Hmm it's a good question and hopefully you receive a number of comments from others that help you decide on a course of action. I've never been big myself on accepting refunds for a canceled commission unless it's the first time I've ever worked with the artist before, and even then I'm not sure I ever tried setting up a future commission with the same artist. The offer certainly can be appreciated but I also know refunds can make it financially challenging for the artist, especially in the current economy, and interest on credit cards can get costly if the balance isn't paid off each month. Might be one of those where you need to privately ask each person in your backlog that you don't feel confident on doing their commission and see what their response is.

Yeah, I know interest can be a bitch sometimes. I do think I can do the commissions, it's just taking me way longer than I anticipated to drag myself out of the burnout. I am close to breaking through. I am sure of it. I have just been struggling so hard lately that my mental health took a massive hit and I have been circling a full on depressive stress-fueled shut-down.
I think once I have whittled my queue down and it's not as backed up, it SHOULD help which was why I was considering refunding a few of the commissions at least with the credit card and sticking mostly to stream commissions. Because those are done in the spot and I only take them one at a time.

It depends on how much interest it'll cost you. As somebody who has been having to use credit to pay necessary bills and basic needs, it will build up fast and the interest will add up very quickly and can leave you in a much more stressful position than when you started. I personally would strongly recommend against. But if you feel that offering refunds is the best way to go, and that you're potentially losing more because you can't take new commissions or due to burnout, then at least look through your log. Pick which ones you really feel like you can't or don't want to do at all, or if the customer has been reaching out and being aggressive.

Fortunately, my customers have been super patient with me, I just feel really bad for the wait.

I think my transparency and keeping everybody updated does help. If I did pay off the backlog, I'd basically just do stream commissions only, and stream during the week as well as the weekend, since doing the commission instantly is honestly a lot easier for me. I do have my new Speedpaint style, which is perfect for streaming because the commissioner gets a high quality work, and quickly because I can do it within a few hours.

This is a speedpaint: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/61883567/

And so is this: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/61918892/

Though the background on that second one was a screenshot from the game Journey because that was a drawing from my Crossover story.

I don't advise it; digging out of debt plus interest is a slippery slope and only going to add MORE stress later, rather than just proactively learning to deal with each piece as you're able without becoming as overwhelmed.

One way to help is to only take one, two, maybe three commissions max, depending on your personal current ability to manage the mental workload. It can also help to just pick a manageable amount of time, or a period of time (ie, 1 hour a day, or working solid from 8am to 10am ONLY, with stretch breaks and/or timers, or whatever works for you), because biting things into small pieces but still consistently doing SOME piece of it can be better than wasting all day at a computer when your distraction level and burnout level are high enough to make it hard to work/focus and you end up wasting a bunch of time anyways, IMO.

I think the most sustainable thing is to figure out some source of income that can be brain-easy, like a very mindless part-time job a few days a week (housekeeping? Stocking shelves? Whatever suits) makes more reliable income than being stressed about whether or not commissions will bring in unreliable income. Or, even just like, outsourcing something for cheap that's still easy, like walking one or two dogs a day for an hour for $20 or whatever, or raking leaves/mowing lawns nearby where you live (or whatever it might be) for fairly cheap. Art is DOABLE but relying on it for steady income when the alternative is to be super stressed financially or relying on credit cards can be a whole challenge in itself.

Not to be discouraging of art as a career, just that doing art as a career or aiming for that, WHILE maintaining at least some 'brain-easier' stable income, is a lot easier to improve your work technique as well as your client base and your finances, without the pressure of being financially stressed. Whatever your circumstance, there is probably some kind of job you can do, or find, even if it's a make-it-yourself kind that isn't art-related, that can help sustain while things, over time, become easier to sustain through client base, business experience over time, and just not being financially under serious pressure.

Going into credit card debt for it is VERY not adviseable, you'd be paying more later for a tiny bit of stress relief now, which will only compound the stress later, both mental/art and financial. A well-thought-out plan of attack of sustainability is a better option if you're able to, in any way, find something you can do like that.