Notification

Error

Workplace stress + ADT fatigue = burnout?

User
Posted 01 Aug 2026 at 22:54

I was diagnosed 5 months ago, have been on ADT for 4 months, and am due to start radiotherapy in a couple of weeks.
I’m still working, taking time off only for appointments. My employer has been brilliant—going well beyond their duty under the Equality Act to provide reasonable adjustments, allowing me to work from home with full flexibility.
The thing is, I *want* to work. I’m a product engineer designing cabin parts for passenger cars. Work has been a great way to keep my mind off this pestilential disease; I genuinely enjoy solving technical challenges.
Unfortunately, over the last month or two, I’ve hit a human challenge I can’t solve: the program manager for my projects. On the surface, he’s affable and friendly. At first, I honestly worried he had early-onset dementia because of how much he forgets. I’d give him precise technical information, only for him to ask for it again days later.
On Thursday, after a long phone call, the penny dropped: he doesn’t have dementia at all. He’s just winging it. His sole objective is covering his backside. This contrasts starkly with my job as an engineer, which is to ensure we manufacture high-quality parts cost-effectively, within realistic timelines, and strictly adhering to the laws of physics.
During the call, he completely ignored a critical engineering instruction I’d given him. When I made it clear he could not proceed with his proposed plan, he told me I was "being silly," claimed it was just a "Plan B," blamed purchasing, sales, and the customer, and essentially BS-ed his way to the end of the call.
At that point, I hit a state of mind I almost never reach: *“F*** it.”* I hate seeing projects fail, but if a senior manager thinks his spin takes precedence over engineering reality, I felt powerlessly forced to let him burn it down.
After that call, I did something I’ve never done in my career. I set my status to offline, went to bed, and slept until 6:00 p.m. On Friday morning, despite having urgent tasks, I couldn't face it and stayed in bed all day.
Since then, I’ve been obsessively replaying that call, realizing how much energy this man spends spinning plates to avoid being unmasked as the root cause of weekly disasters.
More concerningly, my ability to connect with my family has temporarily shut down. When the grandchildren were over this evening—normally something I love—the noise overwhelmed me. I retreated upstairs. When I heard my wife coming up, I put a pillow over my face because I just couldn't engage.
I feel like I’ve hit a wall. In normal times—prior to prostate cancer and the grinding fatigue of ADT—I would have found a professional, pragmatic way to handle this guy. That phone call wouldn't have broken me. But it did.
**My question to the group:**
Is it normal for ADT fatigue and treatment stress to completely decimate your normal tolerance for workplace nonsense?
I’m seeing my GP on Monday to request being signed off, at least until radiotherapy is wrapped up. Because the core of my job usually protects my mental health, I’m hoping to return eventually on restricted duties—focusing strictly on creating useful things, completely divorced from office politics and arguing with managers.
Would appreciate hearing if others have experienced a similar sudden drop in their stress threshold while on treatment.

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 14:25

Hi, again, mate

I know you jokingly dread hormone treatment turning you into Ada Shufflebotham. 😁

However, joking apart, hormone treatment can cause anxiety, depression, mood swings, changes in your cognitive thinking and lower  your stress thresholds.

It might be, on top of having to deal with the stress of a PCa diagnosis, the psychological changes caused by HT, have made you less tolerant of those about you including work colleagues and family.

My wife, says, that I've changed since my diagnosis.  She thinks that I've become more impatient, less tolerant, more withdrawn and more argumentative 

I hope that your GP can help.

Good luck. 👍

Edited by member 02 Aug 2026 at 14:35  | Reason: Additional text

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 18:15

Thanks, Ade.

Whether you think it or not, your wife is right. Every time.

I think it's fair to say that I have experienced all of those things to some extent or another. I started having hot flushes during the heatwave, and I was never quite sure if it was the weather or me. Actually, at first they were almost pleasant sensation. But with the workplace stress, I noticed that I had the hot flush sensation for a whole morning.

I have noticed a couple of other signs of excess stress, which are small and personal to me, but they've happened a couple of times in my life. So, whether ADT has weakened my psyche, or the unexpressed worry about PCa has set me up to be less able to cope, I don't know. What I do know is that aim not I'm not imagining it. I have done everything I can to make sure my employer doesn't fail on this one task, and it's on the record so, If someone who owns a lot more than me thinks that his uninformed opinion can get around  arithmetical fact, let him. I will not be there to see it all go belly-up.

Thanks for indulging me once again. I don't know what happened to Ada Shufflebotham. The thought of it tickled me but on reflection I'd rather be doing what I'm doing!

 

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 21:01
Tough issue Lemsip.

I can't help thinking your problem is 90% your colleague and only 10% the fact that you feel more vulnerable while undergoing prostate cancer treatment.

I think your plan of asking to be signed off work until treatment is over is reasonable. But if it were me I would first, just for my own peace of mind, send an email putting on the record in writing your professional engineering advice on the particular issue. You do want to return to having the job satisfaction your are used to, and you need to know that you are not misquoted and your professional expertise doubted while you are absent.

