Conversation

Are people more nonfunctional than I think, but hiding it well? Every time I try to describe my difficulty getting things done, people go "yeah me too" but from the outside their lives look great. I woke up exhausted today and have gotten 0 things done and feel like a poophuman.

552

Aella

@Aella_Girl

I just went to a party/conference thing and there's a few important connections I need to follow up on but I'm just... too tired and scattered. I feel overwhelmed by the big projects I have to do coming up, I wanna crawl into the bath and hide. this seems clearly abnormal, right?

12:24 AM · Aug 11, 2021

Replying to

Is there a term for this? "Tired and overwhelmed syndrome"? "Sorry-I-didn't-respond-to-your-lovely-message-I'm-super-avoidant-itus"? "Disease of I'll never found a successful company because at week 2.5 I'll get tired, avoid your email once and then enter a downward spiral"?

179

Replying to

No this describes me a lot of the time. The danger I think is in considering this to be abnormal and then not allowing ourselves to have the rest that we clearly need. (See also: hustle culture)

Replying to

Nah, pretty normal, at least for a nontrivial subset of the population. Unless it happens frequently. Back when I was working in an office I generally had at least one day a month where I was just went 'Nope' and went back to bed, and most would consider me extremely functional.

eVErY0nE iS a pr0bLeM

Replying to

Clearly normal.

Replying to

You need an assistant.

Replying to

after an event like this, which is extremely costly in "energy" for me, I don't even expect myself to directly follow up/do anything. one of my pitfalls for years was to never actively decide to relax/recharge, so I would just get nothing done AND feel bad about it instead

Replying to

very normal IMO I think what’s not so common is talking openly about it, which lots of people are scared to do, or consider tacky or vulgar (sometimes as a way to displace their fear/disgust, sometimes as a cultural inheritance, probably more reasons)

Replying to

Nah, I feel like this sometimes, and you would think I have my shit together looking at my life (not to your taste, perhaps, but together all the same). You also look like you have your shit together, so I think the bar for that is just lower than it feels like it should be :)

Replying to

Most people can’t and don’t do big projects, they cruise by or wait for someone to tell them what to do. Are you comparing yourself to hyper startup bro types? It’s not dysfunctional to be lazy, it’s adaptive.

Show more replies