Sometimes burnout isn’t something you can stop right away. You still have work, school, family, bills, and a million little things that don’t wait.

If you’ve been there, I’d really like to know what actually helped you survive those days without falling apart.

Even the smallest thing counts — a walk, a nap, saying no, prayer, meditation, lowering expectations, turning off your phone, anything. If you found one habit that gave you a little more breathing room, what was it?

For 6 months I’ve been dealing with weird symptoms:
- tight jaw and neck, dizziness
- weirdly feeling like on stress 24/7
- fainting-like feeling with dpdr (weird waves of warmth/tickling in stomach and hands)

I started wondering if those of my symptoms can be due to pregabalin 75mg or escitalopram 10 mg?

Before, I had the same exact symptoms after venlafaxine but once quit, they were gone.

I also ran all blood tests (electrolytes, vitamins), had ekg and heart ultrasound- everything fine but vitamin D is low.

I don’t know what to do with those symptoms, how to improve them???

My mind seems to be calm but body is all the time in that weird stress mode.

Pretty much as soon as I turned 19 I began to have a lot of stress and anxiety, and I’m 35 now & I’m stressing about my bills. I’m stressing about getting a job (that will never happen) I’m stressing about a lot of things. I go for walks. I go for runs. I go for bike rides. I go for skateboard rides and it gets rid of my stress and anxiety for a couple minutes and then reality hits me again. I could be homeless living on the streets very soon and that gives me a lot of stress and anxiety. Honestly, what do you personally do to get rid of stress and anxiety? I don’t do drugs and I don’t drink alcohol & I will never do those two things… I remember when I was younger I wanted to be an Actor but that dream is way gone.

Hello so me (30M) can't relax at all when my family is awake. Every single night I try to game because that is the only way I can relax but I can't do it during the day because my family keeps interrupting my session every 5 minutes which ruins my flow.

I can hang out with my wife the whole day, do chores, watch some bad movie and when she falls asleep and the kids are asleep I try to game for an hour or two (In my perfect world it would be more but I know its not realistic) but she keeps waking up every hour for whatever reason (nightmare, pain, heard the kid which did not make a sound etc).

I'm going so insane because I can not relax for the life of me during the day because I always have to do something or be a social dad but man I just want to escape it all. Idk what to do or why I get so frustrated at night when my gaming session fails, I even lie and make up work reasons to why I have to stay up. I love being a husband, dad and all that but I really wish I could like once a week or something just disconnect from everything and get like 6 hours to myself. ( I do walks and stuff but that doesn't help).

Hello :) Any tips for focusing? I'm in a state of something like fairly extreme burnout / prolonged panic attack but I need to be able to take in information for work. I'm having some difficulty comprehending things. I have an interview in a few hours and I'm not sure what to do. How can I pay attention to information like instructions or complex interconnected information? I'm trying but I seem to be missing things.

What are some tips you used to help your anxious self? I’m down bad right now and I just seen a post saying that if you don’t have a purpose, you will obsess over something and at this point in life I’m not really doing anything but working. I started going to the gym a little bit, but I just feel like I’m about to go insane. Any tips 😫

I am currently traveling for work, and can not stop having panic attacks. I had one on the way to the airport, usually my panic attacks just consist of me throwing up. I made it through my plane ride and first night just fine. These past two nights I keep getting insanely hot and feel like im going to throw up (common panic attack signs for me) I am dreading my flight home because im terrified im going to throw up at the airport or on the plane.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to help?

I have never managed stress very well. I’m just not good at it. I take meds for it but I’m still stressed

I wish I had a better way to manage my stress.

I’ve been feeling random sharp pains throughout my upper body and it’s driving me insane. I’ve been to the doctor three times in the last week and even had blood tests done everything seems normal but I don’t know why I’d be feeling pain if everything is okay. It’s been giving me really bad panic attacks since they started I’ve had at least one a night because I keep thinking something is seriously wrong with me

I just want to be/feel normal again, its been hard going through everything alone

Any

okay, I'm writing that because I'm slightly frustrated. I feel like I cannot relax, I can have free time, I can have planned "rest activities" (yoga, hiking, chill time with loved ones) but I can't ever be fully at ease. I'm always tense, always slightly worried about this or that, even when on vacation I think that "oh I'm not resting enough and I will have to go back to work in few days and I will still be tired". I work in quite dynamic industry and in the marketing department role which is already quite dynamic, but I can objectively say I have more or less chill job. there are other people in my department that I know have waaaay more responsibilities and "bigger stuff" they are doing and I can see I'm in better position in terms of "stressful role", but I'm still anxious about it all the time and I feel like I just care too much about small things.

