ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-06-24 03:53 pm
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-06-24 03:53 pm
Entry tags:
Burnout
You Might Not Recover from Burnout. Ever.
Hea has been unemployed for a little over two years, and she can’t see that ending anytime soon. Her burnout has been catastrophic — and so far, bottomless.
“I went on short-term disability at first, for my mental health, but after that ran out I used up all of my sick days. Then I applied for a longer medical leave, which shockingly, I got for a little while,” she explains. “I was luckier than most people, who don’t get any paid time off. But then they mysteriously eliminated my position. I’ve been floundering ever since.”
Acute burnout is like other acute things. It happens because of intense pressure over a medium period, usually weeks to months. If the pressure then eases up, most people can recover after rest.
Chronic burnout is like other chronic things. It happens because of overwork for months or years, usually coupled with a critical shortage of resources and lack of support that make it impossible to compensate for the stress. This often causes crippling injury, part or all of which is permanent.
With regards to the length of recovery, think of burnout like debt. If you use tomorrow's energy today, you'll be flattened for the next several days, but you can recover. The more you borrow, though, the longer the recovery -- it's usually 2-4 times what you spent. Borrow a day, you're fine within a week. Trudge through finals, you should be recovered by the end of summer. But if you spend years overexerting yourself, then your recovery will likely take more years. There are ways to boost the process a little if you have people to take care of you and a pleasant place to soak up energy, but most people don't have that.
Local-America is bad at handling this kind of thing. People think a lot of things are temporary that, if you don't heed the warnings, become permanent. Take kidney injury. If you say out of the heat, drink water, and make regular bathroom stops then you should be safe. If your car breaks down and you injure your kidneys by overheating while walking back to town, that's probably fixable. But if your construction boss makes you work in the heat with not enough water or bathroom breaks, that can kill you -- and if it doesn't kill you, is still likely to cripple or kill your kidneys. That's happening more and more often with climate change.
America has been wringing more and more effort out of workers, for less compensation, with the unsurprising result that eventually people break under the pressure and wind up disabled. So when talking about burnout, check whether it is acute or chronic. Acute burnout should be treated as an emergency: stop exerting effort on other things and reroute all energy to recovery in hopes that it can still be healed. Chronic burnout is a disability, so you have to stop expecting things from them, because society has used up their capacity to do things. Try to treat yourself and others with compassion in these cases. Giving your all has a cost.
Hea has been unemployed for a little over two years, and she can’t see that ending anytime soon. Her burnout has been catastrophic — and so far, bottomless.
“I went on short-term disability at first, for my mental health, but after that ran out I used up all of my sick days. Then I applied for a longer medical leave, which shockingly, I got for a little while,” she explains. “I was luckier than most people, who don’t get any paid time off. But then they mysteriously eliminated my position. I’ve been floundering ever since.”
Acute burnout is like other acute things. It happens because of intense pressure over a medium period, usually weeks to months. If the pressure then eases up, most people can recover after rest.
Chronic burnout is like other chronic things. It happens because of overwork for months or years, usually coupled with a critical shortage of resources and lack of support that make it impossible to compensate for the stress. This often causes crippling injury, part or all of which is permanent.
With regards to the length of recovery, think of burnout like debt. If you use tomorrow's energy today, you'll be flattened for the next several days, but you can recover. The more you borrow, though, the longer the recovery -- it's usually 2-4 times what you spent. Borrow a day, you're fine within a week. Trudge through finals, you should be recovered by the end of summer. But if you spend years overexerting yourself, then your recovery will likely take more years. There are ways to boost the process a little if you have people to take care of you and a pleasant place to soak up energy, but most people don't have that.
Local-America is bad at handling this kind of thing. People think a lot of things are temporary that, if you don't heed the warnings, become permanent. Take kidney injury. If you say out of the heat, drink water, and make regular bathroom stops then you should be safe. If your car breaks down and you injure your kidneys by overheating while walking back to town, that's probably fixable. But if your construction boss makes you work in the heat with not enough water or bathroom breaks, that can kill you -- and if it doesn't kill you, is still likely to cripple or kill your kidneys. That's happening more and more often with climate change.
America has been wringing more and more effort out of workers, for less compensation, with the unsurprising result that eventually people break under the pressure and wind up disabled. So when talking about burnout, check whether it is acute or chronic. Acute burnout should be treated as an emergency: stop exerting effort on other things and reroute all energy to recovery in hopes that it can still be healed. Chronic burnout is a disability, so you have to stop expecting things from them, because society has used up their capacity to do things. Try to treat yourself and others with compassion in these cases. Giving your all has a cost.