It’s been almost a year since my last update and there are a lot of reasons for that. The primary being I almost burnt myself out last year. And I changed jobs. And got covid. And stuff in the family.
But first thing first – how I almost burnt myself out from stress last year.
I pride myself in being efficient and optimising everything I do. This is required at work but when you start optimising how to empty the dishwasher it takes on a whole new level. And a few years ago my lovely wife almost got burnt out at her work, so we both try to be observant for one another when it comes to stress levels. And she’s told me that ever since we moved to our new house my stress levels have gone up and my mood gone down. Stupid male as I am I didn’t listen to her. But after 2 years of uncertainty at work thanks to a bankruptcy and covid, taking on extra on call duty to make more money, a year of panic attacks over my and my sons health (we’re fine!) and the life during the pandemic which cause agoraphobia, as well as a member of the family being very, very ill, after last summer I found myself in a meeting at work that I had organised and 10 minutes in I forgot where I was and what I was doing. My body had had enough. I had a meltdown in my head and took the rest of the week off. After trying to work 2 days the following week my body said “stop it” and I took 5 weeks off to get myself together. I sought medical help and met a psychologist for a few sessions and got a lot of help from my wife and eventually I made it back to work. But during this time I was also transitioning to a new job I managed to get and fortunately for me that job doesn’t require 24/7 on call duty and I’m starting fresh with no baggage or expectations of being a miracle worker which I had put on myself at my old work. So I’m going to set expectations low for myself at the new place but fortunately I won’t have to worry about us going out of business because of covid, heatwaves, airport chaos or any of the other things you have very little control over!
So to sum it up – I almost hit a brick wall but fortunately I had the help and means to stop it in time and I’m very grateful for my family and friends helping out because it would have ended very badly. And I have a newfound respect for mental health!
And my advice it simply – listen to your body. It will tell you way before it gets this far. I didn’t. And take things slowly. Go for a walk in a nature. Put your fork down between bites. Don’t try to get as much done as possible. Put your mobile away.
stoff
You must be logged in to post a comment.