Have you ever felt so sad and tired that you get goosebumps?
I have been dealing with burnout for last couple of months, and it really got worse in the last week. I am a person in STEM academia, and I found out that after giving my everything to a project for two years, it's not worthy enough to be publishable. I felt so heartbroken, I lost my appetite, I lost my ability to focus on basic stuff. I made the mistake of making my work my entire life...and now that it amounted to nothing, I lost my purpose. I've always found it hard to make new friends...most of them seem to be incredibly performative before you can actually get to know them, and I'm so tired of it. I'm tired of reaching out everytime, and at the same time, I am tired of having to do everything by myself.
Tldr: My burnout got worse after professional failure. The realisation that I don't have a life outside my work crushed me and left me feeling empty.