Signals I Experienced During Burnout (and the Recovery Process)
Around this time last year, I was completely burned out and took three months off. I'm writing down the signals I felt back then, in case anyone going through something similar right now finds it helpful.
At first, I just thought I was tired. But even after sleeping 12 hours on the weekend, I wasn't refreshed, and I didn't even want to turn on games I usually enjoyed. That's when I thought, "Ah, this is different."
Then I became strangely sensitive. Even one minor code review comment would put me in a bad mood all day, and just seeing a meeting invite made my heart race. Looking back, my body was sending signals first.
Recovery was slower than I expected. I thought one month off would fix it, but even in the second month I wasn't much better, and only after about three months did I gradually start to come back. The thing that helped most was doing absolutely nothing at all.
In the end, the biggest lesson was "It's better to stop in advance." Don't ignore the signals your body sends.
8 answers
Agreed—the fact that even 12 hours of sleep on the weekend doesn't leave you refreshed is truly decisive. I felt that too back then and went to the hospital.
Well, that's a bit... Couldn't it have been early-stage depression rather than just burnout? It seems risky to make a definitive call based on a self-assessment. There's also the question of how many workplaces can even allow three months off. The case is too personal to generalize that rest is the answer.
I thought I was the only one whose heart starts racing just at the sight of a meeting invite... I'm at exactly that stage right now, so I saved this post
Got a source? Where does this "it gets better in a month" thing even come from? If it's just personal experience, then just say it's personal experience.
Doing absolutely nothing <- that's the real key here. Even when I was resting, the obsession with "having to rest" actually made it harder for me. Just lying down and zoning out was the best medicine
I had a similar experience, but recovery speed varies from person to person. It took me 6 months. Like the poster said, stopping early really seems important. The signals your body sends never lie.