> As to playing video games -- yes, they have high mental demand. The only difference between solving problems while playing the game and solving problems in ID

> As to playing video games -- yes, they have high mental demand. The only difference between solving problems while playing the game and solving problems in IDE is your will power. This isn't really true. Disregarding the fact that the mental demands of software engineering work and games can be of different kinds, there is also absolutely a difference in volition. Games are played voluntarily, and there's generally no external pressure (at least in single player games). Facing demands at work -- or even having the obligation to show up -- is not voluntary. You can also switch games at will. You can stop playing at will. Most people can't do those at work, at least not to the extent that one would actually feel free to do so. Whether you've got a sense of control and are doing things voluntarily, or whether you're doing the same things because you are or feel forced or obliged to, can AFAIK show up as actual differences in your neural activity (with stress-related areas being more active in the latter case). Anecdotally, and based on personal experience, burnout can also seriously turn things you used to enjoy into something that triggers immediate anxiety and (malignant) stress. That might be similar to the difference in volition if an activity that used to be within your control and more or less your own choice turns into a malignant stress-inducing forced one. At least it certainly doesn't help if you're both feeling forced to do something you don't feel is within your control and getting a massive stress spike out of even thinking about it. If you want to twist that, you could still technically say it's in your head, but it can be an actual physical difference. You're not wrong about all the things you're saying. Finding a place with lower actual demands, and settling with that at least for the time being, might actually be a good idea for OP. It's quite possible that OP might have a much greater chance at landing such a job than it feels right now. It's quite possible that some things actually aren't as bad as they feel to them right now. But saying someone is capable of doing a mentally (and, in burnout, probably emotionally) taxing thing A because they're capable of doing thing B that may or may not also be mentally taxing in a similar or different way isn't quite right. And pinning things onto the will power of a burned out person can be outright dangerous. I have no reason to doubt your personal experiences, but other people's experiences with burnout can be rather different from yours.