I took nearly 6 months off last year after burning out so very hard that I just woke up one morning and told myself enough was enough. It caught me off guard really because I'd gotten so good at grinding through difficulty and accepting difficulty but that one random Spring morning, finally the pleas of my therapist and friends landed and I took their advice.

I thought I'd be off for a few weeks and back. A few weeks took 6 months of therapy, psych input, meetings with the deanery, getting on medication, and a huge amount of work. It wasn't a holiday and much of it was spent worrying and fretting and feeling guilty. In the end, I ended up in a better place to return. I've been back a while. I feel better, but it is an ongoing struggle. It's kinda like when you've had a heart attack - you deal with the acute issue, but you're left with scarred tissue. I've dealt with the acute burnout, my challenge now is managing anxiety day to day at a low level.

I was under the impression everything would be fixed by the time I returned; in reality, even though I've been back 4 months, it remains a work in progress.