I’ve been having quite a stressful period of exams recently and at one point I started feeling a mixture of burnt out and depressed. I immediately stopped preparing for the exams, and to ease the thought that I would need to manage 2 more years of this (this is what triggered the depression), I started making plans to switch to an easier degree.
Usually when I feel depressed I know exactly why (my mind tunnel visions on the big picture problem and blocks out the present), and once I address the cause I begin to feel hopeful again. But this time, although doing these things eased the immediate feeling of burnout, I have carried on feeling depressed. I am usually a humorous person so I tried to watch my favourite comedy to rekindle my playfulness but I felt completely numb to the jokes and nuance in it that I usually appreciate. Same when I tried to socialize.
I’ve removed the cause so I don’t understand why I’m still depressed and what else I need to do to make my mind operate normally again. Could it be from other unadressed things in my life that have been in the background? Does anyone have any ideas?
Give yourself time. All “injuries” are different, and may take varying amounts of time to heal. It may be that burning out multiple times has made that spot in your psyche a little more sensitive each time. So while you’ve addressed the problem, it may just need more care before you feel better.
Allow yourself the opportunity to sit in these feelings. Don’t try to push them away or distract yourself from them. You have to face them head on and learn from them. If you cover them up with something else, then you’re not really dealing with them. They simply get queued up for the next time, and next time will be worse.
As for the next two years, it feels like a lot, but it’ll be over before you know it. Good luck on your exams, btw! You’ve got this!!