Talk to me about recovering from burnout

[CapitanSandy]

If you’ve had burnout how did you recover?

I left my stressful job working in mental health a month ago with nothing else lined up. I worked there for 8 years but in the last year the pressure became unbearable. I would spend my whole week in fight or flight, doing lots of overtime to cover staff who left but weren’t replaced. I had a new manager too who was completely unsupportive.

I’ve been trying to rest, get fresh air, take vitamins do things I enjoy but I still feel drained and on edge quite a bit.

Am I missing anything that will help?

Glad you are doing okay, reading watching tv , sleep all good .Hope you recovery continues and update us.

My iron is so low, but my vit D levels were ok.

The pain started in my hands, I couldn’t hold a pen when it was bad. Then it spread to my feet, ankles, knees etc. This eased after 2 months off sick then I returned to work. After a few months I was getting intermittent pain in my gallbladder area, I was admitted to hospital and have had so many tests and scans but they cannot find anything physically wrong. I suffer pain in my knees, feet, sides, shoulders, back.
I’m now left wondering if it is from stress, I have a hectic homelife on top of a stressful exhausting job. I have been off sick for a couple of months. Some days are better than others.
I recently made the decision to leave my job, and focus on recovering and building some strength

OP I don’t know how old you are but my morning anxiety has been helped massively with HRT.

That sounds so awful I’m sorry you’ve been going through this. @Glitterballofdreams What I’m learning is stress/burnout/ exhaustion can have real physical effects. I’ve felt quite unwell at times.

Are you having treatment for your low iron?

I hope you feel better soon. It sounds like you’ve made the right decision to leave your job and focus on recovery.

I’m mid thirties so hopefully not menopausal yet but I feel a lot older at the moment! Glad HRT helped.

Yes I am on a permanent iron prescription

What does burn out feel like? Can you keep pushing that little bit more but know not to? Or would it be impossible to squeeze anymore out of yourself? What did the day you burnt out look like?

Hope it helps. Take good care of yourself.

I think I had been on the road to burnout for a good 6 months but kept pushing on with the mindset of just get through this week/month/ quarter and it will slow down after that, it never did!

The worse burnout day I had was the day before I decided to hand my notice in. I had been up at 5am with racing thoughts and anxiety. I had a 12 hour day and by the time I logged off I couldn’t stop crying for hours.

Everything felt too much and I was just depleted not eating or sleeping properly. I took a week of annual leave a couple of weeks later and struggled through my notice period in a state of fight or flight and panic.

For previous posters who had counselling/ therapy during recovery from burnout, how did it help?

I’ve done counselling before and I’m undecided about going back.

daily meditation. There’s a free app called insight timer which is great.

In my experience it takes time. It took me 3 months to even start to recover from my stress breakdown. I was crippled by it. I tried to plan a little structure to my day in baby steps even though a lot of the time it was overwhelming. I showered every day, tried to eat and tried to do something constructive like getting petrol.

Be kind to yourself. It's so hard.

Thanks @LaminatedLou I’ll look into this

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been through this too @user1471538283 . I expected to feel better within a couple of weeks of leaving my job but I’m accepting it will be a slower road. How are you now? Can I ask how long it was until you felt better?

This was a long time ago but I don't think I've ever fully got over it. It's left me with anxiety.

My friend said that I was like a train that had come to an emergency stop so everything then crashed into me. I used to have bad panic attacks over nothing.

I was much better after 6 months and I did phased return with a very supportive manager and my referral stated that it wasn't me it was the environment. I still remember crying a lot and I had to do mediation with the bully boss that caused it.

You will get there!

I had therapy and it really helped me process what my job was and how I was being treated . It made me much more confident and sure that leaving was right but that I had loads of skills I could use elsewhere and that I was actually in control and had choices . We also processed my trauma

Thanks @cleo333 that sounds like it was really helpful. I’ve emailed a counsellor and I’ve got a session in a couple of weeks.

I am commenting on this so I can come back. Sympathy op

I burnt out in 2020. It was a combination of work stress, the constant running on adrenaline in a workplace which became increasingly more toxic, and then a sudden, shocking bereavement. From running on adrenaline I just shut down. I withdrew emotionally from my family and really struggled to process anything I was told. I struggled to focus and I know everyone around me could see in my face that I wasn’t right. I quit my job, without another one to go to, but I knew I couldn’t face calls from work asking how I was or think about going back. Luckily for me, lockdown happened and everything stopped. I could sit at home without any pressure in that moment. I walked every day and also rested. My mind became calmer. I spent time in the garden. When I was ready I started a garden project that was a bit more physical. In the early days I read and read as it was the only thing that distracted my mind. I used the Calm App at other times. I started to look for another job after about 8 months and did struggle with confidence initially. I dropped down in salary but started a new job after 10 months. I felt more like myself then but I was glad I had gone in a slightly different direction. It felt like a new start and I wasn’t competing with my old self if that makes sense. The most important thing is to give yourself time, as long as you can

Nearly 3 months on from leaving work and recovering is still very up and down. I’ve definitely started to have a few good days along the way. Bad days are still hard but we have some family stress contributing to that at the moment.

Still tired a lot with bouts of anxiety that feels quite physical. My aim over the next couple of weeks is to find and implement some strategies to help overthinking.

If anyone is feeling the same I’m thinking of you.

I burned out as a teacher. There was an initial period of about a month where doing nothing helped. I caught up on sleep, and processed my emotions. After that, I needed purpose.
So I went abroad to volunteer for a few months. It was immersive, intense, totally and utterly different to my life back home, which is how I ‘found’ myself again. I met a friend there who is very blunt. She actually said to me one day when I was overthinking some interaction or other “you need to stop thinking about yourself and being so self-absorbed. Worry about somebody else for a change”. Which was brutal, but fair. Stress and survival move had made me very inward-looking. My friend’s words snapped me out of it and I found it restorative to focus my attention outside myself and share my energy with others again, after months of conserving it and being in self-protection mode.

I know that taking off abroad isn’t something everyone can just do. But I think the experience I had could be replicated in the UK without needing to go away.

Best wishes to you, I hope you get your mojo back soon 😊

Just do everything in moderation and do your best to try to keep your social networks going. The job etc doesn’t matter in the long term but your relationships with other people really do matter and they will get you through. You are more than your job was, or a job will be in the future, so just be kind to yourself and keep yourself going.

Volunteering abroad sounds really beneficial to have a new focus and a change of scenery too. It wouldn’t be possible for me but I’m glad it helped.

Your friend sounds good for giving tough love I would probably cry if someone said that to me at the moment! I’ve always been sensitive though I see what you mean about stress and fight or flight mode making you look inward more. Thanks @Wobblylegs1

She was from another culture that I think was far more to-the-point! It was said with humour, but I knew she had a point!

I don’t think there was anything intrinsic to going abroad that helped me per se, I think that volunteering in the UK and meeting a completely different group of people here would have been just as good.

I hope you find recovery soon x

Thanks @FishFlaked I really needed to hear this. I’ve got lovely friends who I’m trying to see more often.