Burned Out: COVID-19 Has Made Me Hate My Dream Job

Andrea Duran
ILLUMINATION
Published in
6 min readSep 28, 2022

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Having a nervous breakdown and burnout as a mental health counselor is never an option. Job burnout has caused stress rashes, headaches, and my own dire need for counseling services.

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

Once upon a time, I was one of the most compassionate, optimistic mental health counselors who believed determination, healing, and positive self-thinking could solve anything in life.

Almost one year later, I have job burnout. I have transformed into an imbittered bridge troll demanding clients solve their own riddles to life before they even consider calling me for a session.

“I am stressed!” I hiss at them, eating leftover garbage from underneath my dank, cavernous bridge, “Leave me alone!”

There are times when I feel I have become the belt-bearing mother whose children often say, “Why did you have kids if you’re just going to be mean all the time?!”

I have become the professional I have always judged and despised, in a field, I thought I loved.

Almost a year into counseling and I find myself watching Robert Deniro’s violent foot stomping in Goodfellas and think to myself, “God that must be great.”

If you feel this way, it is highly possible you, too, are suffering from job burnout.

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Andrea Duran
ILLUMINATION

Writer | Self-Development | Mental Health | Addiction | Fiction | B.A. Eng/Pysch | Addiction Counselor | Certified Hot Mess | https://linktr.ee/dreabookjunkie