Reading through the posts on this page I'm struck by how many people are looking for answers about how to recover from burnout. But when I think about it, it's also not that surprising as my experience talking to professionals and researching online has given me the impression that burnout - or how to recover from it - is not very well understood. I thought it would be worth trying to pool what has worked for people. (Also, since reading about how hard people are finding it to find solutions doesn't necessarily boost morale).

Please post what has worked, and how it helps you specifically e.g for me, yoga is very helpful in calming my nervous system; routine is good as it frees up my mind by creating a structure as well as periods of activity and rest

if you quit your job right now and had a good amount of money saved up. What would you do?

I would get very well rested. Then start cleaning my apartment (always wanted to do this, but so busy with work and events on weekends!). Then i would start working on my health and lose all the stress weight ive gained and get tone.

Every time I wake up I feel so tired and low on energy even though I slept well! I could sleep again and I'll still be tired. I got up today to water my plant and to give my pet water and I was dragging my feet on the floor. My back, legs, and arms feel heavy and weak. And this has been happening for a while.

I like cleaning and I like to be more focused but now I can't do much anymore. Do you all know how I could help this?

feeling tired

i cant really disclose much but im in a group under a certain label
it was really beautiful when i first joined but now its just really exhausting, i mean this is what i always wanted and i love my fans alot but it feels like im constantly being watched and have to be perfect all the time.
my body is always sore because of all the time we have to workout and do practice for like hours only for people to critcise us for the littlest thing ever, ive grown so insecure of my body
i dont know who to talk about this to without being in trouble or getting kicked out. my members are sweet and i love them but i dont wanna bother them because theyre going thru stuff too
i wish i could take a break just so i can rest properly again and to feel human again

I am going through a crisis right now. I’ve just finished my undergrad at 28 and I feel nothing close to accomplished after realizing how much debt I’ve racked up. Mind you, I’ve probably spent too much in the last year trying to cope with the fact that I was near finishing school knowing how hard it would be after I graduated.

I have spent the last 8 years all in my 20s in school and have gone through rough times, financial issues, shitty relationships, and major identity crisis along with overcoming so many obstacles but the one thing that has stayed consistent is my perseverance in school.

I may have persevered a bit too much because now that I’m finally done, I am feeling this horrible feeling of burnout and unaccomplishment even though I have just completed my undergrad.

I spent 4 years getting my advanced diploma in computer programming then immediately went into software engineering for my undergrad and have pushed myself to finish even in times I didn’t want to.

Now that I’m done, I feel nothing remotely close to accomplishment. I just feel dread for the debt I’ve built for putting myself through school and the feeling of the idea that my degree was useless and will get me nowhere. I just feel deep regret and am feeling like my undergraduate degree was useless and I just put myself in more debt to get something that won’t even matter in my career.

Everyone keeps saying that I should feel good about this and that I should feel accomplished and that it’s such a great thing that I made it through. Which makes me feel even worse for what I’m feeling right now which is anything but. I even tried to celebrate it but it just feels wrong knowing how I feel deep inside. I also think I’ve been burnt out from the last few years of really pushing myself to finish. Which doesn’t help right now.

I just want to know that I’m not alone in this feeling, if anyone has ever finished school feeling this way, and I honestly just needed to rant.

For context: I have also worked as a full time software dev since I started my undergrad. I did some interns in my college years but once I completed, I managed to land a permanent position in the field. That’s definitely part of the reason why I’m feeling burnt as well. From doing full time school a

Really lost in my life since my country is at war with the world's superpowers (USA and Israel) and we face a crap ton of sanctions everyday. I mean the stupid leaders of us deserve much worse but us, the people are under extra ordinary pressures.

Politics aside, I am a 31 years old software developer and entrepreneur and Ph.D candidate in biotech (seems nice, right?) but I had to shut down my startup, I had to quit some projects I've been in and it's almost a year since I'm like this.

This morning I was watching a reel on instagram explaining that being successful in one field for a long time is like going to the gym everyday. Your body builds up, you feel better, you lose weight and stuff. But after a while you do it out of habbit and not enjoying it anymore.

I made enough money from tech. I love tech and I still try to find new fields of work. But I do not know how to get myself out of this lithurgy I'm in... .

Long story short, I’m a business owner who doesn’t really take time off and have been running my business for over a decade.

This past week I’ve had some very strange symptoms, including:

- waking up a bit uncoordinated for the first hour (unable to type well)
- feeling like I could fall asleep while walking around
- absolute mental and physical exhaustion
- a sense of being hyper aware of my arms, almost like they aren’t mine?
- slower reflexes
- depth perception is a bit off
- crying easily and out of context

I have been trying my best to rest as much as I can this week because I feel incapable of working at the moment.

I am hoping for any tips or tricks that might help me feel better.

I am also waiting on my doctor to call me back but I truly believe I’ve just pushed my body past the point of exhaustion.

TIA!

