I was only able to stream for an hour before I had to stop.
Now I solidly can’t enjoy anything. What do I do?
The first thing is to know your limits. I personally wouldn’t be able to handle streaming for an hour (I’m assuming you have a webcam and are juggling playing the game and interacting with chat) without spending the rest of the day recuperating. There’s also nothing wrong with just relaxing. And I don’t mean something like watching Netflix or eating comfort food, but I mean literally just laying down and relaxing. You are not factory equipment. You are a human with limits. You are allowed to have downtime. You are allowed to be in idle mode. You are allowed to relax.
I’ve always struggled with that. Whenever I allow my mind to idle, I start thinking about random stuff, and inevitably my childhood trauma comes up. Then I enter a downspiral that’s hard for me to escape.
I think you’re falling into the trap of doing things for the sake of doing things because you can’t be alone with your thoughts, but most people can’t continue doing things without rest eventually, so you can’t keep on doing things for the sake of doing things but have to eventually stop which forces you to be alone with your thoughts.
But I think you already know this. Sorry for not being more helpful.
I haven’t figured it out yet but I have been given two tips that I intend to try on some upcoming time off:
- Continually ask yourself: how could I be even cozier?
- If you are feeling tired, you are doing a good job.
I think the important context about the tired comment is that my issue is that my nervous system is constantly in flight/flight/freeze and I feel like I’m vibrating all the time. If your burnout is making you exhausted, that might not be helpful.
Yeah, I’ve got the “too exhausted to continue” kind of burnout
safe foods, an airfryer, cornrows (black people only obvi, walking.
I only ever eat safe foods and already have an air fryer, I’m pasty, and can’t bear weight on my right ankle :/
Something that has helped me recently but only because I was able to, was to only work for a few hours and just take the rest of the day off to do some chores or watch a movie or whatever, not necessarily a hobby. Spreading out my bursts of web dev stuff not only made me a bit more productive on that end but helped out a lot with my mental health. The downside is I wasn’t getting paid.
I have a big kid job again so I’m trying to balance that with the web dev and also avoid burnout and it’s tricky. I told my boss I only want to work 3 days a week so I hope that works out.
I’m struggling to make myself do things that I thought I wanted to do. It’s frustrating.
I feel this to the core, honestly. I was super late diagnosed and didn’t realize I was even going through extreme burnout for several fucking years until I started reading a bit more on neurodivergence and especially autism. The thing I hate most about it is that I don’t want to do anything at all and even hobbies feel like chores. I feel like I’m wasting what little free time I have because I end up just doom scrolling instead of playing games or reading.
Try not to beat yourself up over it. Maybe try to identify where the burnout is coming from and see what you can do about adjusting it. If it’s work(probably is) then that will be tough. Personally I never took days off unless I absolutely had to but mental health days are good. If you go that route don’t do chores on those days. You end up wasting your “You” time.
I rely on my spouse for income and chores are something I unfortunately don’t have the dopamine for. Even “fun” things are difficult to make myself do.
