Is This Burnout or Menopause?

So what is it that you wanna talk to me about?

Well, um, when I sent the question in, uh, for this, I'm really in a season.

I'm about to turn 57 on Sunday, and so I'm a empty nester.

I have two sons, and they're 29 and 27.

I'm in full-time ministry.

Don't plan on quitting any time soon.

Um, but the season that I'm in, and also just frankly going through menopause, as a woman at this age, um ...

Probably about 10 years ago, I had a total hysterectomy, um, and ovaries and all the things, so that was a shift.

Also dealing with chronic autoimmune pain.

I was diagnosed in my mid-30s with that, so that's something I've navigated over the years.

And the question is really is just caretaking also with older parents.

Um, w- in this season, you know, I'm trying to really decipher, and I'm ju- am I just tired and exhausted, or am I burned out? Um, and I vacillate between those a lot.

I think it's how I'm wired.

I'm a very high, like, achiever, only child, but grew up in a alcoholic home.

Um, and so, um, you know, I like to handle things in crisis and all those, and I love to help people, but sometimes I can get on the extreme end of that.

And ministry, um, it ...

I have to be very careful that it doesn't bleed over, my full-time ministry that I do, that I get paid to do-

Yeah

... um, bleed over into my personal life.

And so, um, in this season with some extra things happening, it's, uh, it, it seems very cloudy to me.

And so I'm like, "You know, is it time to take a sabbatical? Am I burned out? Am I just tired?" Um, so that's it.

Yeah.

I think that's a question that a lot of people struggle with in this stage of life, and probably even starting in your 40s with perimenopause and all of the symptoms that come with that, is this A physical response? Is this, is this an emotional response? Is it burnout? Is it my hormones? How do I know what's what?

Yeah.

And I think the tricky part about it is that oftentimes it's a little bit of both, and it's hard to decipher what's what.