[mmasters]

As of now I'm recovering from burn out after dealing with a prolonged bad work situation and some troubles in my personal life. So anyway it made me more aware of where our limits are and that burnout is a real phenomenon when people are pushed too hard (as when emotional stress becomes overwhelming for a prolonged period of time). I really believe that PO or events stemming from it have the power to burn out vast segements of society. Curious how many of you have dealt with breakdowns or depressions resulting from being overloaded. Experiencing it really leads me to believe that a good portion of society will become frail when TSHTF (as I'm more conscious of the possibility for it within myself).

[threadbear]

I strongly recommend these books to get any kind of gauge at all, as to what people CAN tolerate, how different personality types react to cultural paradigm shifts, economic deprivations, and war.

Hard Times--Studs Terkel

Down and Out in Paris and London--George Orwell

And There was Light--Jacques Lusseyran.

Man's Search for Meaning--Victor Frankyl

The Invisible Writing--Arthur Koestler.

[roccman]

Get out of the city...town...village that imprisons you...

Ask a child how his world is...ask yourself how your world is...then hug the child.

Take a hike...ride a bike...

Grab a handful of soil and smell it...

Taste a leaf.

Listen to the cry of a desert dove after a summer rain.

Find the north star.

Feel the heart beat of the planet...it is a rythmic one...one that will bring you in and never let you go.

Laugh - loud...hard and often...

Cry - and then cry again.

It is all good bro!

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mmasters', 'A')s of now I'm recovering from burn out after dealing with a prolonged bad work situation and some troubles in my personal life. So anyway it made me more aware of where our limits are and that burnout is a real phenomenon when people are pushed too hard (as when emotional stress becomes overwhelming for a prolonged period of time). I really believe that PO or events stemming from it have the power to burn out vast segements of society. Curious how many of you have dealt with breakdowns or depressions resulting from being overloaded. Experiencing it really leads me to believe that a good portion of society will become frail when TSHTF (as I'm more conscious of the possibility for it within myself).

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mmasters', 'A')s of now I'm recovering from burn out after dealing with a prolonged bad work situation and some troubles in my personal life. So anyway it made me more aware of where our limits are and that burnout is a real phenomenon when people are pushed too hard (as when emotional stress becomes overwhelming for a prolonged period of time). I really believe that PO or events stemming from it have the power to burn out vast segements of society. Curious how many of you have dealt with breakdowns or depressions resulting from being overloaded. Experiencing it really leads me to believe that a good portion of society will become frail when TSHTF (as I'm more conscious of the possibility for it within myself).

[mkwin]

Well I am under a lot of pressure at the moment. I do a pretty fast paced high pressure job in the city and knowing it has no future means I have lost all motivation and it shows in my performance.

I will be telling my boss that I am quitting over the next couple of days and I will be moving back home some 150 miles away to start retraining for a job that might still be needed post-peak in a moderate scenario. Man peak oil is hard. So many uncertainties.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mkwin', 'W')ell I am under a lot of pressure at the moment. I do a pretty fast paced high pressure job in the city and knowing it has no future means I have lost all motivation and it shows in my performance.

I will be telling my boss that I am quitting over the next couple of days and I will be moving back home some 150 miles away to start retraining for a job that might still be needed post-peak in a moderate scenario. Man peak oil is hard. So many uncertainties.

[Iaato]

Yup, right there with you MMasters. I'm in health care, and cumulative stress, some personal grief, a work setting with some bad actors and an agenda too far removed from peak oil values all contributed to my dropping out recently. Stress is a killer, and it is additive and cumulative. I see it over and over and over. The statistic that 80-90% of all illness is stress-linked or stress-related is pretty accurate.

Add to that the cognitive dissonance of knowing that either I'm an anachronism because of my quaint belief in peak oil or my job and lifestyle is the anachronism 'cause they just don't get it doesn't help. Better to get started with how I mean to go on now that this change is impending. At some point you need to make the transition, or at least start to make changes.

And frankly I'm making and saving more money now doing what I need to do in terms of LBYM, simple living, watching after my finances more carefully and anticipating changes, than when I was working one or more jobs and a mad stress-puppy. And the only way I've had the time to make the changes I needed to make was to drop out of the high-energy lifestyle. But dropout is only possible if you've stayed off the debt treadmill.

Your body generally will let you know about burnout before your brain does. It pays to listen.

