Thinking hard makes the brain tired

Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by bigDinosaur on Sunday April 02, 2023 @10:24AM (#35410782)

It took me a year to recover from burnout. Don't underestimate the recovery phase. I was at the point where any cognitive effort caused very similar effects to what you would describe, kind of like the mental equivalent of having lifted weights to failure but with an instantaneous onset. I suspect every case is unique, but I'd suggest thinking very carefully about how you can take an extended break from work.

The key distinguishing what I felt with burnout from just being mentally tired is that no problem, no matter how hard it was to solve (or even if I failed miserably at solving it) has ever caused me to instanteously feel 100% mentally exhausted. By contrast, when burnt out, even fairly trivial work tasks would trigger this.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by Trasmatta on Sunday April 02, 2023 @10:33AM (#35410876)

I would love to take an extended break, but unfortunately it's not really possible at the moment... I'm living in a VHCOL city, and have an expensive chronic disease as well that means I can't really afford extended time off. I don't have any family members that I could fall back on either.

So in the meantime, I'm kind of just putting in the minimal effort at work, not doing any side projects, and going on lots of really really long walks. That seems to be slowly helping.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by kodah on Sunday April 02, 2023 @12:42PM (#35412439)

fwiw, I'm in the same boat. My parents are retired, though still here. The strategy you mentioned worked for me, although it takes longer. A year instead of six months.

I have read more about being able to use short and long term disability, which might help, or be a viable part of a strategy. If you do this, I'd recommend having your own insurance and not using your state or companies disability insurance.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by ChuckNorris89 on Sunday April 02, 2023 @01:05PM (#35412656)

>and going on lots of really really long walks.

What I found helps is spending as much time outdoor as possible, preferably in the sun and in the wild nature, especially if they're light hike. Try to do that at least half a day every weekend.

Hope you get better.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by nuancebydefault on Sunday April 02, 2023 @04:01PM (#35414526)

Long walks help. Also therapy or just a long talk with someone you trust, work wonders. Just intensely and suddenly realizing that the situation is not your fault and that other people go through periods like that, takes a big weight off your shoulders. It's exactly that weight that makes you tired soo fast.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by stavros on Sunday April 02, 2023 @05:52PM (#35415654)

Did you also "hear" a sound in your head like a guitar string breaking when it happened?

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by Trasmatta on Sunday April 02, 2023 @06:06PM (#35415776)

I don't think so, but your comment sounds super familiar. I think we may have chatted about burnout before on another thread on HN?

I did once have an experience with nitrous oxide where I heard something similar and subsequently had a pretty major shift in my thinking process for awhile.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by stavros on Sunday April 02, 2023 @06:10PM (#35415809)

I think I may have read it on here before, this thread just jogged my memory and I figured I'd ask.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by TeMPOraL on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:03PM (#35416259)

I do distinctly remember reading about this particular metaphor, but can't for the life of me remember where and in what context. Hopefully someone here can recall?

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by firecall on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:51PM (#35416698)

Can you explain more?

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by stavros on Sunday April 02, 2023 @08:38PM (#35417069)

It's just something someone described their brain "breaking" as, and I was curious whether the GP had the same symptom.

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Re:Thinking hard makes the brain tired by NovaDudely on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:54PM (#35416732)

Yeah about a year sounds right for getting to the point of merely facing the tasks again. Personally it feels like there is a permanent anchor on those tasks. In that, yes you can do them again but you will never get back to the same speed or skill with it ever again.

It has been a little over 2 years since I left my job from burnout, now I am doing something completely different and a lot less intense. But I don't think I could ever go back to what I once did. I have permanently blowen out half my cylinders. ;)

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