For me, i had a bunch of signals that I was ignoring for a couple of months.
- Could not sleep well at all. Woke up many times in the middle of the night, my mind was always thinking about work. I lay in bed, heart pounding really fast.
- Loss of appetite. My breakfast would be a cup of coffee and 1 or 2 cigarettes. Could not eat at all in the morning.
- Starting to feel pain on my chest, near the heart, during the day. Hands shaking, confusing speech.
One day, I was at my desk, speaking on the phone with a work colleague. On my side, there was another colleague also speaking to me. I started to see everything blur. I tried to speak but I couldn't. Started to feel a huge pain in the chest. I remember putting my hand against my heart and then passed out.
- When I recovered my senses (a couple of seconds later), I couldn't feel my legs, I was shaking, and couldn't speak. It was terrifying. I really though I was having some sort of heart attack.
In the end, was a really bad burnout, stress, altogether.
I'm still doing my job (sysadmin), but I don't know how long will I be able to stand this.
2 weeks off can go an awfully long way to both seeing the problem more clearly, and correcting it. I've gotten to the point, several times, where I was ready to quit my job and tour the world with a backpack rather than go in for one more day. In each case, I opted for a short leave of absence instead, telling myself that I could quit for real if I needed to after that. In each case, 3-4 weeks vacation was more than enough to satisfy me.
If you are stuck with the idea that you're about to burn out in the first place, that's a pretty clear indication that you have a problem. No need to second-guess those kinds of thoughts.
Yes, that's right.
Lack of sleep, poor eating. All mixed up with a lot of overnight work during a chaotic migration project.
The day before that happened I had a sign that I should have taken seriously.
I arrived at home, opened the front door, and felt on the floor. I had no strength at all in my legs. I started to cry without any apparent reason. Could not control myself and that never happened to me before.
Were you consuming large amounts of caffeine at the time? I'm wondering if there isn't a common dietary component of burn outs since it probably takes quite a bit of energy to work very long hours. (e.g. High calorie [processed] food, caffeine/other stimulants)
You are right.
I was consuming large amounts of caffeine. Usually 4 to 5 espressos per day, 0.5L of filter coffee, plus large amounts of beer on Friday and Saturday nights.
At that time, I was in a gym, 3 to 4 times per week. I was told, by the doctor, that it would help me to clear my mind from work.
Regarding medication, I was consuming some vitamins.
That's why you should sleep at your desk if you are tired; it is much healthier than getting sick and fainting. Plus; you can wake up if anyone makes enough noise and quickly get back to pretending you are working.
Sounds so much like what's happening to me here, yet how to distinguish between the "real thing" and confirmation bias?