My mental energy is gone.

I feel I'm starting to lack mental energy that I have been using to play chess. It's like I've used it all up. Actually, I think chess has just threatened to overconsume my mind once again. It all started a few days ago, when I decided to take a shot at participating in a quick team match I had stumbled upon after a long pause from correspondence chess. I have been playing live chess in the meantime, although not really too much, because I was busy going to school, and when the exams came about a month ago I paused from that too until they ended about two weeks ago. Then I found plenty of free time for what has without a doubt become my most serious hobby in the last few years. Since the summer vacation meant I had a greater freedom of investing my energy into chess, I decided to get back to playing and improving as I go along. I even read a bit from some chess books, and only three days ago I reached my personal peak rating in Live Chess! Things really were coming up roses, so I felt I could take the liberty of playing two correspondence games if they were quick, otherwise waiting for more than a day to move would annoy me, plus I thought I had only 10 days of vacation left, and that wouldn't be enough for me not to lose on time. And I took the challenge. I probably should have known better, since the last time I played correspondence chess it invaded my mind like a stampede. I used to struggle to solve chess positions in my sleep! Not that I was able to see any of the pieces or anything about the position any clearly in my dreams, much less think about them, but you get the idea. Anyway, my correspondence score was positive too, so I couldn't see what could go wrong if I just decided to have some fun.

Then everything started falling apart.

Because of the way my profession functions, I had to get back to practicing again after a week or two of rest. In the last three days I successfully reached awful positions in both correspondence games, blundering in each game, and my Live Chess rating went downhill by seventy-four points! And I didn't even practice as much as I needed to! (Or as much as I felt I needed to anyway, and that's what counts better.) My enormous fault! As you can see, instead I spent hours on losing almost every possible game I could. I was getting tired by day, but that's just my fault again, disrespecting my own biorhythm. I feel like I completely lost focus for everything, and I didn't even start regaining it. I think I should definitely take another significant break from playing chess in order to practice well and start to function again, as well as have a good night's sleep, but I don't know how I should start playing chess again, where and what I should start from and how intense on a daily basis should I let myself play, read and even think about chess without focally collapsing again, once I'm mentally rehabilitated. I only know I won't be playing any correspondence chess for a long, long time... Maybe it's not that much about correspondence and sleep, you tell me? All help you can advise me with will be most appreciated.

OK, one by one:

JimSardonic - if you really think halving the number of moves per day is going to help me that much, then I'll try it! And thanks for the advice!

Skipgugg - hahaha, just checked it out, and I can tell you it's not a bad idea!

hic2482w - I think you're right about doing something else exciting, but chess could still interfere with both that (ruining the excitement in the process) and my job. I consider my job to be really exciting as well, but it still isn't interference-proof... Of course, I take your advice about not thinking about chess when I fall asleep. Thanks.

ivandh - I respect most of the things you all say here on Chess.com, so I decided to make an "emergency call" using the last bits of my mental energy, knowing that it would pay off well. And I don't think getting drunk is ever a solution, much less a good one. I've never gotten drunk, I'll hardly ever come close to it, and I'm proud of my self-control.  And I also used to play some tense Bongcloud endgames. 

jerry2468 - hahaha, so do I! Say hello to Lenny from me! 

theoreticalboy - then why did you post in this thread in the first place? If you don't want to read and can't care about what's written here, then this is not a place for you. Turn around and leave.

cryptic_cave - thank you very much for your advice, although I think I already knew that myself! Still, I always consider this kind of advice to be good. Only I don't plan on petting a dog. But except for that, I heard my own thoughts from someone else. 

WiTeBoi - well, that kinda sorts it out! Thanks! I'm sure it'll help me! 

And I think the case is closed! You don't really need to post anything in this thread any further, unless you've got to tell me about something very important that's related to this thread, but that no one here had already mentioned. Cheers!