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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?

#191

Post by type-r »

ThrowAway1922A wrote: post #17
omginternets wrote: post #11

>During my time off I've been poked and prodded by psychologists and they seem to think I have ADHD and that it was a large contributing factor to this, though I'm not completely sure I buy this explanation. I think you should give this idea more thought. The situation you find yourself in is not uncommon among high-functioning ADHD persons, and your life can truly get a whole lot better with a bit of therapy and med…

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…

www.donefirst.com will give you a script within a 20 minute phone call. Careful with the medication approach, it has serious side effects and can be really difficult to get off of. Speaking from my own as well as friends' experiences.

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

#192

Post by bayesian_horse »

tayo42 wrote: post #142
bayesian_horse wrote: post #47

Burnout 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 mo…

I've burned out and been depressed(diagnosed and medication) they're different for sure. You can burn out on an activity, eventually give it up. Depression is everything about your life. If burned out at work, I didn't hate everything, I still enjoyed my hobbies and put effort into them. I didn't stop cleaning my room and fight with my so.

You may not be completely clear on what depression is and what "burnout" is. I'd certainly say burnout requires something more than being unsatisfied, bored or unmotivated with your work.

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

#193

Post by ornornor »

goodpoint wrote: post #180
annyeonghada wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Unfortunately in modern society Not that in ancient societies was any better, your place in society was practically decided at conception: your father was a fishermen, well you know exactly what you will be doing in your life, that you like it or not. Almost all the disorders typical of this new millennium seem to originate from an infinite liberty without a guid, a paralysis analysis of some kind if you like. "What…

> Not that in ancient societies was any better With the difference that modern society is 10000x wealthier, and yet people are overworked and the planet is being destroyed.

And a significant part of the jobs are outright useless or only needed because we work so much at these useless jobs.

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

#194

Post by carbine »

So much good advice here. Just want to say as someone who has gone through this, burnout takes so much longer to recover from than you think. The sooner you make changes to start to address it, the sooner you'll get through to the other side. Don't waste any time waiting to take action, your wellbeing is the most important thing. And be patient and kind with yourself, it can be a long journey with ups and downs, but you can get through it.

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

#195

Post by uptownfunk »

Times are very hard right now for a lot of people I’ve spoken with. Not to dismiss you particularly but more to say I don’t think you’re alone in this. The psychological burden they carry feels massive. I don’t know if this is due to remote work, hard to say. If you are single or not the only provider, what helped me get through was to make drastic lifestyle changes. I did cold showers, some wim hof breathing session, some yoga, running, lifting weights - I had to shock my biology out of the rut I was in. And even still I go through shitty days, but I can tolerate a bit more. I don’t have the luxury of not working, especially in this economy and I have family to support and provide for (and also role model for..) But for someone with no way out, the above really helped me.

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

#196

Post by over_bridge »

layer8 wrote: post #177
knaekhoved wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that overeating is possibly exacerbating your issues? I had serious brain fog/energy issues until I stopped being overweight.

I don’t think they’re overeating voluntarily. It’s often a vicious cycle.

I can relate to this.

Before the pandemic I was really good at presenting and running workshops with groups. Then after work from home and with the gyms closed I put on 12kg pretty quickly. It changed my whole attitude and made me very insecure to the point where I never stood up in those groups. Someone else quickly moved into that role and I never regained that position and confidence I once enjoyed. I've been a bit of a shell at work ever since. Because I'd turned myself into a background character I no longer cared too much about my appearance and didn't get better.

Sometimes just focusing on the basics is so important. Yes maybe it's a shallow position from me but I've never been overweight and it hit me right in the identity and flowed on to the rest of my life. I'm happy to say I went for a run yesterday and am trying to overcome this.

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

#197

Post by starfleet_bop »

ThrowAway1922A wrote: post #104
didgetmaster wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if your employer 'had no say in the matter', it is still generous. Somebody had to pay for that medical leave whether it came out of the profits of the company you work for, their insurance company (which leads to higher premiums for everyone), or came out of the taxpayer's pocket. It sounds like you could benefit from a completely different environment. If you can't find any joy working in your chosen field, it…

I don't consider it generous, it's a basic right of workers that anyone in my country is entitled to should they need it. It's part of the social safety net and every worker pays into it should they need it. I felt extremely guilty having to use it myself and beat myself up for it so much early on, but in the end it was the right thing to do. > If you can't find any joy working in your chosen field, it might be time…

You should absolutely not feel guilty for using sick leave. We all pay into it, either through taxes or lower salary in case we need it. The stigma regarding mental health absolutely should stop, as mental health is health.

Some of the commenters on here should hang their heads in shame.

Taking humanity out of the equation, sick leave makes economic sense as it allows people to recuperate and get back to work, rather than having to find a permanent replacement.

However, it sounds like you are still sick, and therefore you should go back on sick leave. Both to protect your income and your health. Don’t make a martyr out of yourself, it won’t serve any purpose.

As you haven’t really mentioned specifics (that I have seen yet), it seems that the working environment did this to you, so the company does have a responsibility to you. As such, I wouldn’t feel guilty at all about continuing to draw a salary from them while getting better for the damage they caused.

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

#198

Post by starfleet_bop »

ornornor wrote: post #186

You have to quit or be fired. Right now. I was in your situation year ago, three years of agony at a mediocre toxic corporate company where our team was responsible for all the problems but were given no time or resources at all to actually fix the root cause. Only firefighting was allowed. I was on medical leave, went back, and eventually was offered to quit without serving my notice period (so 4 months paid without…

If you’re still sick you should go back on sick leave. Don’t let an employer fire you for a situation they created.

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

#199

Post by ThrowAway1922A »

random_kris wrote: post #181
ThrowAway1922A wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't consider it generous, it's a basic right of workers that anyone in my country is entitled to should they need it. It's part of the social safety net and every worker pays into it should they need it. I felt extremely guilty having to use it myself and beat myself up for it so much early on, but in the end it was the right thing to do. > If you can't find any joy working in your chosen field, it might be time…

On one hand you don't consider is generous On other hand you feel guilty about it. I think you should make up your mind. Maybe the burnout will also go away then

I felt guilty about it, past tense.

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

#200

Post by kiko123 »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #130

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…

+1, there's so much more that may be going on 'under the hood'. Thanks for mentioning ME/CFS and Long Covid. Recently had to quit my job and postpone starting my university studies due to what I (and my doc) suspect to be a pretty severe case of Long Covid. Previously diagnosed with ADHD too, however I do have my own thoughts on that, especially among the rather young demographic I belong.

Bottom line is, I have arrived at a point where I can no longer power through or treat the symptoms only. Finding a root cause and healing myself is all I do right now. Even though I'm very young, I've successfully ignored all the warning signs before _something_ took me out completely. I consider it a great lesson, albeit the toughest one I've ever gotten by far. Here's to our healing.

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