Couple of years ago I had a fairly long - but probably not long enough - sick leave due to burnout. Yeah, I know. Burnout still isn’t a reckognized diagnosis, but that’s what I call it when energy level is zero, productivity is close to zero, ability to handle situations which one hasn’t prepared for is zero, social life is zero because it’s too exhausting to even relate to friends and coworkers, you drink too much and it’s all been steadily declining for months (even years). I ended up in the ER one evening because I felt dizzy, nauseous, I had chest pain and a systolic blood pressure above 180 (the paramedic checked thrice before accepting the measurement). Yes, I was seriously afraid I was having a heart attack. I went on sick leave for a month followed by a half-year graduated sick leave before I was back nominally in a full position. I still haven’t recovered fully, although I can work close to full capacity on good days.
Today is a bad day. Yesterday was a bad day. My muscles ache as if there’s a flu coming, energy level is just high enough for me to sit in the sofa instead of lying in the bed.
I’m seriously pissed off right now. Pissed off at the situation. Pissed off at our medical system which doesn’t reckognize burnout as a diagnosis and enforces a policy of “getting the patient back at work as quickly as possible”, and pissed off at my doctor who bent over backwards to that policy instead of giving me a long sick leave and time to recover better before being sent back to work.
Jesus flying fucking Christ on a pogo stick! I’m fed up!
I’ve been sick for more than a week now, so I haven’t been out and about much. I realized that my vitamin D level is probably at a drastically low level, so I went out and soaked up some sun. Maybe that would help, even a little bit? I hope you feel better.
Did your doctor suggest any medications to help you get through this?
I’ve noticed that if I ever get severely burned out on something I can never go back no matter how long a break I have. Things might improve for a while but eventually I just get burned out quicker each time. I’ve decided that being burned out is a symptom of needing a big change in my life. You need something to look forward to: a hobby, a night class towards a new career, anything.
No. I didn’t expect any either, and frankly, I’d need some good arguments to accept medication. If you’ve overexerted yourself, you need rest, not medication.
Well, that’s sorta the problem. I have the job I always wanted (at least since college) and still like. I just don’t have the energy to do it as well as I’d like to. And I’ve got a couple of hobbies already, I just lack the energy to pursue them.
Are you sure it’s burn out and not some difficult to diagnose medical problem? Have you been tested for things like Lyme disease, celiac disease, food intolerances or anything else? You don’t sound like you have the type of life that would cause burn out in a healthy person.
I know a few people with your symptoms who eventually find out they have a medical problem.
No. And frankly since I consider “medical science” to be a contradiction in terms almost on the level with “military intelligence”, I don’t expect to be sure either. Ever. But similar symptoms some years ago, helped by rest then, is an indication that it’s some kind of overexertion. Especially since that time, I was seriously working too much and engaging myself too much.
But, good points. I’ll take them up with my doctor at a suitable occasion. Thanks.
There’s another term for burnout that doctors accept more readily, and that’s depression. It’s not just ‘feeling blue’ emotionally, it can have a lot of physical symptoms. (There’s a stereotype that depression is more likely to display itself this way in men.) And ‘not being able to handle situations I haven’t prepared for’ and ‘exhausting to interact with friends’ sounds like pretty classic depression symptoms to me. I’m not a doctor and this is not a diagnosis, just another avenue to consider.
My point of anecdata is that my husband’s chronic fatigue syndrome got 95% better when he went to a gluten free diet. You say you’re not big on the medical community, but allergy/intolerance tests can be pretty reliable. It might be worth pushing to get that done.
Some good points FlyByNight512. You would think a doctor would have suggested depression. My sister has celiac disease and it took years to diagnose but she had many fatigue and body ache symptoms. She also has some immune reaction to dairy, I don’t know what it’s called, but same thing different food.
For most people if they’re only tired then rest will help, a month off then slowly resuming full activity should be enough rest. If they’re burned out, physically and mentally exhausted, then no amount of rest is a long term solution until they figure out what in life is too much for them to handle. If nothing helps, combined with aches and pains, then something is probably wrong.
About four years ago I started having very similar symptoms to what you’re experiencing. I was tired, achy, my joints hurt and it became a struggle to go to work every day. Some days I couldn’t even get out of bed. Well, it turned out, after almost two years of this miserableness, that I have celiac disease and a dairy allergy (to the protein casein.) Within months of cutting those things out of my diet I was 100% back to normal.
This little anecdote is just a longer way of saying: You might want to meet with your doctor (or lots of doctors! I probably saw a dozen doctors before everything was sorted out) to discuss possible medical issues that might be making you feel this way.
You say you’re not taking medication for the “burnout”. But you also mention high blood pressure. Are you taking medication for that?
The reason I ask is because I was taking a common medication for high blood pressure and I always felt tired and numb. I didn’t associate the two until my prescription happened to run out and I stop taking my medication for a few days. Around the third day I realized it was the first time I felt fully awake in over a year.
So I talked to my doctor and he switched me to a different medication.
Behavioral changes can really help. I wager if you quit drinking, and managed to summon up the motivation to begin exercising, you’d start feeling better almost immediately. It does also sound to me that there might be underlying issues around depression/anxiety, but I can’t tell from way over here…hope you start finding a way to turn it around soon - hang in.
Thanks for the sympathy. The doctor took a bunch of tests, but at that time I wasn’t capable to control which tests he took. I have a bit of trust in his medical abilities, so I think he checked for the obvious infections and stuff.
PandaBear77 & Truman Burbank: I drink less now than I did when I ended up on sick leave, at that time it felt necessary to enable me to wind down at all at night and avoid lying in the bed, not bing able to sleep b/c of a racing heart. It’s still a little bit more than I’m really comfortable with, but probably within the “normal” range. I’m working on reducing it even more, though.
Little Nemo: Yes, I’m on hypertension drugs now. BP is down from 160-170/100 to 130-140/80, and I feel better.
Truman Burbank: I’m already working on the excercise thing. I’ve lost >10kg and am able to go for a day’s hike now. I totally agree, though, physical exercise is a Good Thing™.
Generally, the situation isn’t alarming anymore (IMO). As I said, I have days now where I can be social and work almost up to standards. And the suicide thoughts have disappeared. I’ve been told that it generally takes as much time to recover from a burnout as you used for the decline, and looking back I realize that I had been declining for quite a few years. It’s just those bad days which I’ve really had enough of. Thus, the whining :rolleyes: