I am in my mid 20s and was in emergency room due to lethally high blood pressure. As they found no physiological/common reason for it, they said it must be due to work stress and lifestyle. The doctors recommended I neutralize all stress in work and life - or I will have to take lifelong medications.
I am a newly promoted manager (ca 5 months) and can agree that it has been stressful, however I enjoy the role, the responsibilities and the career path.
I know though there are times in which it really gets bad - periods in which I sleep less than 4 hours a day and eat bad. Especially more recently. And there is always conflict. But I try to learn, and I believe most of it is due to this being my first management experience and all the pressure coming in from every direction.
So, I believe that if I put my mind off the stressfull stuff for a while, I will be able to recover and return to work.
How should I approach this with my boss? Ideally, I would like to take something like a few month-sabbatical, or completely re-focus my work on something else.
In any case, I ultimately don't want to end up ruining my career.
So how can I ask my boss for some extended "downtime" for my health, without affecting my new role?