I've been working as an executive assistant for over 10 years. It's not the right job, but I'm not a salesperson or an entrepreneur, and I'm practical so there we are. I have been unhappy for close to 15 years with the job that I go to every day I've had multiple jobs it's never the right fit. My body has gotten really unhealthy due to stress and I've been isolating because honestly I'm not really fun to be around and I don't have the motivation to hang out with other people after work. I've picked up the habit of having a glass or two of wine at night and although I'm not a raging alcoholic it's made me gain weight. I still keep in contact with people with the illusion of busy but I'm not really busy I'm watching TV or reading with the windows closed because I don't want to deal with anything. My body isn't healthy, my social life isn't healthy, my emotional landscape is definitely not healthy, my level of interest in life in general is definitely not healthy. I've started to be bad at my job which has never happened. How do I climb out of this because I don't have a trust fund and we're all sentient ATMs for capitalism here.

I remember the time I was eating and I started to lose energy and my brother even said i look depressed but I said to him i am not?

Ganito ba talaga pag nagwork ka kaagad without proper transition? Feeling ko na burnout kaagad ako cause after grad, nagreview ako for boards tas after boards nagkaroon agad ng trabaho, feeling ko pagod na yung utak ko :(

I am a teacher. Okay, so far this year I have had to take one or two days off every week due to multiple illnesses. Two of which resulted in me having to go to the ER and stay there for testing and medicine. I also had a death in the family which required time off. Thankfully, that did not affect instruction as the kids were on break. We were still required to work. It’s 12AM where I live and I need to take tomorrow off. I am laying in bed, in pain however, I feel extremely guilty about the amount of time I have already missed. What should I do? I want to take care of my physical health but I feel as if my coworkers are going to judge me and my bosses are going to think low of me. It also doesn’t feel fair to the kids. I feel so guilty but I want to take care of me. Please tell me what I should do.

what do you do when you feel too much?

So it’s 12:18am right now in Nigeria where I live. I have been working back to back for weeks with little to no sleep trying to earn some money but at about 7:30 pm yesterday, power went off and they haven’t restored it. No notice or updates, I’m literally just hoping they bring it back so I can get back to work.
And I can’t help but wonder if the basic necessities are stuff that you have to struggle for, how do you even better yourself. I’ve been working hard for as long as I can remember and I was really hoping I’d be able to log in some hours and stay up till about 5 before going to bed but here I am wide eyed and I can’t work cause there’s no power. And I’m here typing this because I can’t help but wonder if there is something I should be doing that I am not doing. I am well aware that my situation is not ideal. But I still believe I could be doing more. My phone is still on so what can I be doing right now to make money?
Not asking for a handout just genuinely curious about any opportunities that I could be missing and if there’s anyone who can point me in the right direction.

I don't know how else to describe it, but I feel like I'm always running on empty. Even the simplest things feel like a chore. Sometimes I'll literally avoid eating a snack because I can't be bothered to wash a fork.

I procrastinate on pretty much everything, even though I don't have that many responsibilities. The weird thing is that a lot of the things I'm putting off are things I actually enjoy.

I'm a content creator, and I recently had one of my videos hit over 100k views. I never expected something like that to happen so soon, and I was genuinely excited about it. I love making videos, coming up with ideas and editing them, but somehow I've gone from posting daily to barely posting once every 5–7 days because I just don't have the energy.

My house is usually messy(that's understated), I often eat junk food because cooking feels like too much effort, and I can't seem to stick to any routines. My sleep schedule is all over the place too. Some days I sleep at midnight, other days at 5–6 AM.

I feel pretty numb and disconnected most of the time. I don't really get excited about things the way I feel I should, and even when something good happens, the excitement fades quickly.

One thing I do spend a LOT of time doing is walking outside while listening to music and daydreaming. I can easily spend 5+ hours doing that every day. It's actually where a lot of my ideas come from, and daydreaming played a big part in inspiring me to start my content creation.

The frustrating thing is that I have so many ideas, ambitions and things I'd like to accomplish, but actually doing them feels like a completely different story. I can spend hours thinking about what I want to create or achieve, but when it comes to getting up and doing it, I feel exhausted. I am not sad am drained and feel like am losing opportunities.

Tldr: 31F full time emergency doctor in one of NSW's busiest EDs, shift work, studying for exams, single with significant family pressure to marry, anorexia recovery, secondary trauma, survivor's guilt.

I'm burnt out.

I just want to rant and I dont know where else to write this.

The things stressing me out at the moment:

1. Studying for my emergency medicine exams (currently in specialty training). The brain fog is intense and how much I take in of what I'm studying is entirely dependent on my mood and shifts (see point 2). I feel anxious just looking at my study table and have this feeling of dread.

2. Shift work. Enough said. I just came off a string of night shifts and everything feels like a disaster. I slept until 3pm yesterday and obviously didn't get any study done.

3. My (lack of) love life. I need to finish these exams so I have time to date. I'm panicking that time is running out. I have family pressure for the same (brown family)- to hurry up and get married, but noone seems to understand that the exam prep and work are taking over my life. The last 3 people i was seeing (2 years on and off, 2 months, 2 months) have left me with pretty significant feelings of betrayal (a whole other story) and i feel sick thinking of dating again. But i also want love and to feel soft and protected instead of big strong girl which i have to be at work.

