Recently I'm experiencing overwhelment and burnout on a project.

I'm a self-taught full stack developer, and mostly work on my own projects but with occasional freelance work.

Last year, however, I took on a project with a family member in need of a developer to overhaul an ageing web app written in Webforms / C# (then unknown to me).

I accepted after he was let down a couple of times. Financially it is a below market rate but I have minimal living costs, and it is more than my own projects typically bring in.

After learning the framework, good progress was made after some intense months of work, launching a much improved frontend app. Now i'm close to finishing the backend, however a backlog is building, with some advanced functionality required.

On some days i'm fine and work well, on others its too much for me. The list of things that need doing often consume my mind when i'm not working. Now i've feel like i've lost the ability to discern if the project is too big for one person, or whether i'm just not doing it effectively enough.

I'd like to have someone else on the project with me to help out, but i've been told the budget is too tight to hire anyone right now.

I haven't forced the issue, because if truth be told, I do fear hiring someone, as its something i've only tried a few times before with limited success. Because of my introverted nature, I don't know any other C# developers. Due to the budget constraints, I also fear picking the wrong person or using up the budget too quickly without getting enough done.

I don't want to abandon the project, as that would leave a family member in a bad situation, and I've gotten used to having some financial stability. However, mentally I often find myself overwhelmed and anxious, mulling over various options.

Have any of you dealt with similar issues, or fears about taking on help. How did you overcome them ? Or should I be more mindful and just do the project step by step?