The mask I've been wearing most: pleasing others, helping others, trying to do more at work than I could cope with which contributed to burnout, How exhausting it's been: it’s been incredibly exhausting, I told myself I love work and I do but there comes a point where you can have so much to do where you have taken on a lot of extra tasks/projects and you wouldn’t know where to start first. I would make it through the week but at the weekend feel exhausted not just from having the mask on trying to appear like you have it altogether and before my symptoms got worse I felt very much like I didn’t have it together but the dreaded peri-m started which made the symptoms a lot worse than ever before by the time the weekend is over your beating yourself up for only doing as much as you could but wanting to do more and you feel like you have wasted a weekend trying to get over the week before and to get ready for the upcoming week then beat yourself up a little more for it. What I loved as a kid (before the masks): Was drawing, painting I could spend hours lost in creating a picture. Friction Audit complete, this are the exact steps i have to take: Prepared my desk, switched on the computer, I have written some steps down but haven’t fined it.

The mask I've been wearing most: Pleasing others, always helping others, and taking on more work than I could realistically manage. I often said yes to extra tasks and projects to support my manager or colleagues, even when I was already on the verge of feeling overwhelmed. Constantly trying to meet everyone else's expectations ultimately contributed to my burnout. How exhausting it's been: It has been incredibly exhausting. I always told myself that I loved work and wanted to do my very best. That may be linked to my ADHD, as I feel a real sense of satisfaction when I accomplish something, if I don’t feel like accomplished anything I feel miserable. However, after 47 years, I'm no longer sure whether I genuinely love working or whether I'm driven by the feeling of completing tasks, I feel lost, if I’m honest😒. The problem comes when there are simply too many tasks and too many responsibilities. Taking on extra work to please other’s and until I reach a point where I have no idea where to start. I would get through the working week, but by the weekend I was completely exhausted. Before my symptoms became significantly worse, I felt like I had everything under control and could manage it all, even though I was masking and trying to appear as though everything was fine. When perimenopause began, my ADHD symptoms became much more intense more noticeable, and I noticed a real shift in myself. By the weekend, I would spend most of my time trying to recover from the previous week and prepare myself for the next week. Even though I was exhausted, I would criticise myself for not achieving more during the week and on the weekends. Instead of recognising that I needed rest, I felt guilty for "wasting" the weekend recovering, and then I would feel even worse for not getting everything done that I had hoped or planned to, and this was without others then making me feel even worse by criticising what I hadn’t done too. What I loved as a kid (before the masks): I loved drawing and painting. I could spend hours completely absorbed in creating a picture, losing track of time because I enjoyed it so much.