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There Is No Cure for Burnout

elladawson.com

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Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#81
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No prospect, no future. You seem to be waiting for death.

As are you - so what are you doing while waiting?

projects, things. Not maximizing the time spent doing nothing or just introspecting off the grid, in a country chosen just because it was cheap.

There is a time and place for everything, but after a while it is best to interact and relate with other human beings.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#82
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No prospect, no future. You seem to be waiting for death.

No, I’m living life. If you measure your entire worth through your position in a corporate hierarchy, sure, no future. Life isn’t about how much stuff you have, but that’s for you to find out - most only discover this just before they die, if ever.

I have little care for such things.

Human interaction is different - as is doing things with other human beings. Hobby, work, paid, volunteer - doesn't matter.

You seem to be living a recluse life. I find that concerning

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#83
post #57

>I didn’t do my laundry for four months and I ordered Wendy’s delivery twice a week for most of winter because I was psychologically unable to pick up groceries. Sounds like more of a serious case of actual clinical depression.

Exhaustion caused by chronic stress - general adaptation syndrome (formerly neurasthenia, now "other neurotic disorder") and depression share many features, but the treatment is different. (Likewise PTSD.) Dysautonomia is related, maybe a feature that would be tractable pharmacologically.

And probably harder as it's less understood. Nobody really knows how adaptation to stress works, much less how to fix the terminal exhaustion.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#84
post #41
post #13

Loads of psilocybin and a strict daily regime containing both low-stress & high-rest did wonders for me. Having a budget of hours for when "allowed" to crunch and burn at things even returned most of my eagernes and enjoyment within a short timeframe.

Stinky plant based substances can also help counteract getting stressed over things you don’t need to also!

And the things you do need to (...)

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#85
post #14

I think I had a burnout at home. It was just too much: 90% to 100% job, 3 kids, house, and the constant feel of (self?) pressure to make it all better, always be prepared and such at home. My wife and me separated almost a year ago, and since then share the care of our kids by 50/50. She works a lot (80%), I work a lot (90%). It only works because the kids go to school, I can work from home 2 days and we have grand p…

Yes there's something larger than work. Many people (me included) needed to learn to check their own needs and keep joy in view vs all kinds of expectations.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#86

The author seems to me to be blaming society and her former employer for her own failings. Perhaps if she were smarter about how she performed her job duties she wouldn't be so overwhelmed, unable to do even basic chores like buying groceries or going to the gym. And if it really was the fault of her unreasonable employer/boss, she could have applied to other jobs. Or maybe she should find a different industry, or de…

Nice example of prevalent victim blaming. The mentally ill person expected to cure themselves? Really? If you consider her to be setting herself for failure, why did nobody help her before it was too late? There are very strong social pressures on staying working. Be the hero to buck them, see what your spouse thinks if you have one. Or friends - suddenly you're considered a loser. And the key thing is that switching…

Calling it "victim blaming" presupposes the existence of a victim in this scenario. But there is no victim-- her own actions are the cause of her problems. This is not an example of someone getting assaulted on the street corner by a stranger and saying "well, they shouldn't have been by themselves in a dangerous area late at night, it's their own fault." No one put a gun to her head-- she isn't an indentured servant, or in a prison work gang. She lives in one of the freest places in the world (and in human history), with the best economy in decades and the lowest unemployment rate in recorded history. At some point you need to take ownership of your own destiny.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the ability to build up a cushion of 'fuck you money' tends to correlate with being from a generation with higher job security With all due respect - this stability comes from age, not generation. I have a stable life now. As someone born in the late 70's, I have a house, a stable job, and a 401k. But I didn't have these things at 20 - I was fighting to keep my head above water from month to month after coming off…

That's a fair point and a flaw in my response. It's more based off the UK too where job security was higher and previously unemployment benefit was more generous and more widely available. There's still a difference here, from the UK the common mass redundancies of tech in the US seem bizzare and likely to increase work related stress. I still think the author is using "older white male" shorthand to point out that w…

>"older white male" shorthand to point out that we need to structure society and the economy in a way that protects all people from burnout and provides access to the tools and treatment to recover from it to all.

That "shorthand" is going to inadvertently open the possibility of the reader to drawing broader and less exact conclusions than if the writer were more careful in their choice of words.

Using "older white male" makes it sound like the goal is something that's already broadly available (and just being artificially limited) rather than a thing for people with riches or worked hard to get it. They're therefore statistically older, having worked to get into that position and probably only have access to limited doses unless they've been phenomenally successful.

>Rather than assuming all people are sufficiently well off to take 6 months to do a Jack Dorsey style Buddhist retreat.

What's the goal here? How big is the gulf between Doresy's adventure and "protect[ing] all people from burnout and provid[ing] access to the tools and treatment to recover"? Outside of fully automated luxury space communism, next to nobody is going to have the resources to not only not work for six months, but to also hand over all their regular day-to-day responsibility like taking care of family, paying their bills and making sure the house didn't burn down.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the ability to build up a cushion of 'fuck you money' tends to correlate with being from a generation with higher job security With all due respect - this stability comes from age, not generation. I have a stable life now. As someone born in the late 70's, I have a house, a stable job, and a 401k. But I didn't have these things at 20 - I was fighting to keep my head above water from month to month after coming off…

That's a fair point and a flaw in my response. It's more based off the UK too where job security was higher and previously unemployment benefit was more generous and more widely available. There's still a difference here, from the UK the common mass redundancies of tech in the US seem bizzare and likely to increase work related stress. I still think the author is using "older white male" shorthand to point out that w…

> the author is using "older white male" shorthand to point out that we need to structure society and the economy in a way that protects all people

This feels like a justification, an excuse on behalf of the author. If we replaced "older white male" with "young black woman", would this be acceptable? If we replaced the author's references to "other generations" with "millennials", would the article be acceptable?

> I'd hope that the readers are capable of enough nuance to understand that what is meant is an elite rather than react to perceived racism, ageism, sexism etc.

As I said, I took it for what it ultimately is: blowing off steam. But I also couldn't ignore how the author is also using their burnout as an avenue for attacking others as if it's their fault the author burned out.

The "others" can, and should, provide a safety net. I have done so in my personal life. But ultimately, I have no sway in someone else's mental well being, for example when it comes to the expectations the author has put upon herself WRT social networks.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#89
post #14

I think I had a burnout at home. It was just too much: 90% to 100% job, 3 kids, house, and the constant feel of (self?) pressure to make it all better, always be prepared and such at home. My wife and me separated almost a year ago, and since then share the care of our kids by 50/50. She works a lot (80%), I work a lot (90%). It only works because the kids go to school, I can work from home 2 days and we have grand p…

There definitely are things you can do, but in my experience when you feel this way it is really hard to do them. I've been reading and listening to a few things that are helping me. One thing I've been learning about recently are the body's responses to chronic stress, such as the release of cortisol in the body, and the long term damage that can do. And about allostatic load, which helps explain how it gets perpetu…

Would you mind sharing sources?

I'd be interested in reading what you found on those topics.

Re: There Is No Cure for Burnout

#90

I’ve noticed a trend recently. Someone will write a very long article about some problem, without mentioning politics once. Then, at the end, they’ll assert that the answer is to remake society from the ground up. This is the template: 5000 words of bitching about some problem that’s always existed ... Ahem. And that is why we must dismantle the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.

I see it too. It's like the correlation vs. causation error, but less rigorous. More like coexistence vs. causation.

Now that you've caught this trend, you'll start seeing the more generic form of it everywhere.

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