Taking a mental health break can be exactly what you need to start your burnout recovery. When you are deep in a state of burnout it can be hard to dig yourself out. Burnout recovery does take some active work and intentional effort.
I have a conundrum for you: what if you are too burnt out to do anything to recover from your burnout?
What are you supposed to do then? What can you do?
Taking a mental health break saved my life
Because I have been there. When I was nearing the end of my career in medicine, I absolutely knew I was burnt out. It was hard not to notice; it was actually fairly all-consuming.
For starters, everything felt like a drag. When I got home from work all I could do was lay on the couch and stare at screens in a zombie-like trance trying to recover from the day.
I knew that I was isolating myself from my friends and family. I didn’t find joy in my hobbies anymore. I didn’t have much motivation to do anything outside of work and when I was at work, all I wanted to do was get in my car and go home.
I also knew there were things I could be doing to overcome burnout. I occasionally practiced yoga and meditation. I knew that moving my body would be helpful. I tried to get outside more and stop staring at my phone so much. I read that drinking less alcohol and eating more nutritious food would make me feel better. I also knew that I should get more sleep and go to bed earlier.
I knew all of those things would be helpful. I knew I should be doing those kinds of things.
Intellectually I knew it.
And yet, I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move forward. I couldn’t bring myself to get off the couch to do any of those things. I couldn’t get myself out of bed earlier in the morning to do a morning routine. It just wasn’t happening. I was just too tired. Too unmotivated. The exhaustion was all too real.
So how do you even begin to drag yourself out when you are in a situation like that? When you know that in order to recover you have to start making some lifestyle changes, but you are too physically exhausted and emotionally depleted to make any significant changes.
This is when taking a break from work for mental health is an absolute game changer.
Take a break to kick start your burnout recovery
I took a break.
For 5 whole weeks. I took a 5 week, paid leave of absence from the hospital.
It wasn’t even my idea, the break was suggested to me by my residency program director, and it turned out to be the greatest gift she could have given me.
I think the signs of my burnout were starting to affect my job performance… probably because I would skip clinic to take naps in the resident lounge. (Don’t worry it was just a clinic where I was learning from attendings, I never neglected any actual patient care duties)
My program director called me into her office one afternoon and basically told me that she was worried about me. She suggested taking a mental health break to rest and figure out what I wanted. She knew I was not totally sold on the idea of continuing my career in medicine, but she didn’t want me to ruin my reputation in the residency program by not showing up for things because I was too tired.
She set up for me to take a 5 week leave of absence from residency. 5 weeks completely off from the hospital. From work. From my old life.
I had to see a resident life specialist to make sure I was fine from a psychological standpoint. I also had to check in with my program director once a week, but otherwise I was free to do whatever I wanted.
And for the first two weeks all I really did was catch up on sleep. Seriously, I was sleeping 10-12 hours a day.
Then I started meditating, journaling, and doing yoga every day.
Then I took a solo campervan road trip around Utah and hiked around some of the most beautiful national parks in the US.
I spent as much time as I could outdoors.
I did things to restore my body and feed my soul.
I can’t even emphasize how necessary and crucial this break was for me to get into a more clear headspace. To reset, recharge and reboot my mind.
Taking a mental health break gave me time to recover. It gave me space to create mental clarity. I never would have been able to make a clear decision, one that I trusted, if I was so worn out from my job.
Space to make a decision yes, but more than that it gave me space to start to recover the bits and pieces of myself that had been eroded by burnout.
This reset was exactly what I needed to get out of my burnout funk and onto a fresh new path.
And maybe it is what you need too.
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Is taking a mental health break right for you?
So if you are feeling that burnout, and are struggling to take any steps to start managing your burnout… this is your call to action to take some time off.
Take. A. Break.
Take a break from work. Take a break from your responsibilities. Take a break from social media and screen time. Unplug.
And before you say “I can’t do that because I don’t have any vacation time left.” or “That would be nice, but I can’t do that because work is too busy right now.”
I urge you to consider it. Just entertain the idea for a moment.
What would it feel like to take some real time off? To reset and recharge? To have some time and space for yourself to think?
If you are drooling just at the idea of it… you deserve some real time off.
Burnout is something that doesn’t get better until you start to make some REAL changes. Honestly it will just continue to get worse if you continue down the path that you are on.
If you are feeling these signs of burnout and can’t motivate yourself to do any of the things you know would help end your burnout, taking a mental health break is necessary.
Take some time off and regroup. You are not weak. You are not lazy. You are a human and humans need rest.
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How to actually secure some time off
How can you advocate for yourself for taking a mental health break?
Maybe you need to have a tough conversation with your boss or your significant other to make this happen. It’s worth it.
Maybe you can’t afford to take 5 whole weeks off. That’s ok. Can you get 2 weeks off? One week? Can you start to work part time and get your afternoons off? Can you take Fridays off?
Use up your vacation. Use up your sick leave. What are you saving it for anyways if not for something like this?
Or… take an unpaid leave if you have to.
Get creative and brainstorm all the ways you can possibly think of to secure yourself some time off.
📲LET’S TALK: When you’re ready to STOP settling for unhappiness and create a career that’s the perfect fit for your unique soul, I invite you to book a free 20 min Career Clarity Call.
What to do when taking a mental health break?
And once you secure this much needed time off for yourself… make it a REAL BREAK.
Not a break where you take a bunch of online courses or try to get a second degree to kickstart a new career.
Not a break where you spend all your time googling things and diligently researching your next steps.
Not a break where you try to be really productive to get all your household tasks done that you’ve been meaning to do.
Also… definitely not a break where you guilt yourself for being “too lazy”.
What I did, and what I encourage you to do is to create a list of activities that feed your soul and recharge your body.
My list included things like sleeping, hiking, meditating, journaling and yoga. I focused solely on doing those things.
My only goal during my break was to rest and connect to my intuition. I didn’t expect myself to figure out my whole life. I didn’t put pressure on myself to make a decision. All I wanted to do was to turn inwards and I trusted that the rest would unfold as it was supposed to.
You could also make a list of things NOT to do during your break. Don’t should or guilt trip yourself, don’t use social media, don’t talk to negative people, etc.
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I truly believe that if I hadn’t taken those 5 weeks off to step back and get some clarity, I wouldn’t be here today. I may still be working myself to the bones in the hospital. I may actually be a patient in a hospital somewhere. Who knows!?
What I do know is that taking a time out to recharge is absolutely crucial if you are struggling with burnout. So instead of coming up with all the reasons why you can’t possible take time off work, let’s start to come up with a plan on how to make it happen!
