I'm glad you are doing better. I think the author here does understand what burnout is, and was able to notice the symptoms a lot earlier. It shouldn't get to the point of not even being able to decide what to watch on Netflix. Burnout happens, and I think conditions less serious than yours can still be called burnout.
Again, really happy you are ok. I hope you are working in an environment that is healthy, and that you are able to prevent burning out again.
I think you saw a "doesn't" that wasn't there in the opening line: "This person understands what actual burnout is." The Netflix reference was from the original post.
Thank you :) a number of things helped. Sadly, one of them was the death of my parents (but they were cared for and respected right to the end, and my darker take on their expectations can't hurt them now), and another was cutting ties with some family members.
Another thing that helped was Patreon, honestly, and I'll tell you specifically why: formerly I was making products sold commercially. This produced a lot of pressure to have 'hit' products, and a lot of fear when the ideas weren't coming, or when the idea wasn't selling. Going open source and Patreon-supported changed that to a more distributed system that was less bursty: didn't make as much peak money by a factor of three or more, but it was far FAR more predictable.
The increasing stability of this has been a huge help. I believe if society instantiated a basic income, that too would help many people avoid burnout, and remain productive, for the same reasons. Over-pressure is real, and damages productivity.
Have you written anything about your experience in "Going open source and Patreon-supported"? Most of the examples I've come across seem to be receiving trivial amounts.
Again, really happy you are ok. I hope you are working in an environment that is healthy, and that you are able to prevent burning out again.