Burnout & Overwhelm

What does actual rest look like for you during burnout recovery?

Posted by marcus_burnout · 5 days ago · 23 replies · 608 views

I'm in burnout recovery. My doctor has basically said: rest.

But I don't know how to rest. My version of rest involves doing low-effort things that still exhaust me. I watch shows and feel more tired. I scroll and feel worse.

What does actual restorative rest look like for an ADHD brain? What actually fills the tank?

4 replies

▲ 7

ravi_focus 5 days ago

Anything that uses my hands and doesn't use my brain at the same level. Puzzles. Simple drawing. Making tea slowly. These feel boring at first but they're genuinely restorative in a way that screen time isn't.

▲ 12

sasha_late_dx 5 days ago

Nature helps in a specific way that I can't explain neurologically but that I've noticed consistently. Not exercise-in-nature — just being in nature. Slow walks, sitting somewhere green. It seems to genuinely lower my arousal level in a way that indoor rest doesn't.

▲ 8

jamie_adhd 5 days ago

I had to learn to do absolutely nothing — which sounds easy and is not. Just sitting. Or lying down. With music or without. Not consuming content. Not being productive. Just existing. That's what actually restored me.

▲ 14

leila_rsd 5 days ago

The key difference for me is between passive stimulation (watching TV, scrolling) which doesn't actually rest the executive function, and genuine low-demand activity. Walks, simple cooking, sitting outside, listening to music without doing anything else. None of those demand anything from me.

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What does actual rest look like for you during burnout recovery?

4 replies

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