For eight months, the 33-year-old marketing manager knew something wasn’t right. It’s not overwhelming sadness or burnout that forces you to quit your job. Just a certain emotional dullness. On Reddit’s r/work, he described feeling overwhelmed at work and feeling “flat” when he gets home with no energy or interest to do anything.
At first I thought he might have depression. His boyfriend suggested therapy, and after six sessions, he got answers he wasn’t expecting.
“My therapist said I’m not depressed,” he said. “I hate my job and I don’t know what to do with that information.”
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It’s not your situation that’s wrong, it’s your brain that’s wrong.
That distinction was important. He wasn’t struggling in every aspect of his life. The weekend felt good. The holidays felt normal. He was absorbed in his friends and hobbies, and slept well. This problem occurred almost exclusively during work.
“Your brain isn’t broken,” the therapist told him. “Your situation is wrong.”
The man earns about $94,000 working in marketing for an insurance company and has nearly 10 years of experience in the field. But something has changed over the past two years. Jobs that once seemed appealing now seem meaningless. “Everything I do feels like I’m just going through the motions,” he said.
The real problem was figuring out which part of the job was causing it. Was it the company? What is the industry? Marketing itself? Or are you simply doing the same type of work for too long?
He feared that if he quit without giving answers, he would end up with the same outcome elsewhere, “doing the same thing in another building.”
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Words from people who have been there
The answers showed that his situation was more common than he thought.
Many said their therapists had already done the most difficult part of narrowing down the problem. “Most people spend years believing they are depressed when in fact they are depressed in some situations,” one commenter wrote.
Some pointed to burnout as a likely contributing factor. The numb, lethargic feeling that nothing at work seems to matter that he described is a common sign, especially in roles that are repetitive or lack growth.
Some people suggested that instead of leaving in a hurry, break the work into smaller pieces and find the real cause of the problem.
One person said he tracked his two-week workday and wrote down what he did, who he worked with, and how he felt. Then they started noticing patterns they hadn’t noticed before.
“Suddenly, we started seeing all kinds of patterns,” they wrote. “These patterns emphasized that I could stay where I was. The people and the industry were okay, but I was bored. I was missing out on learning and growth.”
That insight later helped me make a more planned career change instead of reacting impulsively.
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The difference between bad work and a broken system
A recurring theme was that the problem was often not the job itself, but the specific circumstances surrounding the job.
Many people say this problem usually stems from feeling purposeless in their work, dealing with office politics, doing the same tasks over and over again, and spending too much time in meetings or reports that don’t feel important.
“Most of my stress and depression comes from work,” said one person. “Office politics is no joke. It feels like I’m back in high school. The only solution is to find a better working environment, which is difficult these days.”
“Finding a new job has changed my life,” added another. “I feel like a weight has been lifted.”
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This article After feeling “flat” for eight months, a 33-year-old woman thought she had depression and went to a therapist. “Turns out they just hated their jobs” appeared first on Benzinga.com
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