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?

For those you experienced burnout how long was it until you felt less exhausted?

I’ve started to do more but I’m so tired! Have a GP appointment in a few weeks to rule out physical causes.

I ended up having 5 weeks off and it took me that long not to feel exhausted. I was also taking iron tablets via prescription following blood tests
It's so different for everyone though. It was nearly a year ago now and me being off showed work just how much I was carrying and changes have been made thankfully

Around 5 months.

I don’t mean this is a critical way but I’m picking up from your posts that you tend to be quite hard on yourself and demanding. You can’t ace burnout recovery. You don’t need to do anything, hit any goals.

It’s not that there isn’t great advice here, just be careful not to try and turn it into a Plan of Action. It’s hard to shift gear in our thoughts because that way of thinking has been your survival mode for so long.

Just try and catch the words like …every…should… words that add pressure, and when you do stop and breathe until you find your way from pressure back to pleasure again!

Or don’t! Feel free to disregard this if it’s not resonating - there’s no right way, no perfect way. Just what feels ok to you,

@Nickisli1 ah I’m glad that changes were made. I think iron deficiency may be at play here too.

You’re so right @Haffway it does feel like I need to do a good job of recovering. I’m not really sure why. I’m a bit of an all or nothing type of person. Thank you for being kind.