Trigger warning: Mental Health Discussion This is my story of burn out surrounding reading, Instagram and my life in general. Now for those of you who don't know what burn out is, it's when you feel a brain fog that leaves you unable to do anything. It can also lead to depressive like states and really harm you if you let it get as bad as I did.
My burnout came in three stages. First, Instagram became overwhelming and I'll explain how this happened a little later. Secondly, I couldn't read books, let alone look at them. Finally, I burnout from my whole life. After my story, I shall explain how I'm on the road to recovery. Just before I go into lot's of detail, some of my burnout has been exasperated by my autism but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen to neurotypical people. So around February, I started to lose interest in reading books. For me this is quite normal as I can get overwhelmed both by my own pressure and also by looking at others and their reading success. However this time was different, as books just lost their spark for me. This was quite distressing for me because I had been using books as my escape from work. Unluckily, for me I had just started to get back into the swing of reading and reviewing books when the burn out started. After this, it then evolved to a burnout from social media. Instagram is full of content and this is a good thing. This can sometimes be overwhelming too and I was trying to navigate being burnout with Instagram. That's also when I went on a mass exodus of the engagement groups. I sent messages but because I was in so many some fell through the gaps. This doesn't cross your mind until you get a rude message. This almost caused me to delete Instagram altogether. I lacked motivation to look at Instagram let alone post anything. Then came the burnout in my life. I was sat at work and all I could draw was a blank. This scared me as nothing like this had ever happened. I felt like my ship was sinking and I had no exit. Luckily for me I had a great support system in place and I was able to get to a better place. This was a dark time however I came through. My road to recovery was long as I was well and truly burnt out. I started to read one book a week which allowed me to get back into reading. I also visited Waterstones less which made me appreciate books more. I've also made changes to the way I handle Instagram. I've cut all the engagement groups as they overwhelmed me. I may only get a couple of likes per post but I prefer that to having to deal with following people that aren't even book readers. As to living properly I'm slowly working on it as I enjoy long baths, read my books, actually video game. There are a few things that have helped me which included taking me time. That is a big one that people forget. Self care is super important and I had forgotten that I wasn't a robot. I thus decided to get back into Animal Crossing. This worked for me because of many different reasons. Firstly it's run in real time, and secondly it is a slow game. That is what I needed, to slow things down. Another step was to read genre's I had never previously read. I took a leap and some books I loved but others weren't so good. I really enjoyed reading 'Mr Wrong Number' just because I knew what type of book I was walking into. I don't usually read rom-coms. It was fun to do this because I have more of a variety of genre's to read. My advice to anyone suffering burnout is to take time for yourself. Take time to find why you started to read in the first place. By Mika @Mikasibyl