This week I've experienced having what I'd describe as a brain shut down. This is probably the 4th time in my life that I've been really aware of.
I wondered if this was familiar to anyone else?
First time was 12 years ago linked to bereavement, postnatal depression and many other family issues all at once and took me a few months to recover.
The last 3 have all been in the last 12 months. One a year ago, the maybe 6 months ago and this week. This time they feel mainly work related. The last 2 have only taken a short period to recover from, maybe a few days, I expect this one to be the same.
It's like my brain has an off switch and when things have got too much it's literally said 'no more', and I can't access the info I need from my brain , organise myself, make a decision or even take on board what's being said to me.
For the first time this week I went into flight mode after having a barrage of people coming at me one after another with issues to solve and literally left the building then contacted (my very supportive) manager.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Now at home with home expectations I feel able to cope, I just feel very tired and not up for anything to complex or conversation other than with my family.
Day to day I would say I'm usually very resilient and cope well in challenging situations and I know staff look to me positively for support.
I have experienced a build up to it that looked like frustration, short periods of overwhelm that I came through quickly, irritation with staff when I'm usually able to just support people.
I'm probably peri menopausal if that has any bearing!
For context :
My job involves a lot of on the spot problem solving, sometimes in quite difficult circumstances with people looking to me for answers and decisions. My general workload is high and I've been working around 70 hours a week. Only half of these hours are with the high octane work. The rest of the time I've been delivering face to face training, paperwork, meetings etc.
This has grown in recent years and the last few months have been over and above what I've experienced before.
I've expressed this to my manager and identified specidic jobs that can be down by others to reduce my workload but change is slow.
I also applied for another post that was similar but less hours and responsibility (and a significant drop in pay). Interview went well but I didn't get it. No other similar jobs out there.