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I get quite a lot of emails and messages from people who read my articles on gistinger.com , which I really enjoy! Most emails are about my and your burnout and the topic that regularly comes up is: “I don’t seem to be making any progress” “My recovery is going so slowly”. So then I thought, let me dedicate an article to this.
Because believe me, I know the feeling! You are having a burnout, which is really disappointing, so what do you want most? Get better as quickly as possible, be yourself again instead of the pile of misery you are now. For example, I did a lot of Googling and visited forums (there were no Facebook groups back then) because I was so curious about how long this misery would last.
Also read: My Journey to Recovery: How I Ultimately Overcame Burnout
What can and do other people? How long were others in there? How quickly did other people go back to work? And 9 times out of 10 I felt very disappointed, because I read: “I am now slowly integrating again after 2 months”, “I went on holiday and that did me so much good” or “After 3 months I was myself again.”
Well, after 3 months I still didn’t dare go shopping , after a few months I went on holiday to Bali and that was impossible, way too hard! And integrate, forget it! I couldn’t even read a book because those nerves coursing through my body made it impossible to read even a page.
How disappointed I was in myself, in my process and in my recovery. Because I felt like everyone was making progress except me. Until I stopped comparing myself to all those other people and started comparing myself to myself. Because where I didn’t even dare to go outside six months ago, I could now even go for a run through the park, where a year ago I still lay awake at night, I now regularly had quite good nights and where a while ago I still woke up every day during the day. had to sleep, I can now get through the entire day without falling asleep in the afternoon completely exhausted.
Now, almost 4 years later, I still have these moments. Because I can now go on a press trip without having to recover for a month(!). I can now occasionally visit someone in the evening during the week and have a cup of tea. I can go out with friends again without having to recover for 2 weeks. Things I really couldn’t do a year ago!
Also read: Overcoming Burnout: How to Rebuild Confidence in Your Recovery Journey
If you compare yourself with yourself, you will see that you are indeed taking steps! Small steps and big steps, sometimes 8 steps forward and 7 back, but then you have taken that one step forward. So please stop comparing yourself to other people. People who seem to have everything together, people who are in a relationship, people who have a good career or people who have already recovered from their burnout. Because the only person you should compare yourself to is yourself and then you will see that you can be very proud of yourself, because you are a lot further than you were!
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