Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

SignUp Now!

How do I minimize/prevent AND recover from burnout from studying?

S

shivajikobardan

Legendary Coder
TLDR-: student who feels like doing nothing eg not like to even read a page during some days. Used to happen a lot during exams. Is happening since 15 days, visited doctor, started taking meds. Meds might be doing their work. I need some guidance and advice that I might be missing.

1) I am Computer Engineering student and burnout is really a huge issue for me. I keep getting burn out(IDK the exact word for this tbh). I feel exhausted. I feel fed up studying. It feels like a brain fog. I don't feel like opening my textbook or watching video. I don't want to do anything at all. I instead browse reddit, watch youtube videos to pass my time. I feel so resistant to studying I don't have a word for that man. This has been happening to me since last 15 days. I am simply idle. It is not like I don't feel fear. Even if I feel fear, I feel like doing nth. I have already consulted doctor and doctor just gives me medicines and nth more. So hope people here will be considerate and give tips independent or dependent my medical conditions. My life really sucks due to this.

2) Even now I have been feeling this thing for around 15 days. I went to Psychiatrist and he added proate medicine. Hope that works. But even though it works I still need some advices and guidances as medicines can't fix everything.

3) It is not like I study 10 hrs everyday. I study 3-5 hrs everyday normally. I even had a vacation where I travelled a lot and had lots of fun. So it is not due to lack of entertainment NOW. but I agree entertainment lacks in my life a lot. I don't have any ways to relax my mind as most ways to relax would be expensive like guitar. And it is winter it is really boring to do yoga, stretching and meditation. (I used to do it as well in the past but still got burn out so this is not the reason why I am getting burn out.).

4) My medical conditions-: The medicines that I am using are-: 1) Proate 500 2) Zosert 50 3) Sizodon 2

5) In the past when I used to get burnout only during exams-: We have 3 days gaps to study during each exam. Our exams last 1 month long And I would finish studying 40% of topics before exams and during exams at least during 2 exams(we would have 5-6-7 exams depending on semester). I would get burnout and fail to do anything during those exams..And I keep failing exams that I have already studied 40% because I can't focus during exams. The culture here in Nepal is most students study during those 3 days and pass the exam comfortably. I have improved here as well. In the past, I used to finish studying once and I would not make revision notes so I had to re-read what I have studied all again. But nowadays I make summaries while studying and just revise it. So it is a bit better in this case. But I still get burnout.


6) What are hobbies,activities that are not very expensive that I can do in order to prevent myself from being burnout very frequently. I won't mind a burnout every 3 month.
 
Hello there,

I'm honestly quite sorry that this is how you feel in your studies. To try and counteract this, here's what you can possibly do.

First, deal with what you do in your freetime. If it's Reddit, do you have an account? If so, deactivate it, as you won't be inclined to find posts and comment them; YouTube, as that is tied to Google, the least you can do is only use it for specific types of videos(i.e. educational). If you have any apps on your phone that you find quite addictive(most of which are games), delete them. The less distractions you have, the less you'll be tempted to take your eyes off your work.

In regards to hobbies, find something interesting and therapeutic. Take up a craft(e.g. woodwork, pottery, drawing/painting, etc.), find a board game(e.g. chess, checkers, etc.), or engage in the outdoors or sports(e.g. hiking, sailing, swimming, running, etc). Ideally, you can also just do plain old stuff that people do for fun on a daily basis, like finding books to read, watching documentaries on a certain subject, or even cooking/baking. Find any of these that you like and stick with them: they're good to have as each one will promote development in a part(or several parts) of your body, whether it be the bones and muscles or the mind.

Can I check too that you take regular breaks while studying? To study for 3-5 hours isn't necessarily good and is setting yourself up to be distracted, therefore, taking regular breaks while do you good. These breaks can be 5, 10, 15, or even 20 minutes long - find a break time that suits you and stick to it as well, as you want to stay in a good routine that works. During your break, find something to do: relax with a nice hot drink, phone/text a friend/family member, or just take a short walk to somewhere. In this time, try to focus your mind on what you're doing in the moment(a process known as mindfulness), as to help better your concentration and to clear your mind of anything negative.

Be careful around the medicines you use too: check the side-effects with your doctor and the severity of them. I could only find two of the medicines you use on Wikipedia(yes, I know it isn't necessarily reliable), and the side-effects mentioned are...awful:
In an ideal world, you shouldn't be needing to use these to combat burnout from school, but rather, to combat any mental illnesses you have(depression, bipolar, etc.). If you don't have any mental illnesses or you do, but they are mild in symptoms, you should not be on these. Antidepressants, when being weaned off them, are known to have intense knockback effects on the user when stopping their usage, so be careful, and again, check with your doctor.

In regards to revision, you'll want to be a bit smarter in how you revise, as writing summaries and just reading over them will not help. Ideally, you should: use flashcards to help with memorization of certain concepts; practice problem-solving questions; study and share information with others; ask your teacher questions; and along with writing summaries, try annotating textbooks if you don't already(supposedly, this is also helpful while studying, but I can't confirm).

