Find a new job, sounds like you will not recover where you are now.
Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
41–50 of 232 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#42It's okay that your body is telling you some things that your brain won't hear. This is a survival mechanism and hopefully will spur you into a better place.
But you have to be willing to change. YMMV, but the first thing I would do is stop doing things that don't work. Change your environment and change the people you see.
Office life not your thing? Try construction or landscaping. Determined to stick it out? Make selfless service and love you primary values. Seek to hear and serve.
Psychologists can't help? Try talking to an older relative, religious leader, or try an altogether different kind of therapy.
Get involved in a group doing something. Anything. Play or coach a sport. Volunteer at your local homeless shelter. Get involved at a local church and help with parking, food pantries. Bake cookies for your neighbors and just show up and say hi. Don't escape with drugs, sex, video games, etc... and don't kill yourself with self-judgment with the plethora of readily available self-help productivity porn on YouTube either.
Lastly, you aren't alone, many people suffer this way, myself included.
There are a lot of different groups online dealing with this problem. Personally I've found a lot of help from the likes of John Verveake's Meaning Crisis and Johnathan Pageau's Symbolic World. It has helped me greatly to be able to see things that are bigger than you and be involved in them. It helps a lot.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#43A different job? Go travelling for a while? Travelling is a lot of fun and makes you realize that life is short and that you should make the most of it. I changed careers and found the change fun. I may go back to coding at some point, I kinda miss the that deep thinking it requires .... but I can do that in my spare time if I really need to. Or, if you need the money, just phone it in for a while.
> Travelling is a lot of fun and makes you realize that life is short and that you should make the most of it. I never got what was so great about travelling. Whenever I tried doing it, I was almost immediately bored and lonely. It proabably works much better for extraverts.
I think traveling can teach you a lot about various ways of life, especially early on in life, but can also be viewed as eco irresponsible, especially if you're flying around just as a hobby.
Maybe consider doing something like English language or CS teaching in non-English country of your choosing and try embed yourself with the society there...
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean if they want to try and medicate me I'm not going to say no at this point, regardless of my personal views on the diagnosis. I've reached a point where I don't think any additional harm would be caused by doing so. I'm going to find out in ~2 weeks at my next meeting whether they want to try medicine or not and I will just do whatever they tell me to do. I mean I'm not a psychologist, I'm paying them for their…
>I've reached a point where I don't think any additional harm would be caused by doing so. My friend, I truly feel your pain. I have been there, and I promise you it gets better. >I'm going to find out in ~2 weeks at my next meeting whether they want to try medicine or not. They're going to ask you if you want to try medication. I would encourage you to be actively engaged in your therapy. You can start by thinking a…
One thing that can help you articulate that part of you wants to say yes because X and part of you wants to say no because Y and part of you wants to still say yes because Z.
Writing out things into a journal is good because you can write things that wouldn’t make sense to someone else and therefore you can see reality more clearly.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#45Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#46I'm going through this right now. I agree with others in that you should look more into ADHD, but it likely won't solve this burnout specifically (but it may help you avoid it in the future). I gave this a listen yesterday:
Burnout is usually a result of the workplace environment, but it can cause you to experience effects that last even when the job is gone, namely depression.
I submitted my 2 weeks notice and am taking 6 weeks off, then spending the Spring semester focusing on graduate classes before I re-enter the workforce.
I think the time off itself will do wonders, but the key is to uncover how you burned out in the first place. The work environment can be a major factor, but your relationship, attitude, and habits surrounding work can all contribute as well. For me, I should have learned to say no and pushback on expectations much earlier on in my career.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#47Burnout checklist: Confirm you have/don't have ADHD. Confirm you have/don't really have a major depressive episode.
Somehow "burnout" is a more acceptable label than major depression. Because it's supposed to come from having worked too much. But as far as I can see burnout and major depressive episodes are hard to distinguish just from the symptoms. Prognosis and treatment are different. You may not need multiple months off for a depressive episode with proper treatment (or you might, but treatment usually reduces the time).
ADHD is a big factor in this. Especially not realizing or adapting to that condition.
No medical advise, ask multiple doctors.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean if they want to try and medicate me I'm not going to say no at this point, regardless of my personal views on the diagnosis. I've reached a point where I don't think any additional harm would be caused by doing so. I'm going to find out in ~2 weeks at my next meeting whether they want to try medicine or not and I will just do whatever they tell me to do. I mean I'm not a psychologist, I'm paying them for their…
I'd think hard and long before taking medications (personally, I already have, and decided not to). Psychologists have a tendency to overprescribe drugs and you have no idea how that will screw up who you are and what you think. Even if you don't have to pay for those drugs thanks to some healtcare insurance (whether public or private), some money will still flow towards the maker of drugs and that means they have an…
Psychologists don't prescribe drugs.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
how? I want this
bootstrapped saas / apple ecosystem apps in niches i'm familiar with. mostly passive recurring revenue (most of my time spent goes into r&d, i chose architectures to minimize ongoing operational needs). i bootstrapped to avoid "working for" investors. and on some projects where i'm working with others, we've formed anarchist coop-like structures to avoid hypocritically subjecting others to the hierarchies i escaped.…
Leaving the ratrace to start a bootstrapped SaaS worked good for the first 5 years.
Now into year 6 of bootstrapping a SaaS.. I am in the same exact boat as OP. And I can't take time off, at least not enough time off to "fix" the burnout.
Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?
#50> given my firing seems imminent at this point I don't have the exact answer but to me this needs to be focused on. Psychological safety is paramount. Workers need to know that they won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. Not having that safety for a health issue shows there's something severely wrong with your place of employment.
That depends on the jurisdiction, I'd say. Here in Germany you can take sick leave almost forever and it can be quite hard to fire people for health issues. Not impossible, and eventually the employer can fire you, but in most cases if people intend to ever work again, they can stay with the same employer.
USA: totally different.