How do I continue working when I'm totally burnt out?

Oh dear @Jlol 

That doesn't sound good. 

I don't know what job you do, but is it something to do with the environment of your workplace?

I hope you feel better soon. I hear your dilemma..... staying home and not working doesn't really pay the bills that just continue to pile in. 

Please take care and look after yourself.

@Jlol sorry to hear work is so stressful. I can relate to that. And being in need of money or stretched is a steessor in itself

I remmeber driving around in a broken car coz i had no money to fix it and that became my new normal, id patch it up myself every few weeks. The stess of when it would next break lived in me. 

I hope ur doing ok.

Sorry to hear about that. I recently went through something similar that I'm still trying to recover from. I actually did quit the job because I had something else lined up but that fell through and now the struggle is real. Used to work in a warehouse carrying furniture around. I used to love it. It was a great way to keep fit and definitely paid the bills. There was both career and personal growth opportunities. Then I met a girl (21yo). She had a hard life. Working more hours than I was at a job she hated because her parents were more than happy to live off her labour. She was working in a little chinese shop, and to help support her I started coming in after I finished work just to deal with front counter so she could focus on her other tasks. It was awesome for a while. I won't go into too much detail, don't want to hijack the post, but after a while of not getting enough sleep and overworking myself my body sort of started shutting down. I was getting weaker day by day. My mind was all over the place. I could barely keep focus, my thoughts were scattered. I started feeling pretty broken. In a period of less than 2 months I went from able to carry a couch on my shoulder to barely able to lift a side table on my own. Went in for an interview with the boss and just broke down. I was lucky to have good bosses who at least pretended to care. Ended up quitting because the environment just felt like a drain. Everything did at that point.

Now I'm doing doordash because I just can't physically do much else of anything. It's good not having so much stress. It's not an ideal situation, but I feel so much better already and it hasn't even been a month yet. Just reducing that load has improved everything drastically.

Is there anything like that you could look into? At least to supplement your income so you can maybe reduce your working hours? Or do you have any hobbies that you could try to monetise? 

It's rough, but we get there in the end. 

Also have you been checked out by doctors? 

Thanks @tyme 

"I don't know what job you do, but is it something to do with the environment of your workplace?"

Yes, I think it's to do with the workplace - not the physical environment, but there has been a change in my team's leadership. My workplace went from a supportive envrionment where individuals were made to feel important and part of a team, to a more distant "cog in the machine" style of management (hell, management doesn't even bother to spell our names right). The illness started shortly after that.

I can totally relate @Jlol ,

At one workplace I've been in in the past, my brain told me I could manage and cope with it but my body didn't. I ended up getting really sick and was off for a few months. I ended up leaving that workplace.

Please note, I'm not telling you to leave the workplace, but only sharing to say that I can relate to what you mean by a workplace potentially causing illness.

When I first read your inital post, I thought you worked in a workplace where you are exposed to chemicals or something.

Anyway, take care of yourself.

Thanks @tyme 
If you don't mind me asking (feel free to not respond) how did you manage the mechanics of taking time off and leaving?
I kind of think I should and have been applying for other jobs but the market doesn't seem great right now. I can't just stop working because I have bills of course.
How did you manage that stuff?

Hi @Jlol ,

Always good to be able to reply to you.

I had been working for years. Then with it all crumpled around me, I got so sick that I had to take months off. This was all out of my leave. I had a lot banked up, including long service leave. 

Then while I was sick for the few months, I applied for a few roles. I got 2. One was part time and the other was full time. Both jobs weren't ideal, but I ended up taking the full time one (with conditions). I negotiated finishing early on 2 of the days - so yeah... from there, I never regretted it (except the travel). I really didn't like the time needed to travel to work, hence I negotiated. 

Actually, I turned the role down because of the distance, and the manager seemed upset, so I just took the chance to negotiate my conditions 🙂

So yeah. It was because I banked up a lot of leave that I could have that time off. Also, I didn't have many bills. Just needed to pay for a few things here and there, and food.

I can totally appreciate that not all people have so much leave.

I really hope you find something that works for you. It's hard to hear that the workplace is causing so much of your exhaustion.