Finally, though you didn't mention anything about it: consider if computer engineering is what you really want to do. When your young and this is the field you have in mind, it all seems glamorous, but once you're there, reality warps to the true present. Do you want to do this? If yes, then does the subject really interest and engage you? If yes, what do you want to do after studying? Research, manufacturing, teaching? Asking these questions helps you to better understand your view on what it is you're studying. Although sometimes, as with all subjects, you can get the fun and fascinating parts and the dreadfully boring parts. The least you can do is to push through those boring parts and try to keep yourself engaged.

If the advice given to you here on CF has not helped you in anyway at all, provided you have tried all the advice given, and burnout is still a problem: please see a therapist as they're better equipped to help you. Make sure you follow all advice given to you, not just here, but from friends, family, the school, and your doctor. There is no point in helping if you do not make an attempt to rid of the problems hurting you.
 
HadASpook said:
Hello there,

I'm honestly quite sorry that this is how you feel in your studies. To try and counteract this, here's what you can possibly do.

First, deal with what you do in your freetime. If it's Reddit, do you have an account? If so, deactivate it, as you won't be inclined to find posts and comment them; YouTube, as that is tied to Google, the least you can do is only use it for specific types of videos(i.e. educational). If you have any apps on your phone that you find quite addictive(most of which are games), delete them. The less distractions you have, the less you'll be tempted to take your eyes off your work.

In regards to hobbies, find something interesting and therapeutic. Take up a craft(e.g. woodwork, pottery, drawing/painting, etc.), find a board game(e.g. chess, checkers, etc.), or engage in the outdoors or sports(e.g. hiking, sailing, swimming, running, etc). Ideally, you can also just do plain old stuff that people do for fun on a daily basis, like finding books to read, watching documentaries on a certain subject, or even cooking/baking. Find any of these that you like and stick with them: they're good to have as each one will promote development in a part(or several parts) of your body, whether it be the bones and muscles or the mind.

Can I check too that you take regular breaks while studying? To study for 3-5 hours isn't necessarily good and is setting yourself up to be distracted, therefore, taking regular breaks while do you good. These breaks can be 5, 10, 15, or even 20 minutes long - find a break time that suits you and stick to it as well, as you want to stay in a good routine that works. During your break, find something to do: relax with a nice hot drink, phone/text a friend/family member, or just take a short walk to somewhere. In this time, try to focus your mind on what you're doing in the moment(a process known as mindfulness), as to help better your concentration and to clear your mind of anything negative.

Be careful around the medicines you use too: check the side-effects with your doctor and the severity of them. I could only find two of the medicines you use on Wikipedia(yes, I know it isn't necessarily reliable), and the side-effects mentioned are...awful:
In an ideal world, you shouldn't be needing to use these to combat burnout from school, but rather, to combat any mental illnesses you have(depression, bipolar, etc.). If you don't have any mental illnesses or you do, but they are mild in symptoms, you should not be on these. Antidepressants, when being weaned off them, are known to have intense knockback effects on the user when stopping their usage, so be careful, and again, check with your doctor.

In regards to revision, you'll want to be a bit smarter in how you revise, as writing summaries and just reading over them will not help. Ideally, you should: use flashcards to help with memorization of certain concepts; practice problem-solving questions; study and share information with others; ask your teacher questions; and along with writing summaries, try annotating textbooks if you don't already(supposedly, this is also helpful while studying, but I can't confirm).

Finally, though you didn't mention anything about it: consider if computer engineering is what you really want to do. When your young and this is the field you have in mind, it all seems glamorous, but once you're there, reality warps to the true present. Do you want to do this? If yes, then does the subject really interest and engage you? If yes, what do you want to do after studying? Research, manufacturing, teaching? Asking these questions helps you to better understand your view on what it is you're studying. Although sometimes, as with all subjects, you can get the fun and fascinating parts and the dreadfully boring parts. The least you can do is to push through those boring parts and try to keep yourself engaged.

If the advice given to you here on CF has not helped you in anyway at all, provided you have tried all the advice given, and burnout is still a problem: please see a therapist as they're better equipped to help you. Make sure you follow all advice given to you, not just here, but from friends, family, the school, and your doctor. There is no point in helping if you do not make an attempt to rid of the problems hurting you.
Click to expand...
man I got lot of different perspectives. It feels so great to see someone who helps you thank you a lot.
 
shivajikobardan said:
man I got lot of different perspectives. It feels so great to see someone who helps you thank you a lot.
Click to expand...
You're very welcome. I'm glad to have helped, but as I said, it is up to you to make the changes in your life. Nobody can force you to do stuff you don't want and there is no person with magical powers that can easily whip-up a cure in a few minutes. You take the advice and act. That is how you get better - antidepressants and other sorts of medication meant to dealt with mental issues will be of no help and they may just cause further problems(I'm not writing them off as rubbish, but rather, for your case, you really shouldn't need them to manage burnout unless it's causing you severe mental problems).

Good luck!
 

New Threads

Latest posts

Share this page

Buy us a coffee!

DataCamp Advertisement
Code Academy Advertisement

About Us

Code Forum is a community platform where coding enthusiasts can connect with other developers, engage in discussions, ask for help, and share their knowledge with a supportive community. It's a perfect place to improve your coding skills and to find a community of like-minded individuals who share your passion for coding.

Site links

Stay Connected

Back
Top Bottom