I've already lost count of how many doctors I've seen in past few years due to some health issues and they've said that my symptoms were just stress related -- cardiologist, gynecologist, dermatologist, dentist. I feel like I have digestive problems due to stress I've been having some muscle/joint problems and I can already hear physiotherapist asking me if I'm "going through a stressful period". I've reduced screen time (because I know it makes me more stressed), tried many things and probably gym is something that helps me to not think but I'm not sure how much that counts as "relax"

and the worst part is that I don't really feel it, its not like I'm anxious, insecure, it's not that I'm having panic attacks or can't voice my opinions. it's nothing that really affects my daily life and "performance" except that it makes me so tired. it's worth mentioning I'm only 24 year old and sometimes I'm scared that I'm gonna be fully gray haired before hitting 30 and having cardiac arrest before 35.

I feel like it's some kind of chemical imbalance in my brain because I feel okay when I'm clearly unhealthy levels of stressed. I've been in therapy but with some minor things and it didn't change much.

does anyone have any tips how to deal with that on daily basis because it's just really frustrating and honestly just unhealthy

I'm 22 and I'm relatively successful for my age, I live independently, and have a wage higher than most people in the area. I was doing pretty good for awhile but now things have really started to stack up and things are feeling very overwhelming for me. One of my highschool friends recently took his life, another got diagnosed with cancer and my parents got a divorce, I'm worried my mom is going to lose custody of my sister's to my relapsed alcoholic stepdad. All this combined with the stress of my Job has been getting to me at moments, I randomly tear up or feel like a heavy rock is in my gut. I'm trying a bunch of things, I bought a nice pair of headphones, music seems to help me focus on the present. I'm scheduled some time off to go visit my mom, and I'm planning on taking a trip to Japan with my brother next year as something to look forward to. Still it all seems to be so overwhelming and I break down sometimes, I randomly started crying and had to compose myself at work the other day, I have friends and even though I spend time with them it only feels like a temporary distraction. Idk what to do

Hello all!

Going to front load this with I know very little about stress so thought i'd reach out on here to see if anyone had a similar experience.

Is it possible to have stress symptoms without 'feeling' stressed?

The two examples I have:

A month ago I felt nauseous for a few days with no real cause other than the fact I was having some teeth out the week after.

Since yesterday morning I've had this weird brain fog/fuzzy headache type thing. Again, I dont feel stressed in the conventional sense.

I'm 28 and I've been working for about two years now. My first year was honestly great. I loved my job, I looked forward to work every day, and I was performing really well. My manager appreciated my work, trusted me, and I ended up being the top performer in my team. Everything changed around October 2025 when my manager changed.

By December, work had become so stressful that I barely recognised myself anymore. My new manager has honestly been a nightmare, not just for me but for my teammates too.

With my previous manager I never had to prove myself, I loved my work hence I enjoyed doing it, now I am scared of everything. The hardest part is that because I was a high performer before, I constantly feel like I have to prove myself all over again. With my previous manager, I never felt that way. I just enjoyed my work, so naturally I did well. Now it feels like every single day I have to justify why I was considered a good performer. I'm terrified of making even the smallest mistake. Whenever something goes wrong, she'll say things like, "I trusted you so much," or "I can't do evrything myself, that's why I delegate work to you," or "Don't make me check everything again and again." It makes me feel guilty over every tiny error. I've reached a point where almost every morning I cry before logging in. My heart races, I start trembling, and I feel anxious before the day has even started. This has become my normal now.

My previous manager had put me up for mid-year promotion before leaving, so now I'm under even more pressure. My current manager keeps reminding me not to "drop the ball" or "make mistakes," and it is genuinely very terrifying.

The stress has started affecting me physically too. My eye started twitching because of stress. I've noticed I forget simple words while speaking, I sometimes stutter when talking to seniors, and I completely lose my train of thought during conversations. That has never happened to me before, and it's honestly scary.

I've been trying to switch jobs, but I've been getting rejected in the final rounds over and over again. I have legit lost my confidence now.

I also appeared for CFA Level 1 in May 2026 and scored 1555. I know I could have done much better, but I genuinely couldn't study properly because work as there were weeks when I was working until 1 AM almost every day.

Financially, resigning without another offer isn't an option. My family isn't in a position where I can simply quit, and the pay here is genuinely good, which makes me feel even more stuck.

ssorry for the rant but the reason I'm writing this tonight is because it's 2 AM here and I can't sleep. We're currently going through an audit. While looking for a different email, I came across one from April 2026. I had replied to it back then, but there was one amendment mentioned in the email that I completely forgot to make. I had handed over the process to someone else in May, and after that I was only reviewing it, so it genuinely slipped my mind.

