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Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

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Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#121

Post by pmoriarty »

I would consider a career change to something you're more suitable for... hopefully something less stressful too.

But don't wait too long. Being out of work for an extended period of time makes it psychologically difficult to find work again, and extended periods of not working makes most employers wary of hiring you. So the longer you're out of work, the harder it'll be for you to find work.

Even if your next job is not perfect, at least it'll put food on the table while you're there, and finding another job won't be as hard as it would be after a long period of not working.

Also, consider psychedelic therapy. It can give you a new perspective on your own life and the world, and there's a lot of research showing it can be very effective at treating major depression.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#122

Post by ativzzz »

I had a similar situation. I didn't get to a breaking point like you did - I quit my job as I was approaching it. I took 6 months off, focused on myself and therapy. I went down the ADHD route because I had the symptoms and tried medication but it didn't help much on a day to day basis (I still have some leftover and I take it maybe once every other month when I really don't feel like working to kind of reset me - they are stimulants after all). I'm still not really sold that ADHD is a real disease as much as a conglomeration of various deficiencies that people have that we try to group together in order to provide treatment, but I encourage you to try treating it anyway as much as you can because there's no cure, everyone is different, and many people have positive outcomes. Either way, the medicine needs to be combined with therapy for it to be effective and from my experience, the psychiatrists who I've talked to that prescribe medicine have not been good therapists

What really got me out of the funk was a routine and a good therapist (I think he was a social worker) that didn't try to diagnose me but instead worked with me on tangible things like my mindset and my outlook on life and challenges I face. A morning routine gave me some much needed mental stability (highly recommend the book Atomic Habits), and working on breaking some habitual negative thought patterns got me away from procastinating / task avoidance (to some degree). I was also lucky to have a supporting wife

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#123

Post by [deleted] »

ThrowAway1922A wrote: post #107
monological wrote: post #93

The reality is that deep down in your soul, this is not something that you really want to be doing with your life. Unfortunately in modern society, we have to trade our time and focus, staring at a piece of glass all day, just so we can survive. It’s absolutely insane if you think about it. I’d bet that most ADHD, depression, anxiety is caused because we see no end in sight working on these meaningless tasks. My advi…

> The reality is that deep down in your soul, this is not something that you really want to be doing with your life You're not wrong. I only went into this line of work because I was naturally good at it. It seemed like I was just naturally destined to do this with my life.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#124

Post by lob_it »

Not to say that chasing paper is bad, but doing what you enjoy makes sayings like "I don't feel like I've worked a day in my life" a cool foundation for wellbeing.

The culture in your country doesn't sound like "job jumping" is the norm (saving the expense of training/onboarding), but fresh air is always obvious in a work environment.

Work/life balance is also more than a buzzword. If both are unwell..... I'm sure its complicated.

I always get 8 hours of quality sleep and would recommend that. Sometimes its from a good days work... Other times, it provides the energy for an amazing day.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#125

Post by flamebreath447 »

monological wrote: post #93

The reality is that deep down in your soul, this is not something that you really want to be doing with your life. Unfortunately in modern society, we have to trade our time and focus, staring at a piece of glass all day, just so we can survive. It’s absolutely insane if you think about it. I’d bet that most ADHD, depression, anxiety is caused because we see no end in sight working on these meaningless tasks. My advi…

Finding something you love is only momentary. Even if you find something you “love” to do it will have moments where it gets rough, boring, frustrating or cumbersome.

We need both work and rest, and typically burnout comes from pushing yourself in situations that are a net negative; either because you are over working in an environment that is compromising something valueable to you or because you don’t actually know how to rest.

We need work to make a living, make incremental and long-term growth and to stretch our capacity at a healthy rate.

We need proper rest (not Netflix, not social media, not mind numbing hobbies), active intentional rest to appreciate our work and the things we have. We need time to value things other than work because work alone is not enough to sustain us.

There are many good books on this I suggest the OP look into reading one in the time they have off if they chose. Fixing the underlying issues and habits is the way forward not just switching jobs.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#126

Post by ThrowAway1922A »

castlecrasher2 wrote: post #113

Did you get COVID? I'm having similar issues with both work and hobbies and I believe mine stem from the long-term side effects from COVID.

No, I have never had COVID. In fact I am the singular person I know of in my life who hasn't gotten COVID at this point.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#128

Post by turalura »

Ten years ago I had all of the following, undiagnosed: - Severe obstructive sleep apnea - Low thyroid - Low testosterone - Insulin resistance

I was turning into a ghost

The first three got eventually diagnosed and fixed. For the fourth, I moved in a place where I can do long mountain hikes during the week-end, and it helped enormously.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#129

Post by AlwaysRock »

uncletaco wrote: post #63
TrueGeek wrote: post #56

> I'm not well off like most people on here, I can survive 4-6 months with no salary Be careful of comparing yourself to what people post online. It's easy to read social media and think everyone else is waking up at 5am, drinking their keto coffee, and making millions with their startup while working as a digital nomad. Even on a tech heavy site like HN I would classify someone with 6 months of savings as very well…

Same. Also several months of medical leave for burnout sounds very generous.

I feel moderately well off and COULD take several months off but it could not be comfortable. I'd almost rather put in lower effort at a job and continue to get paid than have months of no income where I'm pulling from savings.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#130

Post by cjbgkagh »

A lot of burnout is actually ME/CFS and now possibly Long Covid. ADHD people are more likely to burn out due to shared genetic causes like hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). hEDS is vastly more common than doctors think it is by 100x - so it’s very difficult to get diagnosed. The more common subvariants of hEDS are not even all that hypermobile. This isn’t to say you have hEDS just given ADHS+burnout+reading HN you’re in a riskier category. As for treatments patient forums are far better than doctors with this.

It’s important to find the root cause because most people assume they can return to homeostasis simply by doing things to make them healthier, rest, exercise, diet etc. When there is a genetic cause that isn’t an option and more extreme pharmacological interventions are needed.

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