Have you ever had a couple of sleepless nights in a row? Do you remember how tired, unproductive you were? In that state, would you rather exercise/sunbath/eat healthier/...? No, you would go sleep. The next day, you'll feel much better and then you would apply all those good advice.
It is neither good nor bad that you need to rest (mentally or physically), it's just how your body and mind function. Blaming yourself, adding judgement in this won't help, quite the contrary. Sometimes we have energy and we go forward, sometimes we're all stressed out, not feeling well, tired, you name it, and we need to rest. We all have theses cycles, only their duration and intensity varies for each person and it's totally okay. You are legitimate in needing some time off to feel better, the sooner you take some the sooner you'll be able to function again.
Don't put rigor and severity in this but rather self love. Have empathy for yourself in the same way you would if you saw a child in this condition. That's for the immediate term, but in the long run there's no better advice than to see a mental health professional. No book, no youtube video, no HN comment will equal the benefits of professional accompaniment.
Edit: resting can take many shapes. Sleeping, temporarily isolating yourself from your family, practicing an activity you enjoy, traveling, etc. Authorize yourself to do what you want to do without any "I should" / "I shouldn't" judgement.
Out of all the things this is going to be the most difficult to do. I'll try. It's just so hard to feel like I deserve it. I'll just have to accept that taking legitimate leisure time is part of the job. Thank you.
Many answers assume that you have ADHD, that may be the case but here's another path to explore: undealt-with emotions.
Imagine you have a wire on your hand and you want to plug it to an electrical outlet that's on the wall right in front of you. You technically have all it takes to plug it. What if there's so much garbage between you and the wall that you can't reach to the electrical outlet? You can't plug the thing no matter how hard you try. Not that you're lacking something, but rather that some stuff gets in your way.
Emotions do get in the way. Some you may understand, some you may suspect, some you may not even be aware of. This is very common and you can work on these issues.. but probably not by yourself. If you decide that you're okay with discovering what's going on that you're not aware of yet (there always is some things we're not aware of), then a trained psychologist can help you a lot.
Oftentimes people suggest technics, tricks and whatnot to get around the symptoms. Maybe it's best to face the problem, understand it and fix it not with guilt but with kindness.
There's a third solution to your situation: keep your current job and take freelance/remote projects. You make way more money, you have things to do and show, and you can always decide to leave this position if it stagnates.
I can't believe more people aren't suggesting this.
It happened to me and after going through similiar feelings and almost quiting I started learning everything I wanted to but never had the time. Then I got involved with a local startup and now I have two jobs.
Never worked on the second job during company time for the first but being able to de-engage and saving the mind for the second job makes it possible.
It is neither good nor bad that you need to rest (mentally or physically), it's just how your body and mind function. Blaming yourself, adding judgement in this won't help, quite the contrary. Sometimes we have energy and we go forward, sometimes we're all stressed out, not feeling well, tired, you name it, and we need to rest. We all have theses cycles, only their duration and intensity varies for each person and it's totally okay. You are legitimate in needing some time off to feel better, the sooner you take some the sooner you'll be able to function again.
Don't put rigor and severity in this but rather self love. Have empathy for yourself in the same way you would if you saw a child in this condition. That's for the immediate term, but in the long run there's no better advice than to see a mental health professional. No book, no youtube video, no HN comment will equal the benefits of professional accompaniment.
Edit: resting can take many shapes. Sleeping, temporarily isolating yourself from your family, practicing an activity you enjoy, traveling, etc. Authorize yourself to do what you want to do without any "I should" / "I shouldn't" judgement.