If you've experienced burnout from work, how did you feel when you got away

[Claryfee]

Friend left a high pressure role which was all consuming and making her unhappy. While shes relieved to have let it go now seems consumed by sadness and overwhelm and generally not coping well day to day. Still doing some freelance WFH and money not an issue yet not coping emotionally, mentally. Anyone experienced anything similar? Struggling to know how to help her.

What is her personal home life like?

Although she may be glad she's out of it, if she's been in the situation a long time she might feel.lost or bereft. She may feel.lihe she should have been able to hack it or cope
It may take a while for peace to arrive.

Weekendwatch No DC, supportive DH.

Not quite the same but my autistic DD took a year to emerge from burnout. Leaving the stressful situation is just the start of the process. The recovery can be very slow.

Would she be open to seeing a therapist or counsellor? Talking things through might help.

There will be a entire world behind closed doors that you don’t know about

unless of course this is you?

Honestly it’s taken its toll on me. My professional self-esteem is in bits. I’m not working anyway as my autistic DD needs a lot of support with her GCSEs but I have a lot of negative internal chatter about how some of the people I used to work with will be interpreting my current state of unemployment. I would probably benefit from a bit of coaching or therapy but can’t afford it.

Weekendwatch Agree we can never fully know what goes on, just stating what I see. Not me.

Ok so I would suppose her personal life is also contributing to dragging her down

I guess she assumed that leaving the role would mean all the stress and consequent unhappiness would simply fade away, and its not been like that and there's lots of negaive internal chatter as Robotindisguise referred to.

As BCBird said It may take a while for peace to arrive. I'll share that with her as its hopeful.

Like a physical weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Joy….

But that was because I was burned out from a job i liked due to the pressure of work - not bad people, just nature of the job - and needed a rest - and maternity leave each time was a massive rest for me compared to my paid employment. After maternity leave I went part time and didn’t get as stressed and devoted my emotional energy elsewhere. Still love my job though.

Leaving the role is only the start, she may find she feels more anxious now because she has the space and time to think about it, rather than just pushing through. Adrenaline keeps you going and then when you stop all the feelings come flooding in. She needs rest and possibly some counselling to help make sense of what she’s been through but she’ll recover in time.