Hey Alex, thanks for writing this, loads of useful advice in here that I want to try!
I have had similar (but seemingly milder than yours) problems with low energy, where I just felt very lethargic and drained periodically (about once a month). I would compare it to how you feel in the first day of getting a flu or cold, with low energy and mild muscle aches. I went to the doctor and had a similar story to you, they ran some blood tests and found nothing wrong, and that was it.
The answer: it was almost definitely stress. I was in a management position at work, I think I was kidding myself about the stress because I wasn’t working super long hours or anything like that, but the thing that really made it so bad was the constant uncertainty and chaos. I was working at a startup that was going through constant re-organisations and strategy pivots, which really took its toll after a while. It was made much worse by the fact that I was a manager and felt responsible for shielding my team from this. This is all to say that people will have varying levels of resilience to different types of stress, for me uncertainty and being responsible for others is difficult, but I am quite resilient to other situations that a lot of people find stressful (for example tight deadlines or public speaking etc.).
The solution was to change my role away from being a manager and into an individual contributor role in a research team. It took quite a long time for recovery but it’s been about a year and a half now and the situation is much better. It felt like a very difficult decision at the time (because I was really stressed and this was affecting my decision making) but in retrospect it was a really obvious and great decision! I have also subsequently turned down several opportunities to go back to being a manager.
I also think avoiding my commute because of working remotely during covid has helped.
I took way longer than it should have for me to realise that stress was the likely culprit. I think I was convinced that there was something “really wrong”, like some sort of more medical explanation. I don’t think I fully appreciated the affects that stress can have on the body, particularly when it builds up over a very long time. Another lesson is that it can take almost as long to unwind and undo those effects, sometimes a 2 week break will not be enough, it requires a more permanent change in role or lifestyle.
Yes, I’ve also gotten really sick from stress in the past! Both times, my doctors asked if I was under a lot of stress, and both times I said no, even though in retrospect it seems obvious that I was.
Hey Alex, thanks for writing this, loads of useful advice in here that I want to try!
I have had similar (but seemingly milder than yours) problems with low energy, where I just felt very lethargic and drained periodically (about once a month). I would compare it to how you feel in the first day of getting a flu or cold, with low energy and mild muscle aches. I went to the doctor and had a similar story to you, they ran some blood tests and found nothing wrong, and that was it.
The answer: it was almost definitely stress. I was in a management position at work, I think I was kidding myself about the stress because I wasn’t working super long hours or anything like that, but the thing that really made it so bad was the constant uncertainty and chaos. I was working at a startup that was going through constant re-organisations and strategy pivots, which really took its toll after a while. It was made much worse by the fact that I was a manager and felt responsible for shielding my team from this. This is all to say that people will have varying levels of resilience to different types of stress, for me uncertainty and being responsible for others is difficult, but I am quite resilient to other situations that a lot of people find stressful (for example tight deadlines or public speaking etc.).
The solution was to change my role away from being a manager and into an individual contributor role in a research team. It took quite a long time for recovery but it’s been about a year and a half now and the situation is much better. It felt like a very difficult decision at the time (because I was really stressed and this was affecting my decision making) but in retrospect it was a really obvious and great decision! I have also subsequently turned down several opportunities to go back to being a manager.
I also think avoiding my commute because of working remotely during covid has helped.
I took way longer than it should have for me to realise that stress was the likely culprit. I think I was convinced that there was something “really wrong”, like some sort of more medical explanation. I don’t think I fully appreciated the affects that stress can have on the body, particularly when it builds up over a very long time. Another lesson is that it can take almost as long to unwind and undo those effects, sometimes a 2 week break will not be enough, it requires a more permanent change in role or lifestyle.
Additionally I found that this book helped change my attitude on some things: Stress-related Illness: Advice for People Who Give Too Much
Yes, I’ve also gotten really sick from stress in the past! Both times, my doctors asked if I was under a lot of stress, and both times I said no, even though in retrospect it seems obvious that I was.