Like the title says, I am burned out.
Im a 45 year old American male and I don’t even know if I have a formal diagnosis yet. I am currently working with my primary care provider and am seeing a therapist that claims she is a specialist in adult ADHD and it has been months.
I remember as a youngster that my mom took me to the doc for hyperactivity somewhere around 2nd or 3rd grade. Somewhere around 1985 or 1986. That doc said I had ADD but it was probably cause by a sensitivity to “red food dye”. “Don’t let him eat red food and he will be fine”.
It wasn’t fine.
A few years back i was diagnosed with GAD and Depression and was given medication for those which helped me for a short time with depression stuff but didn’t do anything for the root of the problem.
I moved across the country and started working with my current doc and he prescribed Wellbutrin for my depression and said it’s also prescribed for ADHD. It wasn’t doing anything for the depression and I’ve since stopped all meds and now am working with this therapist.
Therapy is going well enough dealing with trauma and those things. But we aren’t doing anything with my ADHD which is my biggest problem.
I can’t focus at work. Executive function is gone and has been for a long time. Every day for like over 2 years is complete task paralysis.
My wife and I use this analogy about spoons to discuss mental capacity for life. Everybody has a certain amount of spoons in their drawer. Tasks and thoughts use up spoons throughout the day. Once the drawer is empty, there’s no more to give until you was some dishes and replenish (nap or a nights sleep or something).
Well I’m out of fuckin spoons and every time I check the drawer there are fewer and fewer spoons to work with.
I really hope there is a path to something resembling “better” because I do t know how much more of this I can take”.
Your struggles with work seem very similar to my own. I’ve been working at the same company for 12 years. I wear a few hats at work, and I think that’s why it took me so long to burn out, because the job stayed novel and interesting longer than average. But it’s not novel and interesting anymore, and I feel like I’m suffocating.
Which is to say, can you try looking for a new job? People with ADHD tend to “job hop” more than average, and I think that’s a good thing for us. Switching gears, and even just having something new to look forward to, are going to be huge boosts to your mood.
It’s probably not going to solve ALL of your problems, but it could help take some of the pressure off while you work on the other stuff.
I am actively job hunting right now. I don’t job hop too much. When I can focus and engage with my work, it’s amazing. My last job was 12 years and I’ve been at my current gig for 5.5.
In my current job Im a department head with zero supervision. It sucks because I crave feedback and direction. But I talk to my boss for 15 minutes every week and otherwise im on an island by myself. I derive a lot of my self-worth from my work, I know I shouldn’t, but it’s complicated.
I also work a high stress career in a thankless industry that I despise. Very much want to “get out” and into something that is more of service to my community. Sadly those types of jobs don’t typically pay well.