On the verge of burnout

[beautifulbrothers]

I am so close to burning out. I feel numb and tearful and like I am going to drop something. I'm already letting people down and feel so pathetic saying that I have a lot on my plate. There are friends and colleagues coping with so much more. But I just am not.

I started running earlier this year, which has been amazing in terms of my health and when I'm out I feel liberated from my mind. I can't let it go. But it's added a few hours a week of another thing to do.

I'm late to work, I can't look after my children without feeling like it's chaos, I'm not doing my job as well as I can because I am really struggling to multitask. I actually wet myself at work the other day (I have stress incontinence and coughed, but thankfully I had brought a big coat in and it was the end of the day) because I can't find the time to go to the toilet (education) and I barely find the time to eat. If I were by myself, I'd be okay.

My husband is amazing. But he's acting like a carer for me at the moment. Picking up everything I can't do. I've got this lunchtime to myself every week. It is bliss. But I have 20 minutes until my 18mo wakes up and it all starts again.

How do I dig myself out of this? I'm at my limit. I can't think about more than what I'm doing in the moment.

Sorry to dump this here. I've been referred for an autism assessment by the GP. DS1 is also awaiting assessment. Struggled all my life. I don't know why now is so much harder.

Hello, You do sound burnt out. How old are you? Hormones changing can contribute and so can just being tired of shouldering everything.

Could you call in sick to work just to give yourself a couple of days of rest so you can think straight?

Recovering from burnout can be a long long process but it sounds like you need a bit of immediate rest so you can break things down and start to look at them one by one.

Sending you a hug.

There is absolutely no need to apologise for dumping how you feel @beautifulbrothers, I'm pretty sure that's what this board is for

Thank you. It actually felt good just to write how I felt. I've had a chat with DH tonight and he's going to help me write down a basic routine for the most stressful parts of our day. He's also feeling pretty low, which I think (in a very selfish way) is contributing to me feeling more anxious and stressed than usual. We need to support each other. I hope I might feel better knowing I'm doing what he needs me to do to support him too.

Thank you for replying. I'm just turned 40. I honestly feel about as competent as a 14-year-old though. My DH already shoulders so much. For what I do, I don't think I should feel like this. It's embarrassingly pathetic.

I love my family with every fibre of my being, but I think going from 1 to 2 children has been a massive shock to the system. It's asking for a whole new level of life skills that I don't think I have. 😥

I went back to work after mat leave at Easter and have had the whole summer off. I'm counting down to the October half term. I had a big meeting this evening which feels better now it's behind me. After chatting with DH, we're going to try to reset on the weekend.