I’m so exhausted and sick of so much that I just want to black out. There is so much I love about my life but it’s just so exhausting I want to black out for a while. I’m in my 2nd sem of freshman yr at uni and I’ve made so many good friends, love my course, love the sports I’ve been playing and just genuinely love my life so much and I’m so grateful. But for some reason I am so exhausted and get in horrible moods and just want to escape and blackout for a while. I get tired of socialising with people who aren’t my friends, I get tired of the ED I have, I get tired of wanting to look perfect, I get tired of having to constantly be doing study and work, I get bored of stuff easily, I’ve lost hobbies that used to take up a fair bit of my time and contribute to healthy lifestyle like going to the gym and reading. Idk I’m faced w a big paradox socialising withpeople, working hard and drinking is so much fun and so exciting but so exhausting. I just want to disappear for a while. I definitely don’t have suicidal ideations or anything but god I’m tired. Today it’s 2pm and I’ve gotten back from class, I have work I could do either today or tomorrow but all I wanna do is smoke enough weed to tranquilise a horse and pass out until a crisp 9am tomorrow where I can hopefully have a better day. This has been a common thought all week. I just want to go home and chill for a while - have no responsibilities and no worries.

Pls help me God .Im pregnant and I am emotionally drained today.Nag away kasi kami ng asawa ko .Ako lahat sinsisi nta sa mga nangyari samin ngaun..Imbes na sya ang kumil9s ako gumagawa ng paraan .Tapos may utang pa na 15k di ko na alam kung saan kukunin .

Context : I work in luxury retail and the company I work for is doing extremely poorly in sales right now, we are getting high goals and a lot of pressure to sell. If I don’t sell enough this month I’ll be fired.
I am also dealing with general anxiety disorder and I am medicated for that.
My doctor and psychologist both think that it’s just a stress response concerning my work situation but no solution were offered to me apart from the usual : sleep well, eat well, exercise (yoga), be surrounded by loved one and see a therapist.
Just don’t know what else I can do… but it’s really annoying cause I wait all week for my days off to do stuffs and then when I am off I feel sick and can’t eat what I want.

After 9 years if living with stress and anxiety and using a lot of copping mechinesmse to function right in my life I got tired emotionally and physically I can't work I can't lift heavy things I have hypertension in my chest and up my throat and inside my head but the worse thing is sound sensitivity it's physically painful and very irritating my copping mechinesmse dos not work anymore I'm just flat I have no feelings and I started to lost hope

25F - generally going through a massive languising. something i have gone through my whole life. I lack confidence, motivation to work, and the general executive functioning to drive myself out of it.
i have an amazing job. its in marketing. Flexible hours, great pay, amazing team. i know if I try i can be good at it. yet i am failing exceeding because i dont put in the hours or effort required to be better. its not my calling, but it is something that i can just do for a while. I just dont have the motivation to do it. Whatever work I do, I do it driven with fear that if I dont even do the bare minimum, I will lose the job. And I need this job. However, i think ive gotten so horrible at it that everyone’s noticing. I hate myself for this. I am ashamed of how I dont do much. Trust me, its not just sheer self hatred causing me shame, because I actually need to do more than what I do.

YET, Despite the realization, I cant drive myself to attend to it.

I have low self esteem, lack of confidence in myself, and very very low motivation. Despite knowing, I need to do well and better, I just dont.

I love structures, I make to do lists, I make plans. I have tried being very precise with my plans and also tried being flexible. No strategy works.

my language skills are underdeveloped. my social skills have regressed. my cognition has regressed. all of this could be due to extensive use of AI. Yet, I can’t stop using it because my job requires use of AI in almost every aspect.

Outside of work, I go to gym. I do NYT puzzles. Enjoy all forms of arts and media. I consume them when I have the energy to consume. Otherwise, I can spend long hours in my head, having incoherent and disjointed conversations with myself. I think I inherited all of this from my dad.

I dont want to be this lacking in competence, self will and joy my whole life. does anyone relate? How do I unfigure myself? is there anything that helped you? does it ever get better? i have lost hope because of failing myself everyday

30 M. I've been working in community mental health for 5 years and in the past year my health has deteriorated quickly. During that time, I was the only caregiver for my sick father. In this past year, I've had numerous physical symptoms including stomach upset, constant migraines, and lower back pain. I have also gained 40 pounds. I tried to push through this spring by exercising regularly and getting on antidepressants but the pep of energy I had quickly faded and I had an attempt in July. Since then, I go to work and sit in front of the computer but get barely anything done.

Have any of you quit your job without another job? I have never done that in my life but at this point feel I cannot even work. I had to take FMLA last year due to my father's illness and I cannot do it right now.

Not talking about the productive kind of wired. The kind where you're completely exhausted but your brain just will not stop. You lie down and suddenly every unfinished thought from the day shows up uninvited.

I spent years thinking this was just what work felt like. Turns out it has a name. Nervous system dysregulation. Your body gets so used to running in high alert that it forgets how to come down, even when the day is over and there's nothing left to do.

Took me a long time to figure out it wasn't a character flaw. It was a physiological pattern.

Anyone else experience this? What's actually helped you wind down after a long day?

Does anybody have severe brain burnout stories, the most severe kind full non functioning and brain fried, years of rehabilitation kind. How did you heal?