<story><title>Thinking hard makes the brain tired</title><url>https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/08/11/how-thinking-hard-makes-the-brain-tired</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Trasmatta</author><text>I hit some bad burnout last year, and it&amp;#x27;s become hard to think hard about anything ever since. Like a defense mechanism has been installed in my brain preventing me from hurting myself like that again. When I have to think hard about something for work I have to push past that and then I feel an intense dissociation while I do.&lt;p&gt;It doesn&amp;#x27;t feel good.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>neongodzilla</author><text>I learned this week that &amp;quot;occupational burnout&amp;quot; [1] &lt;i&gt;often&lt;/i&gt; results in the brain developing a trauma response to the idea of returning to the same job&amp;#x2F;tasks, which is why people will sometimes entirely switch careers.  It absolutely is the brain trying to protect itself.&lt;p&gt;Not all forms of burnout results in trauma responses, but they all require extended recovery.  Burnout is preventable, but once it has been reached, the damage has been done and rest is required.  No joke: 3-6 months is the usual recovery time.&lt;p&gt;Paths to occupational burnout: 
  - No mental rest from work.  &amp;quot;Taking it home with you.&amp;quot;  Often skipping breaks to keep focused. 
  - Jobs that require high amounts of mental processing for long periods (customer service, development, troubleshooting, multitasking, urgent-response).&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Brown out&amp;quot; is the stage when you&amp;#x27;re still capable of functioning in spurts, but your brain&amp;#x2F;body is sending warning signs (that we have been taught to ignore).&lt;p&gt;1.  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Occupational_burnout?wprov=sfti1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Occupational_burnout?wprov=sft...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Thinking hard makes the brain tired</title><url>https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/08/11/how-thinking-hard-makes-the-brain-tired</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Trasmatta</author><text>I hit some bad burnout last year, and it&amp;#x27;s become hard to think hard about anything ever since. Like a defense mechanism has been installed in my brain preventing me from hurting myself like that again. When I have to think hard about something for work I have to push past that and then I feel an intense dissociation while I do.&lt;p&gt;It doesn&amp;#x27;t feel good.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bigDinosaur</author><text>It took me a year to recover from burnout. Don&amp;#x27;t underestimate the recovery phase. I was at the point where any cognitive effort caused very similar effects to what you would describe, kind of like the mental equivalent of having lifted weights to failure but with an instantaneous onset. I suspect every case is unique, but I&amp;#x27;d suggest thinking very carefully about how you can take an extended break from work.&lt;p&gt;The key distinguishing what I felt with burnout from just being mentally tired is that no problem, no matter how hard it was to solve (or even if I failed miserably at solving it) has ever caused me to &lt;i&gt;instanteously&lt;/i&gt; feel 100% mentally exhausted. By contrast, when burnt out, even fairly trivial work tasks would trigger this.</text></comment>