About 10 years ago, I had a very stressful period at work and burnt out. I recovered within a couple of years but adopted some bad habits which are hard to change. I wondered whether others are the same and how you managed to get entirely back to normal.
As context, my stressful period was writing a PhD thesis. During which time, I became severely deficient with vitamin d and iron deficiency. I had bad brain fog and focus issues but needed to deliver the hardest thing I had experienced. I didn't take any weekends or evenings off. I spent 12+ hours a day in my PhD lab with no natural light. As there was a deadline which I overran by 6 months, I kept pushing myself to work but ground to a halt. I felt like a failure and that I needed to just keep working to fix it. I spent a lot of time not really able to function. Some days I made tiny amounts of progress on the big task.
I feel like I recovered from this year's ago but I have a lasting bad habit that I didn't have before. My bad habit is avoidance and procrastinating. I used to be find focus easy. Having pushed myself so hard for a year, my brain learnt it didn't really have to do things. I got in the habit of vegging out rather than healthier forms of relaxing. It means if I feel overloaded, I can do nothing for periods of time and it feels like a waste. I know the best thing to do is to have a break or do something useful. But this feels like a hang up. I'd like to get to where I was pre-stressful phase. I don't do it all the time but it happened yesterday afternoon and I 'lost' 7 hours that could have been fun, relaxing or useful.
I wondered whether others have felt like this and how they manage a decade after a burn out. Do you still have bad habits from that time in your life?