Burnout - It turns out that a two-month stint as an emergency overseas carer—including the attendant stress, staying in crappy hotels, trudging through snow, barely eating or exercising, and being apart from your partner—really takes a toll on a body. Two days after I got back to Australia, I tripped and completely stacked it on the footpath outside our house. My knee, ribs, and dignity were all bruised for the better part of a week. Just as those started to heal, I came down with a nasty virus. I’ve been a muddle-headed snot monster ever since. (PCR test came up positive for human metapneumovirus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_metapneumovirus), which seems to be going around.) The cough isn’t clearing, so yesterday my doctor put me on antibiotics for a suspected subsequent chest infection.
When it rains it pours. I guess my body really, really wanted a rest.
Relatedly, HCF sent me an extremely well-timed email in January offering a free mental wellbeing check-in (https://www.hcf.com.au/members/manage-your-health/mental-health-support). I signed up for a videochat session and got matched to a therapist in less than a day. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect; I’ve never met with a therapist before. She was lovely though, and I pretty much sobbed through the whole thing. You can’t really accomplish much in these sessions, but she gave me some good advice on the kind of therapist I might want to look for on an ongoing basis. She also taught me something useful – the four ways to solve a problem (https://findmytherapist.com/resources/self-care/how-to-use-the-four-options-of-dbt-to-solve-a-problem/). You can either solve it, find a way to feel better about it, learn to accept it, or stay miserable. I have a feeling I’m going to be mulling over that one for quite some time.
Take care of yourself, friends.
Burnout
It turns out that a two-month stint as an emergency overseas carer—including the attendant stress, staying in crappy hotels, trudging through snow, barely eating or exercising, and being apart from your partner—really takes a toll on a body. Two days after I got back to Australia, I tripped and comp
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