcement climate, chancing whether the Federal Analogue Act applies to this compound is quite a risk, especially if the hypothetical taker can be shown to have had intent in obtaining it as an analogue.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#89

Post by tutufan »

crush-n-spread wrote: post #19
55555 wrote: post #15

I think a big factor in burnout is that most work is ultimately meaningless, or even morally wrong, and on a deep level, we're aware of that. Why is it so hard to make yourself work? Probably because you actually should be doing something else with your life. If someone paid you money to kick a dog, you'd feel a strong urge to do something else. That's because you shouldn't kick dogs. But when we feel the same urge t…

I submit that the working person greatly benefits from having a strongly held, over-arching life goal. Then even if he or she is working a soul-draining job for, say, a social media company, they will be content knowing it is a necessary step towards their goal.

Maybe. I did this for many years, and then by circumstance my overarching goal turned to dust. That's a lot to take. Make sure you're on a path that has some enjoyment in the now. Don't just suffer for some future pleasure.

Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression

#90

Post by seanp2k2 »

neuromantik8086 wrote: post #65
tutufan wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been through this as well, and it sucks. Sadly, even organizations doing societally important work can be incapable of policing their internal politics and professionalism in even a basic way. I'm still working on accepting this.

Relatedly, it took me a while to pick up on the fact that "non-profit" does not necessarily equate to "beneficial for society". Many non-profits out there have noble purported goals, but when you actually gain some experience at them you start to realize that they are vanity projects for the wealthy. [edit]: To clarify, I'm not making the claim that all non-profits are vanity projects, just that there are many out th…

Vanity projects or ways for rich people to defer more money they should be paying as tax to orgs run by / made up of their friends & family.
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