Good luck.

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 22:14

Hi Lemsip - see my reply on MacMillan forum!!!

aka KrisPy

Best wishes - stay positive

CeePee

Show Most Thanked Posts
User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 14:25

Hi, again, mate

I know you jokingly dread hormone treatment turning you into Ada Shufflebotham. 😁

However, joking apart, hormone treatment can cause anxiety, depression, mood swings, changes in your cognitive thinking and lower  your stress thresholds.

It might be, on top of having to deal with the stress of a PCa diagnosis, the psychological changes caused by HT, have made you less tolerant of those about you including work colleagues and family.

My wife, says, that I've changed since my diagnosis.  She thinks that I've become more impatient, less tolerant, more withdrawn and more argumentative 

I hope that your GP can help.

Good luck. 👍

Edited by member 02 Aug 2026 at 14:35  | Reason: Additional text

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 18:15

Thanks, Ade.

Whether you think it or not, your wife is right. Every time.

I think it's fair to say that I have experienced all of those things to some extent or another. I started having hot flushes during the heatwave, and I was never quite sure if it was the weather or me. Actually, at first they were almost pleasant sensation. But with the workplace stress, I noticed that I had the hot flush sensation for a whole morning.

I have noticed a couple of other signs of excess stress, which are small and personal to me, but they've happened a couple of times in my life. So, whether ADT has weakened my psyche, or the unexpressed worry about PCa has set me up to be less able to cope, I don't know. What I do know is that aim not I'm not imagining it. I have done everything I can to make sure my employer doesn't fail on this one task, and it's on the record so, If someone who owns a lot more than me thinks that his uninformed opinion can get around  arithmetical fact, let him. I will not be there to see it all go belly-up.

Thanks for indulging me once again. I don't know what happened to Ada Shufflebotham. The thought of it tickled me but on reflection I'd rather be doing what I'm doing!

 

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 21:01
Tough issue Lemsip.

I can't help thinking your problem is 90% your colleague and only 10% the fact that you feel more vulnerable while undergoing prostate cancer treatment.

I think your plan of asking to be signed off work until treatment is over is reasonable. But if it were me I would first, just for my own peace of mind, send an email putting on the record in writing your professional engineering advice on the particular issue. You do want to return to having the job satisfaction your are used to, and you need to know that you are not misquoted and your professional expertise doubted while you are absent.

Good luck.

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 22:14

Hi Lemsip - see my reply on MacMillan forum!!!

aka KrisPy

Best wishes - stay positive

CeePee

User
Posted 02 Aug 2026 at 22:38
Spot on, J-B. Your instincts were dead right. If this had happened a year ago, I would have been just as frustrated. The difference now is more that I will be taking time out soon for RT, and I wanted this to run smoothly, but however much I tried, this person could not be persuaded to follow instructions. And the ADT fatigue...? Who knows. I might be a bit more sensitive - I might want things to go my way more than normal. Maybe I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself. I don't think I'm in a position to expalin, which is whay I asked in the first place.

As for your advice that I get it in writing, YES! And ss it turned out, I didn't even have to go out of my way to put it on the record.

On Friday lunchtime, assuming I was safely out of the picture, the colleague sent a grand broadcast email to the senior team. Without my inconvenient facts in his way, he laid out a "slick" plan to save the project—a crisis that only exists because he doesn't know what he's doing. The man is a master of spin, but a novice at arithmetic, and he was telling people to do the very thing that I have repeatedely said he can not, and must not expect to be able to, because its impossible.

I found this out because I logged in this morning purely to set my Out of Office, saw his email, and seized the open goal.

I replied to everyone he'd had the foresight to share the situation with. laid out the Issue, the Rules, the Facts, and the Conclusion. Because the "Rule" in this case is simple, unforgiving arithmetic, there is zero room for misinterpretation or debate. No emotion, no opinion—just physical constraints and documented history. He can't misquote me, he can't claim he wasn't warned, and he certainly can't claim insubordination; I simply gave him the maths. Again, but this time to some adults too.

Aside from this one individual, there is massive mutual respect among my colleagues, so I’m not worried about my job. The real stress was the sheer frustration of realizing someone I’d spent months trying to help and settle in is actually a total charlatan—a dodgy used car salesman crossed with the Keystone Cops.

Putting the facts on the record has been immensely cathartic, and I’m already feeling more like my normal self. I am still off to the GP, though, to secure proper medical protection so I don't have to engage with this circus any further while undergoing treatment.

Thank you for the nudge and the solid advice, Sir.

User
Posted 03 Aug 2026 at 20:43
Well done, and best of luck for the radiotherapy. Seems a doddle at first... but then it hits you and you will need a month or two to get back to something approaching normal energy levels.
 
Forum Jump  
©2026 Prostate Cancer UK