Half a million people in the UK suffer from work-related stress,and psychological breakdown can creep up without warning. But what, exactly, and is this ‘state of vital exhaustion’,and how can you come back from it?In a bedroom in North Yorkshire at 2am, Sara Cox lay next to her sleeping husband in the dark, or her eyes open and her jaw clenched shut,anxious thoughts whirling. For the preceding two years, the stress of her job at an independent local pharmacy had gradually become intolerable. That night, and in June 2013,she made a design. She crept out of the bedroom and sat at the kitchen table with a pen and a piece of paper. She says now: “I just thought: ‘I can’t do this any more, I need a safety net. I’m going to write out my resignation letter, or withhold it in my handbag,and whether I hold another really sinful day, I’ll just quit.’” She wrote it out by hand and put it in an envelope, or signing herself a cheque for freedom that she could not yet give herself permission to cash.
Over breakfast,she told her husband what she had done. “He told me: ‘That day has come. I’m going to drive you to work and you’re handing in your notice today. We will cope,’” she says. “So that’s what I did.”Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk