Hi Parker.

Please know you are not alone in your feelings and experience of life. If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend Elaine Aron’s now classic book, “The Highly Sensitive Person” (first published in the late 90s). There is also a companion workbook with the same title, which I found very helpful in helping me identify and work to minimize my stress triggers. Of course, reading books about relaxation tips is easier than putting them into practice, esp. in this increasingly fast-paced, noisy, crowded, 24/7 connected world…:).

But this book was a lifesaver for me. Until I found and read it, I felt very alone in my “different-ness”–like there was something terribly wrong with just me. I now realize I am in good company. In fact, after comparing notes with my non-HSP friends, I realize that our burnout feelings are not unusual–even among non-HSP–but simply often a very sane, rational response to life in a fast-paced, hectic, crowded, noisy world fraught with increased workplace/life imbalance. I have also noticed that once quiet libraries–at least they were quiet when I was a kid–have now become noisier. Perhaps you could ask your supervisors if they can assign you to tasks not involving so much constant public interaction (stocking, processing, or ordering new books in a back room).

Your comment that you are “just worn out from life” is very telling…. Of course, I’m not a dr., but if you feel that terrible long- term, and you aren’t finding relief with rest or taking breaks, days off, I urge you to seek professional help ASAP as chronic fatigue/exhaustion is a classic symptom of serious, major depression.

Or perhaps your burnout is a hint that you need to take a long-overdue vacation or make significant changes in your life. I failed to listen to my body/psyche when they were whispering more subtle alarm bells years earlier; ignoring those earlier hints literally landed me in the ER. It was a painful, dramatic wake-up call, but I am grateful for it because it finally forced me to make long-overdue changes in life: ditching a draining, stressful, job that required long overnight travel and daily interaction with demanding, sometimes verbally abusive clients and deciding to finally moving out of a large, noisy, overcrowded city–both bad fits for a quiet, introverted HSP like me.

Best of luck to you.