I’ve experienced burnout throughout work and education since I was sixteen. Usually around once every 12-18 months. I’ve accrued a lot of associated trauma.
For context, burnout for me is extreme depression and executive dysfunction lasting for months at a time to the extent I stop all work and social activities.
My only chance has been remote work. In my case, I work as a freelancer. I’m quite functional when I can do everything at home without facing people, and my job pays well enough/I have my life organized so I do not have to work full time.
This setup worked so well for me that I decided to return to university as a grown up just for the shits and giggles. I was well prepared, had no real pressure to be there, was just going to have fun, but got burnout anyway. Peopling is just not for me.
Utopia.
A great example of what people do with determination, when release - or reprieved- from wage slavery .
“Oh look, I’ll go learn something, for the joy of learning”.
Others would volunteer, set up repair cafes, kids sports.
One can dream
I would absolutely LOVE being a science teacher substitute. With enough leisure and freetime, I’d be all about volunteering and teaching.
I am very lucky, and very privileged to be able to do what I do. Living in EU vs US helps, having few expenses and very few needs really helps. Being very reclusive as well, I really had to spend a long time just with my small family and animals to come to terms with how limited my ability to handle other people is. If I ever feel like going out again I’d start setting up a repair café and swap shop, but I will have to limit stuff like this to one day a week probably or will go into burnout again. I mean, even too much online interaction like commenting on Lemmy sets me into some weird frenzy I have to recover from lol
I’ve struggled with freelancing in the past because there’s too much freedom and not enough structure. Now that I’m medicated and in therapy maybe I should give it another try.
I guess I had always my animals to give me enough structure to not completely lose it, then my child. It’s like an override. Even now with child almost grown and only spending half his time here, you wouldn’t believe how much better I eat when he is here compared to when he’s not, just because I want to make sure I feed him well and set a good example. And I never fail getting up because the animals need feeding - imagine a horse neighing and two donkeys braying when they consider it’s getting a little late. Like having a boss, but with a really fluffy nose and generally nicer and less annoying.