Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all,
It's over a year now since I suffered a major burnout leading to long term sick, and since I've returned to work I've been taking care of myself by not travelling and really carefully managing my sensory environment & keeping away from hubbub (lots of conversations etc.). My self care has worked really well, and I've feel that I've discovered "normal, healthy" levels of stress for the first time in my working life (healthy levels of stress for *me*, at least).
Now that I'm looking like I've recovered from burnout and I'm starting performing at 95% again, I can feel myself coming under pressure to start attending meetings in person again and travelling again. Before my burnout I was flying into Europe alone maybe every month and just feeling important rather than stressed. Now I'm very wary about returning to what everyone else will see as normal.
I don't know what I'm asking others here for - maybe just sympathy & to tell me that yes, I need to look after myself and not put myself under pressure.
By the way, one of the things I'm *really* mindful of is giving an inch and being expected to do a mile.............
I used to be a complete model employee. Always on time, hard working, honest,no slacking. I became more and more tired and ended up having no energy whatsoever. Before that I also started to get ill every 4-6 weeks. Then when I was unemployed and had to find a new job, I got panic attacks. In my last job which was a temp job, I had to go to the ladies room and cry because I was so exhausted.
Long story short, I went to my doctor and asked if I had work-phobia? I explained why and was send for therapy. The therapy did nothing at all and my last sentence on the feedback was that I still worry because of the incredible tiredness at work.
I was then diagnosed with CFS [Chronic Fatigue Syndrome]. It made sense and I thought I had found what was wrong with me. I haven't been able to work since as every little bit of stress or actual physical work makes me so very tired.
However since being pre-diagnosed with High Functioning Autism, I wonder if these two things are related. I just can't take stress at all. I used to fall ill right after deadlines with flu like symptoms.
What if I burned myself out by trying to do too much at work. By trying to be too good at work. I worked for a few decades as I was only diagnosed recently at 50.
Is there a known link between CFS and Autism? Maybe we take things too literal and stress ourselves far more than others, which could lead to the burn-out or 'Yuppie flu' as it was known in the 80s. I know I couldn't handle many work environments any more nowadays.
You make some very salient points, and I can identify with a lot of this.
It's got me wondering now, on the cusp of 60 and with over 40 years of work behind me, whether I'm actually at burnout point. I start a new job (last week) and by day three, I'm going sick. I've always been a model employee, too - always done a good job, been meticulous and conscientious, never been late, etc. But the last 10 years have seen so many ups and downs, so many periods of sick leave following breakdowns or anxiety attacks. And then, in 2015, I got my diagnosis. In many ways, I can use that to understand where I currently am. I'm feeling like I want to work, but I'm feeling much less capable of dealing with many work environments.
My new job, I can now see, isn't going to work out for me - in spite of its being term-time only, so long and regular holidays. The one I'm going for on Friday is the one place that I've worked over the last ten years where I felt reasonably content and happy. I'm banking on that. But if I get it, and some way down the line it goes wrong... then I'm regarding that as my swan song in employment.