Recognizing the physical and psychological tells is half the battle, says author Emma Gannon
How to start … anything: expert tips for trying something new
What do you do when you come to a hard stop? When work has got too much, even friendships feel like a drain and you feel like you simply can’t keep going with your life as it currently is?
For Emma Gannon, the answer was extreme but non-negotiable: an entire year of nothing – or close to it. Gannon, the London-based author of fiction, nonfiction and the Hyphen newsletter, burned out with a bang in late 2022. While on a spa weekend with a friend, she had a panic attack, her first ever.
Gannon notes the irony of having “a mental breakdown at a luxury hotel”, but her fight-or-flight, apocalyptic feeling seemed to warrant extreme measures. After being diagnosed with anxiety and burnout, she pared her life and commitments back to the bare minimum and spent the next 12 months recuperating.
