Would you believe it if is someone told you that you were experiencing retirement burnout? It is the same feeling that you get when you say you need a vacation to rest up after a vacation. I might have scoffed at that idea a few weeks ago, until I read an article about burnout in the May/June 2011 issue of Arthritis Today. The article wasn’t about retirement burnout, but the symptoms sure sounded like the ones I was experiencing. It made me think. Once again I had painted myself into a corner by trying to be the perfect retiree (again). It felt almost as bad this time as it did when it happened before. When I was working I knew it was time to retire, but how can you retire from retirement?
There is so much emphasis on taking care of ourselves and in finding meaningful things to do, that we start scrambling to fill every minute. The quest for perfection creates a whole new set of things worry about. Anxiety and depression are soon hanging over our heads like a big black cloud.
It is stress all over again. Stress has so many sources: unrealistic expectations and demands, money worries and health problems are only the tip of the ice berg. We worry about the environment, we worry about the economy, we worry about home repairs and maintenance, and the list goes on.
We don’t really have a chance. We seem to carry the same baggage with us from one phase of life to the next. It isn’t too late though, or so the experts say. They say that we are better equipped to put things into perspective now, because we have experience to draw on. It is still difficult to set limits and it is still difficult to ask for help, but hopefully we can learn. Writing things down will help you think more clearly. A written plan can help put things in perspective, as long as that “to-do” list doesn’t become another source of stress. I tend to make my lists too long and too detailed. The end result is that I can’t possibly finish everything on the list and I start feeling frustrated all over again. We are not supposed to push ourselves and we are supposed to schedule some downtime, but that is easier said than done.
I know that feelings of burnout should not be associated with retirement. I can do this. I think I’ve got the idea down pat, at least until the next time it happens. Maybe next time I will recognize the symptoms and nip them in the bud (or not). What do you do to slow yourself down?
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