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Unpredictable mental exhaustion

ricardo_gt

Aluminum
Joined
Aug 5, 2012
Location
Portugal
Have any one had/also have this issue?
Sudently, this year, i felt i could not deal with machine shop environment anymore, at the point that i can not even be close to a machine. By some reason, i can´t stand it. I can´t say i hate it but i am very anoyed by it. After 12 years, sudently, this happened to me. :nutter:
I left the company were i was working at, i earned a good money, i had a management function in conjunction with programator, setupper and quality operator, very hard accomplishments all togheter to achieve at this profession, but i had reached it already. And sudently, not covid related, i went down...
At the moment i work at a completely different profession and i do not see me near a machine again anymore. What happened?! I am just stonned with it. Do this have some kind of explanation? :crazy:
 
Could be you were doing too much for too long. In the USA we have people with Master Of Social Work Degree, MSW, that are not as expensive as a Psychologist but do the same type of work. Ask your Medical Doctor for a reference. You can get some answers from one of them.

I started doing photography for money when I was 15, Army Photographer, Northrop Corp. 2 years, Advertising Photo Studio 2 years, opened my own business, had partner, then Corporation. After a total of 40 years I was sick of the business. I closed the business and did home repair and maintenance for 10 years until I retired. I still do photography for fun.

Through all of the above I had a few bouts of depression and two divorces. I had a lot of help from two MSWs.

Paul
 
Sometimes people have these things happen to them. Some spin way out of control descending into harmful choices. This is also how a lot of people begin to feel at the stage they wish to retire. They evaluate things and make decisions.

You likely really needed a break from it. In recent times it is under constant strain anyway and everybody who has spent time doing our kind of work knows this.

Notice the complaints about not being able to find experienced machinists despite schools who churn out trained entry level people? Bottom line most of those will leave. There is little real mentoring today and it is in fact discouraged. It is hard challenging work yet it also will stand or fall in regard to what else that one might do is really better. It can be the case also that even if you do not know clearly what that is then just the conclusion that you understand that you no longer want the same path you have up to now been following. Knowing where you do not feel contented is good enough. If you have done your best as you believe you have then what is missing there is not within your control to produce or find. Comes a time we move on. This trait is Evolutionary.
 
Burnout happens

If you cannot do something different, try to think about different aspects of what you are doing.

Sometimes you have to grind through it, sometimes you have to make a real change

Only you know for sure
 
Could be that you are just really good at compartmentalizing, and eventually your subconscious had enough and here you are. If you are really struggling with this, try spending a few hours with your ego quelled via psychedelic mushrooms. They have a tendency to bring unaddressed issues to the forefront.
 
Maybe you were in the wrong line of work all along.
Its 5am here on a Saturday and I'm going in the shop now. For the most part, for some reason, I still enjoy this stuff, or money...
 
I know 2 people who experienced something like this.

One was probably in the wrong business all along. He went into the family business as a mortician. Covid + midlife + ???? got to him and he just hung it all up at age 50. No idea what he's going to do next.

The other was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.
 
I went to school with a guy who has been working as a mechanic since, we are 54, one day a couple of years ago he quit going to work and won't leave his house, nothing happened to cause it, just one day something went click. Otherwise he seems like the same old guy.
 
Several possibilities.

One is that you were never really "into it" and finally got sick of continuing something you don't really want.

Another possibility, and you need to self-analyze before taking serious actions, is that you are suffering from Covid-19/election year burnout. The combination seems to have stressed out a lot of people and counselors are doing a booming business.

I've basically seen pretty much this whole year as a challenge to be met and have focused on new ways of doing things. I very much miss breakfasts with friends and much else but I have enough responsibilities to keep me busy and I've slowly been completing several long delayed projects.

As I said, it's been a tough year and you may be one of the many who are struggling to cope. You are far from alone.
 








 
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