Everyone is exhausted.
Not sleepy.
Not overworked in a cute way.
Worn down.
Like something has been rubbing for years
and never stopped.
We keep calling it burnout
like it’s a temporary condition.
Like a long weekend and a scented candle could fix it.
It can’t.
This Isn’t an Individual Failure
You didn’t mismanage your energy.
You didn’t forget to self-care hard enough.
You didn’t optimize incorrectly.
You are reacting normally
to a world that never shuts the fuck up.
There is always a notification.
Always an update.
Always something you are behind on
even when you are doing everything asked of you.
The tiredness is structural.
Rest Has Become Suspicious
If you stop
someone asks why.
If you slow down
you feel guilty.
If you say you’re tired
you apologize immediately
like exhaustion is a character flaw.
Rest is framed as reward.
Or recovery.
Something you earn after damage.
Never as a baseline.
Never as a right.
So people keep going
past sensible
past safe
past kind.
We Are Functioning, Not Living
Days blur.
Weeks vanish.
You complete tasks
but nothing settles.
You consume content
but it doesn’t nourish.
You sleep
but you don’t arrive anywhere rested.
Life feels like maintenance mode.
Keeping systems from crashing.
Nothing more.
And somehow this is called normal.
Motivation Culture Is Lying to You
They tell you to push through.
To reframe.
To grind gently.
To hustle but mindfully.
All of it assumes the problem is attitude.
It isn’t.
You can’t mindset your way out
of a pace designed to extract until failure.
The Quiet Grief
There is grief here.
Unacknowledged.
Grief for energy you used to have.
For attention that could sit still.
For enthusiasm that wasn’t immediately rationed.
Nobody marks this loss.
So it leaks out sideways.