Burnout: any tips?

Thirith

Having had an emotionally extremely exhausting last two months, I've been feeling lately that my batteries are completely drained and that I was simply not able to work the way I'm supposed to, with a number of psychological and physical symptoms. I've now been to see a doctor; he's labelled the muddle of symptoms a burnout and he's written me off sick for the next three weeks.

I'll definitely not be stealth-working from home; instead, I'm hoping to rest, recuperate, go on walks, catch up on reading, meet up with friends for coffee if/when I feel like it, and generally try not to stress myself with avoidable responsibilities. I was wondering, though, if any of you have any experiences with this and if you have any observations or tips that may be of help. (I have a history of depressions, so I've got some mechanisms of dealing with psychological and neurochemical issues, but anything useful along the lines of "Seven sure-fire ways of dealing with a burnout! (Number 3 made me cry into my beard a little!" - well, okay, not exactly along *those* lines - would be much welcome.)

Thanks!

Darkewolfe

I don't know about what a doctor would call "burn out," but if it's just a term for stress mixed with depression, maintain a reasonably productive schedule with plenty of physical activity and healthy eating should be on top of your list.

Work out a little in the mornings, take the time to cook good meals (avoid the urge to tell yourself that your stress means you can just order takeout the whole time), and try to avoid sitting in the dark playing video games and sleeping in TOO much.

Find a fun project that won't turn into a stressful deadline, but which you will enjoy doing.

Basically, be productive, but at a relaxed place where if you really want to do something not on the schedule, you absolutely can.

Thirith

I'd expect it's probably this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_(psychology)

Though my impression is also that it may be more of a commonly used term in the German-speaking world.

Your suggestions definitely sound good, and I've got some ideas. Actually, my main project for now is getting to a point where I don't feel too drained to write a blog post. Sounds like a small thing, but seeing how I haven't written a single useable thing in ~two months it's a lot already.

schuss

Get a mentally and physically stimulating hobby and focus on being happy. It took a while to unwind being burned out for me, but rock climbing helped a lot. You want something that forces you to focus on it and pushes other thoughts out, like climbing, mountain biking, skiing etc. As you need to get the junk pushed out.