Hi everyone, I hope you’re doing well and if not I hope you’re taking care of yourself.

Despite the summery vibe of this months newsletter this is the first time I have been experiencing burnout and being so acutely aware of the symptoms.

Due to my paid employment needing to juggle the needs of all their employees i’m taking some holiday a bit later than I probably need. I understand and appreciate this, however that hasn’t stopped the burnout from hitting hard anyway.

Much like the terms in schools and universities I think a good amount of time is ~6 weeks before many people, myself included, need a longer break as diminishing returns takes over. Since i’m approaching 2 months I’m very much feeling it, with it being difficult to wake up early no matter how much I sleep. With it being harder to go to bed because moving to go upstairs is a struggle, with it being harder to motivate myself throughout the day and finding myself getting irritated over things that don’t normally get to me. I also find myself sleeping the day away on the one day a week I have off from both paid employment and PhD work.

I hate to say that I don’t have any real solution to this except for taking a holiday and if you’re in a spot like me where you’re just counting the days to get there I’ve unfortunately been relying on my medication more heavily to get through it.

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I’m writing this back from my holiday and it was a great reset, though not as long as I would have personally liked, alas the dwindling time on my PhD has me back and ready to keep on keeping on.

I was unfortunately met with bad news on the PhD front, and though I have the now familiar dread of sadness and depression to contend with about it I’ve also found myself simply… wanting to work towards a solution over it. This feels nice as though I will have to sit with the issues – and the bad feelings they bring with them – its been a nice caveat that i’m seemingly able to not let it completely destroy me the way it may have previously.

I’ve got it in me to work harder, especially now i’m rested, but I really don’t want to burn out again so I’ll be bringing it up with my ADHD mentor to conserve my energy. It’s swings and roundabouts it seems this month…

In solidarity – Karel (on behalf of the POC² team)

Discoveries ✨

📺 – Uncarley (On YouTube). Carely is a comedian and reviews media on her youtube channel. She also has great morals and will call out problems in the best way where even I haven’t considered it. Check out her channel if you want some easy laughs

The POC² Post 💌, is written by Karel Green. Find her published work + guest apprearances on BBC radio here or follow her on twitter @thisismeonline

Photo by Tony Tran on Unsplash