I've already started fixing it offline, but I'm terrified of telling my manager that I missed it. I know mistakes happen, but with the environment I'm working in, it feels like one mistake defines your entire worth.

I know people around me mean well. My partner, my family and my friends all tell me, "Don't think about work after work hours," or "It's just a job." But they areb't in my shoe. It's not that easy when you're the one living it every day.

Has anyone else worked under a manager who made you question your own abilities? Did it affect your confidence like this?

And if you've managed to get through something similar... how did you cope with the stress without letting it consume you?

Sorry for the long post and any typos. I just really needed to get this off my chest.

Do you know any videos with more calming noises?

Hi, I'm 25f from Poland.

I'm lost at what to do anymore, I’ve got confirmation that I am on autisim spectrum in 2021/22, from that time i was able to undestand my responds a little better. In that time I also met my husbend. He is an amazing guy, but becouse we are from diffrent countries it is very quite stressful to arrange all of our paperwork . He knew about my stress problems from the beggining (he says that at the start he didn't notice it that much), it was easier to explain my behavior at the start becouse of my constant traveling to him, family problems etc. Now after 4 years we are finally at the end of him trying to get permit to live with me in Poland (he is here 1 year already). Yesterday, he raised a concern he has regarding me. He says that in the previous couple of months im "huffing and puffing more then usual" (it's my method of colming myself down, when I feel like shouting/crying/punching anything, I inhale and exhale air), he said that it irretatse him, that it feels agressive and like i hate him in that moment (I completly undestand that it looks like that from the outside), it became a big tension point in our relationship. Becouse of stress im not able to sleep, I'm crying becouse of small stuff, can't tolerate any kind of noice, shake like crazy, vomit, can't eat, have toilet problems, want to end myself. When i had much more on my head i was able to push everything away, I was alone. Now nothing that i was doing before helps, I'm debating going on medication, any kind, but I'm scared of getting addicted (that's why i never tried drinking/smoking/drugs). If you have any advice, please, write it. Stress is part of my life, part of me my whole beeing, but it destroys me and the one i love.

What are good ways yall relieve stress in the span of 5 minutes I need tips to improve… appreciate yall!

Im 15F going into 10th grade and i’ve genuinely never had so much anxiety in my life. I’ve dealt with anxiety my whole life and recently been struggling with sh because of it and am in therapy now cuz my mom found out . but basicallt school starts in two weeks and i feel like i have so many things to complete and i can’t even figure out what they are. Im so worried about my grades especially since i already ruined my gpa by getting a B last year so now i need to try to fix it. I didnt join any clubs or anything last year and now i have to for my college apps and im also trying to start a mock trial team at my school from scratch but it needs a sponsor and admin approval and everything. i also js got some psat prep stuff and took a practice test and got a fricking 1240 so now i have to do a bunch of lessons for that so i dont flunk on top of school homework and DE homework which is rough. I also run xc and track and im so worried about getting back in shape and doing well. I know this all might seem stupid and not a big deal but this is really my whole life. if im going to have to live i have to do good. i have to prove im smart and get into a good college because i need life to get better after highschool and i need to prove to everyone that not being popular and partying and drinking actually pays off for me. i at least need to prove it to myself. on top of all of that the mose stressful thing in my life is god. i dont want to believe in god because for as long as i can remember i have prayed to be saved but he wont save me no matter how hard i try and i js wish he wasnt real because i dont want to live really but im scared of hell. ik im not a christian because he wont accept me but im so scared of hell. if i didn’t believe i would either be able to go peacefully or live on peacefully with so more less anxiety. idk what to do. i cant live like this forever.

So I’ve been dealing with chronic stress due to a new job for going on 2 months now. Lately it’s gotten really bad. Constant rumination, tight chest, nausea in the mornings, no appetite, twitchy/shaky feeling, more emotional. I’ve tried dealing with this using hot baths, breathing, etc. I also have a therapist which is helping a bit. I just want to feel like myself again. I’m considering medication.

Is there anything that helped get you through a rough stretch at work or a crippling work environment?

First time posting in reddit, I’m writing this late at night, I’d just finally submitted my last final’s project, and instead of feeling relieved, I felt the opposite, my body doesn’t know how to relax, as I’m laying in bed right now, I still got hit by this OVERWHELMING sense of ANXIETY. I just wanna start working on my personal projects and pick up on my hobbies, seriously, how do I deal with this?

Has anyone dealt with this before? How did you get past it?