Thread by @eplerjc

If you’re describing burnout as something that can be fixed with a vacation, that’s not burnout.

Burnout lasts months (or years, or forever) and fundamentally affects your ability to deal with life.

And the thing is, you can still function while burnt out.

Because you have to. You develop coping strategies, you work around the parts of you that are broken.

But that doesn’t mean you’re okay. It just means you’ve found a way to pretend you are.

Anyways. Real talk, I’ve been burnt out for a few years now. I find it hard to do things I enjoy. I retreat to familiarity.

The past year and a half has not made it easier.

I’m still a great dad, and I do my job well. But outside of those things? I just sort of exist.

Appreciate all the responses.

A couple of things:

'You're depressed' True, I -also- have depression and anxiety.

'You're gatekeeping burnout' Not my intention. This was in response to people (w/o burnout) saying 'burnout's nothing' and saying it could be cured with time off.

And - I am getting better. It's a slow process. But I have a lot of amazing people in my life who help.

Part of why I'm being so open - I want to destigmatize this. Burnout sucks and I want people to feel like they can be honest about it.

Anyways. This shit's hard. You should never feel bad if you're not doing so great.

Mental health is a process. Just like you can't get fit once and then never exercise again, you need to keep working at it.

Take care of yourself and be kind to yourself.

Muting this thread now, but a couple of things -

People asking me ‘how do you fix it?’ Wish I knew. But it’s a long process. Therapy has helped me.

People assuming I’m gatekeeping burnout - again, not my intention, and I apologize for it sounding like that.

But if you hop into a thread about mental health, assume the worst, and then start berating someone; you might be an asshole.

Anyways. I hope everyone this resonated with treats themselves kindly, and is able to start down the road to recovery.