“Hee-hee-hee-hee, wipeout!”
Work has been getting on top of me over the last six months. Then I had a passle of family miseries and an unrelated health scare. Last weekend, I had a proper old crack-up with a full-on episode of depersonalisation. This wasn’t honestly so bad for me, because the emotional deadening component of the depersonalisation kept everything quite comfortably numb, but it was pretty upsetting for Lottie and for my kid.
Anyway, I’ve been here before a couple of times, although this has been a nasty one, and I’ll be fine in a bit. But if you’ve noticed the technical updates have been slow for the last few months, this is why. I think it’s my old friend burnout rather than anything more fundamental, and ‘reduced professional efficacy’ is one of the textbook burnout things.
So it does mean BOOK OF HOURS will slip a bit while I take a breather. I’ve suggested a two-week holiday, Lottie’s holding out for me taking a full month. UPDATE: Lottie has proposed ‘two weeks if you also see a therapist.’ She’s probably right.
The PSA bit. Burnout has a specific meaning, although it’s classed as an ‘occupational phenomenon’ and not a medical condition. If you’re feeling exhausted, cynical and disengaged from work, have a read of this and see if it sounds familiar. What with every day in the pandemic being like the last, what with it being difficult to feel like one’s work has any value when so much of the world is in suspended animation – there’s been a lot of burnout about, recently. The good news is it’s pretty fixable.
https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/burnout/art-20046642
Have, as they say, a spooky day.
– AK
Hope you will both get to a better place and take all the time you need – it’s been a rough year for sure!
I wish you a quick recovery, and not just because i’m really looking forward to your next game !
When pressure from work, family, health troubles was threatening to overwhelm me, diving into a game of cultist simulator for most of the night was a very efficient way to clear my head and recover my sanity, so many thanks for that.