[Heineken]

I am burned out from enduring the worst drought of my adult life. We have had only half an inch of rain here going back well into August, and it's running 5 to 10 degrees F warmer than "normal" each and every day. We went two whole weeks without even seeing a cloud. The sun is murderous. They're now calling for record highs in the 90s next week, which will be close to 20 degrees above normal. Our streams have dried up, our well is weakening, our forests are under severe stress, and fire looms. I've given up on some of my plantings, which are dying. There seems to be no end to this in sight.

If you're tied to the land in any way, a drought is absolutely the worst thing there is, except for a tornado, which at least is mercifully brief. A drought is slow torture, with ever-building pressure. I can well understand how drought-stricken farmers in Australia and India have been killing themselves rather than deal with it any longer.

I am burned out from taking care of two crazy, controling octogenarians, aka my parents. You talk about stress, mmasters!

Combine this personal stuff with what I know about PO, GW, the real economy, and the rest of it, and I'm feeling unusually gloomy. Wish I could do what roccman advises and just walk away, but it ain't that easy.

[Pops]

Seems to me everyone here is talking about Working for Cash to buy Stuff stress.

I do some of that still; I have done that exclusively in the past and sweated through many shirts in the process.

I find doing work that benefits me solely is a great remedy to outside induced stress.

Burn out from PO seems to me the signal you are approaching PO in the wrong way if you think like I do that PO will be a long haul.

As well, thinking about what the other guy is gonna do then, should take a backseat to what you are thinking of doing now so you don't wind up as The Other Guy.

Just my thoughts…

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mkwin', 'W')ell I am under a lot of pressure at the moment. I do a pretty fast paced high pressure job in the city and knowing it has no future means I have lost all motivation and it shows in my performance.

I will be telling my boss that I am quitting over the next couple of days and I will be moving back home some 150 miles away to start retraining for a job that might still be needed post-peak in a moderate scenario. Man peak oil is hard. So many uncertainties.

[PenultimateManStanding]

I have a feeling that the sadness will only increase as the bad news deepens. It's enough to make me wish I was a fundamentalist Christian and could believe The Rapture was approaching. I can't believe in such tales of course, but I can see how it might help to do so. But aside from that, one of the issues that bothers me is the uncertainty that won't go away. We've got data posted at the oildrum saying oil production peaked already in 2005. And we've got ASPO saying peak will occur in 2011. Dammit, I need to know, which is it?

[mmasters]

Thanks all, I feel better knowing I'm not alone in this and that other people are experiencing similar. I really feel sorry for those that are working off the land and aren't managing well.

I will definitely check out those books TB.

Iaato, any thoughts for beating burnout? I'm relaxing for now, doing what I can to be on a good schedule, exercise some and eat healthy. I'm looking to get back in gear somewhat soon if possible.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'I') am burned out from enduring the worst drought of my adult life. We have had only half an inch of rain here going back well into August, and it's running 5 to 10 degrees F warmer than "normal" each and every day. We went two whole weeks without even seeing a cloud. The sun is murderous. They're now calling for record highs in the 90s next week, which will be close to 20 degrees above normal. Our streams have dried up, our well is weakening, our forests are under severe stress, and fire looms. I've given up on some of my plantings, which are dying. There seems to be no end to this in sight.

If you're tied to the land in any way, a drought is absolutely the worst thing there is, except for a tornado, which at least is mercifully brief. A drought is slow torture, with ever-building pressure. I can well understand how drought-stricken farmers in Australia and India have been killing themselves rather than deal with it any longer.

I am burned out from taking care of two crazy, controling octogenarians, aka my parents. You talk about stress, mmasters!

Combine this personal stuff with what I know about PO, GW, the real economy, and the rest of it, and I'm feeling unusually gloomy. Wish I could do what roccman advises and just walk away, but it ain't that easy.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'T')hat's the problem isn't it. The uncertainty. Not knowing. That place between heaven and hell.

They want to talk about work, movies, music, crops, economy and all I want to do is scream "peak oil, you f@ckin numbnuts." But that gets you nowhere fast.

[billp]

The US government is also suffering extreme stress at this time.

The feds think that they are about to get nuked.

For good reason, of course.

We, of course, counsel peaceful settlement of these unfortunate matters.

Let's do something more to NSA.

And, of course too, focus on energy issues. With a digital camera.