YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

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I grew up in a household where any show of frustration was considered a betrayal.

The ability to swallow frustration has not got me very far. It is excellent fuel however for burnout.

I've unofficially left every job I've had because of burnout; except this one. I burnt out in it last year and have been covertly recovering ever since.

Therapy is getting me in touch with the well of frustration; that it's normal and not a capital offense.

But I risk burning out again, if I don't navigate this next part delicately; while getting that frustration out and working for me.

I think the only reason I haven't burned out on jobs has been because I've pretty much thrown the rest of my life in the toilet instead.

But now that I think about it, that's just from my perspective. It's entirely possible that I've performed absolutely horribly at times and no one has said anything to me about it. I tend to work for small companies with a start-up culture, so all kinds of dysfunctional crap could be going on and no one would bring it up.

Sigh.

I'm actually in a manageable position to avoid it now. The difficult things are:

- Working in a culture of burnt out colleagues
- Talking, even anonymously, within a culture that is passive about preventing burnout, and possibly even uses it as an opportunity to justify neglect.