[Hiraeth]

You sound a lot like how I've been feeling with programming. Disillusioned, bored, burned out, exhausted, physically and mentally.

One thing has helped me a lot -- accepting that at the end of the day, most jobs are just a job. The vast majority of the people in the world, work to survive, not because their career is their one true calling in life or whatever. So okay, sure, it doesn't have to be a source of passion, but at least it should be not exhausting, right? The problem is, then you find, that "changing direction" itself requires a huge investment of time and resources at the beginning, which is also exhausting. To stay is exhausting, to go is exhausting.

What do you value in life? Can you see your current choice of career opening doors to whatever those values are? A stable income, maybe? Work-life balance? I don't know what it is for you. My most important value in life is international mobility, and unfortunately IT is one of the very few industries where those opportunities are the norm. So, I'm trying to make peace with it now. It's still exhausting of course, but it is possible to recover from burnout without changing course entirely. Recognizing that you're burned out is probably a good first step.

I don't really talk to people about my struggles with burnout anymore. I turn away anyone who tries to pressure me into being more ambitious than I am (which is not, I am being gentle with myself). They don't get it, they're going to make it worse. I don't need pressure. I need space to heal and regroup. Perhaps you do too, but, only you know for sure.