mhmmm
I don’t want to scare you, but seriously, do NOT just try to push through the burnout by yourself “until life lets up” and leave it at that - I tried that, and all that happened was a break-down, and afterwards not being able to work, period, for several months. My life back then was not sustainable for my body, and it told me through burnout as a last measure to get me to stop living like that.
In recovery, I’ve also met people who went farther than me (often medication-assisted) and did themselves literal organ damage - one lady had a nearly complete shut-down of the adrenal glands, another had a series of mini-strokes due to elevated blood pressure… it gets bad.
You say there are only two weeks to go, and I wish you the best to get there in one piece. Do try exercising, avoiding screens for two hours before bed, listen to an audiobook to fall asleep, try lavender tea or something, use all the tips.
But please know that afterwards it will not necessarily be over, the exhaustion may stay or come back easily, and you really, really need to reach out to a professional, your GP or psychiatrist and look into treatment options, not just coping options.
Wish you all the best!
Anfang 30, in Ostdeutschland geboren, aufgewachsen und weiter dort (wenn auch anderes Bundesland) - und hab mich nie Ostdeutsch gefühlt, bis ich studieren gegangen bin und das erste Mal wirklich intensiv “Westdeutsche” meines Alters getroffen habe. Da musste ich mir dann eingestehen, dass meine Lebensrealität und was ich für “normal” halte, sehr von der DDR-Vergangenheit der mich erziehenden Generationen (Eltern, Großeltern, Lehrer, Erzieher), der Wende und ihren Nachwehen geprägt waren.
Ich empfehle in diesem Zusammenhang das Buch “Nullerjahre” - die Spezifika sind auf vielen Ebenen anders, aber in dem beschriebenen Lebensgefühl der nächsten Generation nach den Wendekindern hab ich mich sehr wiedergefunden.
Ich sekundiere Duolingo - für den ersten Einstieg, über satzbau bis zu nützlichen Alltagsphrasen ist es ne tolle Art, gamifiziert eine Sprache zu lernen (auch wenn Grammatik oft bisschen kurz kommt.) Gegen bisschen Geld auch ohne Werbung. Und die Töne kann man auch in der App ausmachen, wenn sie nerven!
Auch gut: Bücher lesen, die man schon kennt. Harry Potter mit minimalem Schulenglisch im Original zu lesen hat bei mir echt einen krassen Durchbruch im Sprachgefühl gebracht, und viele implizite Vokabeln, die man sich dann aus dem (schon bekannten) Kontext heraus erschließt.
I was in a very similar position during 2022. It’s a perfect burnout recipe, chronic stressors everywhere and no power to change them. I could feel it building, but was still able to work and the personal stakes were high, so I wanted to make it to the end (which would have been in early 2023). I didn’t. I had a break-down in fall, I couldn’t do anything anymore (no focus, no energy, really bad memory, lots of mistakes at work). I took sick leave and have been in recovery since, and still don’t feel really alright. I have met people who went further than me and have done themselves really bad, and even physical damage doing so - psyche and body feel different, but they are parts of the same organism, and to overtax one is to overtax the other.
In no way was it worth it. I would have chosen differently if I had known what the later stages of burnout felt like.
I really mean it - if it’s in any way feasible and you’ve exhausted other pathways to change inside your role, quit before your body does it for you.
When you feel the burnout building up, you really should not try to stick it out “just until this project is done and I can get some rest”…
Musste bei deinem Post sofort an diese beiden Nudelaufläufe denken, die keinen Käse drüber brauchen und wo man die kleinen Mengen Milch- oder Milchersatzprodukte ziemlich gut ersetzen kann, ohne den Geschmack völlig zu verändern - und die ich persönlich echt richtig lecker finde!
https://www.eat-this.org/pastaauflauf-mit-pilzen-artischocken/
https://www.lecker.de/wilde-nudel-auflauf-74314.html
Ich glaube, ihr findet Möglichkeiten :)
I think it’s not half as interesting as you think it might be…
I had a huge trash bag in my home office from a long ago deep clean of my flat, filled with all kinds of stuff. It was there so long it was basically furniture.
The sticking point was that because of local laws, I had to sort out the recyclable trash and dump it in the special dumpsters before getting rid of the rest. (Also, I knew that before gathering the trash all together like this, but it seemed easier at the time…)
Last week, due to external pressures, I finally managed to lug the bag to the dumpsters and do it. It only took 15 minutes, but it sucked exactly as much as I thought it would - just putting my arms in there searching for paper and recyclable plastics, not even knowing what was in there anymore… thankfully it didn’t smell, but when I accidentally grabbed a very old, unsuffiently packaged positive covid home testing kit, I called it a day, dumped the rest (neighbours be damned) and went home to scrub my hands clean…
0/10, would procrastinate again. :D
This happens to me with surprising regularity… HOWEVER - I recently managed to do a chore after 9 months of procrastination, and while it did only take 15 minutes, those minutes sucked so bad that, for a change, I felt really justified in putting it off as long as I did. So it can go either way, I guess!