I’ve been finding myself struggling with insane levels of burnout over the past few weeks and was wondering how others navigate it. I used to feel similar burnout as a child/teen and just withdraw for months or at one point years at a time with minimal socialization or just let hyperfocus consume me and get absorbed into a singular hobby often at the detriment of other things. When both of those don’t work I would just set myself up to be overwhelmed with an impossible stack of tasks to induce anxiety as a driver. The first two I feel I can’t do anymore due to being a lot more disastrous in adult life and also antithetical to what my current goals are.

I recently finished a master’s program and around when that high ended I noticed the burnout creep in. I am trying to set other goals such as organizing a local chapter of the org I joined but all of my current goals are hinged on other people and their pace which I don’t want to rush but I feel this soul-deep exhaustion creeping in that I know tends to suck me into listless and lethargy. I can’t fully rest, but can’t charge forward to maintain the runner’s high anymore either and it’s driving me a bit nutty.