Her Travel Memories

The Physical Signs My Burnout Story Had Been Building For Months

This is my burnout story — and it starts not with a quiet resignation, but with a breakdown in a performance review I will never forget.

I guess I should start from the beginning – which means talking about my burnout, and how I ended up there. But for you, I guess it will only take a few minutes – just the time it takes to reach the end of this page. Lucky you.

In January 2025, I was diagnosed with severe burnout.
What made me finally seek professional help ?
That part is rather simple.
I broke down at work.
And when I say I broke down, I mean it. I didn’t just feel overwhelmed. I exploded. I got angry, I yelled, I cried – and for the first time, I had no control over my reactions or my emotions.
That’s when I knew something was seriously wrong.

At the time, I was working as a financial auditor.
By then, I had been doing the job for four years and had recently moved into a senior position.
On paper it looked like a normal progression.

In reality, it meant everything had changed.

I wasn’t just doing the work anymore. I was responsible for it. For the deadlines, for the quality, for the team, for the relationship with the clients, etc. If something went wrong, it was on me.

At the same time, we were understaffed.
The workload didn’t decrease – it just got redistributed. Fewer people, same expectations, same deadlines.
So I adapted.

I worked at client’s offices during the day, and in hotel rooms at night. I trained junior staff, reviewed their work, did mine, managed timelines, handled client pressure … and tried to keep everything from falling apart.

I told myself it was temporary. That I could handle it. That was just part of the job.

Then came mid-December 2024.
A performance review.
I remember sitting there, exhausted, already stretched too thin – and being told that I lacked team spirit, and that I wasn’t present enough at the office.

I didn’t even know how to process that.
I wasn’t absent. I was trying to be everywhere.
At clients’ offices. On deadlines. On calls. On nights that never ended.

But I wasn’t visible in the way they expected. And somehow, that erased everything else.

Something inside me snapped.
All the exhaustion, the pressure, the late nights work to compensate the lack of said team, the frustration I had been holding for – it all came out at once.
I got angry. I raised my voice. I cried.

I couldn’t stop it.
At that moment – as uncomfortable and overwhelming as it was – I realised I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t keep going like that. I needed help.

The truth is, my body had been warning me for a long time.
Constant headaches.
Waking up as tired as when I went to bed.
Making to do list at 3 am in the morning during insomnia.
Throwing up before work.
Anxiety every time I heard a Teams notification.
Tension in my neck and shoulders that just kept getting worse.

Every signal was there.
And still, I kept pushing.

For what ?

I don’t really have an answer.

But I did.
And now, here I am.

Trying to rebuild myself.
Learning how to slow down.
Learning how to exist without constantly running.
Trying to stop performing.

And maybe, learning to notice the quiet moments again.
Because in the end, those are the ones that stay.

Welcome to my journey.