Comment by porknbeans00
16 days ago
Trying to recover my sanity after a year of complete executive function failure. Tech can lead you to places that will absolutely destroy you mentally and emotionally.
Recovery from that is not something one can easily handle. It's a long slow and usually painful recovery process that requires deep commitment.
Many of us have experienced burn out.. but some of us have seen worse. Engineering truly can lead you to places that both matter a great deal and remind use we were never enough, we were just the people there at the time. Longer I am in this career the more humble I get as each successive challenge hammers me into something different than I was before.
I love it. But god ... sometimes the choose your own adventure goes awry.
> Trying to recover my sanity after a year of complete executive function failure. Tech can lead you to places that will absolutely destroy you mentally and emotionally.
I know its hard to appreciate other people trying to give advice when your headspace is not there, but burnout is a very real thing. It sneaks up slowly when you keep thinking you can take on a little bit more, a little bit more and then all of a sudden it becomes overwhelming.
It's happened to me where I was having full panic attacks seemingly out of the blue and passing out on public transport.
The only advice I would say is to try to force yourself once a day to really step away from it for at least an hour, maybe two if you can, keep the time you do it regular so it becomes a habit and be okay with saying no.
Your mental health is way more important than any work. Hope things improve.
yeah I been at this a while I know a bunch of techniques... but sometimes you work on stuff that's... worth the burn. but also brutal in ways you can't expect until you experience it.
anyways... thanks for the kind words. in 2026 we need more kindness and empathy in our comments. =)
And I think folks sharing good design patterns is always worth reading. Mentally healthy work is a good design pattern.