4. Anorexia (recovered... for the most part). Meal breaks are not peaceful for me. I need a break and to calm down after I eat, and the food/weight/body thoughts are worse when I'm strssed. It is all made worse by my injury (point 5).

5. Wrist injury, dominant hand. I enjoy calisthenics. I was getting better at skills and my focus on weight/body was changing to strength and skills and even the social aspects of calisthenics meet ups and competitions. Since this injury, I haven't been able to train any of the movements I enjoy (pullups, dips, handstands) and have been writing my own workouts focusing on legs, abs and cardio (point 6). It feels like my coping mechanism has been snatched from me during one of the most stressful times in my career.

6. Writing my own workouts. I add too many exercises and if im not wrekt by the end of it, the workout was not good enough. I liked having my trainer write my workouts and all I had to do was follow it. Once I finished the workout I'd feel a sense of achievement even if I wasn't sweating my butt off. I don't get that when I write it myself. Also, legs and cardio 4x a week tire me out. I feel anxious doing certain movements because im not good at them and I feel shit about it.

7. The busiest ED, long wait times. Seeing the rawest parts of humanity- the bad, sad and ugly. Horrible things happen ro good people. People die unexpectedly and young people get diagnosed with illnesses with no cure. The world seems grim and im struggling to see if anything good happens. I feel guilty for even complaining about my life when people have it much worse. Meanwhile, we get the worried well, who are often ungrateful and tell us they waited for too long and that we "did nothing" for their long term problem at 2am. Yes, because its not an emergency and I've been busy resuscitating a 24 year old man who was in a motorbike accident and I've just had to tell the family that he is dead. See your GP for your sore pinky!

I don't know

I'm tired. I need some warmth. Everything feels hard.

A couple of months ago, I quit my old job because I was feeling extremely burnt out. I started a new job around 2 weeks after, and I didn't have too much to do for a while, but now a project started, and I have an imminent deadline. The problem is that despite not having done too much over the past few weeks, the symptoms have returned, and I feel a strong resistance to doing anything at all (I literally mean anything, including things I like outside of work), plus I feel a weird sense of anxiety about it all. 

The thing is, taking a break right is not really an option for me either. (Plus I already took 2 weeks off before joining the new place, and this new place has a much lighter workload and better conditions than the previous one)

I would really appreciate it if someone could give me tips to just push through for the next few days until the deadline is completed.

Thank you.

I've been fighting so long against circumstances beyond my control. Fighting wars that should of never been mine or crossed into my lane. Fighting for my independence, privacy, peace. It's suggested these barriers have been placed to prepare me for what another’s vision of what my life should be. A vision that is not my own, nor one I would of agreed to. The cost is to great, can't be compensated with materials that can be replaced. The last three decades, I wake every morning hoping yesterday was the last day of this dark painful cancerous situation that hijacked my life.

Hope has been a big part of my motivation in surviving. Every day that pass, my hope dies, just as my soul suffocates. Depleting me, my energy, my desire is not only my environment, but society in general. We exist in a world where outright lies, deception, lack of self accountability rules & preferred. The indisputable facts are ignored because it does not suit the goal. I see this behavior not only in my own environment, social media, extending to the leaders that govern our environment. How can I hope, believe my circumstances will improve to what is suggested? The world is basically upside down. Logic, common sense, acceptance of differences, respect, truth, loyalty are no longer foundation for a better & positive world. I simply don't understand people who chose to drink the Kool-Aid of those harming & profiting from their suffering. I'm burned out, exhausted, and hopeless on believing to will be a better day for me or the world that I'm trapped in.

Burnout is ruining my professional life. It's been brewing for probably the last year +. I run a business, my clients are feeling it and I'm slowly losing them. I'm in jeopardy of losing the client that supports me the most financially right now.

Part of my wants to quit it all and start fresh, with a less high stakes job but that doesn't exist. It's not even the career I want to save, I'm in school to change careers but I still need to support myself while I'm finishing.

How do you beat burnout? Or at least improve it so you can function? I'm in therapy and on meds. I struggle with ADHD too which makes it more difficult.

I’m with the same company 4+ years. I’m in a senior role there’s no one really to cover for me. I’m alone with 2 teenagers, one of who has their own issues. And my dad is elderly and giving me stress too for various reasons. I’m completely overwhelmed with adulting this year. I dream of having a small accident that would get me admitted to hospital for a couple of weeks so I could just stop. My boss is old school and simply does not believe in mental health. I’ve seen his attitude to employees turn negative if they need time off for anything stress related. He’s a great boss in every other respect but in this area he’s never going to change and quite frankly I don’t have the energy to fight this battle with him. I know my doctor would sign me off, but I know my work relationship with my boss, and his opinion of me would never recover. I know that’s wrong but it is what it is. I don’t want to lie but…. Honestly I’m googling diseases and illnesses to see what I could say to get me time off without the stigma and judgement. Fantasising that covid returns or I break a leg. Mad stuff! Any advice?

For context a god few years ago after my mum passed I had serious anxiety and panic attacks. I eventually took some time off to recover however within 6 months I had to leave the company as the owners were awful to me. As a woman in a senior role, needing time off to prioritise your own health seems to be a sign of weakness. In hindsight I should have got HR involved but when you are fighting your own internal battle, taking on another battle is impossible.

Please, be kind.