"There is a particular kind of exhaustion that has nothing to do with external stressors or excessive work. It is generated by a mind prone to hostile self-interpretations. You may be familiar with the tiring labour of constantly analysing, judging, and questioning yourself, the heavy mental load of second-guessing every feeling, reaction, desire, and decision. All of that comes at a high cost."
"The people I work with as a coach are reflective, intelligent, psychologically literate, and often highly accomplished. They have read the books. They have done the therapy. They can explain their patterns eloquently, often in exquisite detail. And yet they still feel trapped. What exhausts them is often not work alone, but the story they are telling themselves about who they are, what they should be, and why they are never quite enough."
A mind prone to hostile self-interpretations generates a specific internal exhaustion unrelated to external stressors or workload. Reflective and accomplished people can understand their patterns and still feel trapped by relentless self-criticism. Harsh self-narratives about who they are, what they should be, and why they are never enough deplete emotional resources. These interpretations attack actions, decisions, feelings, and sense of value, functioning like cruel internal bullies. The resulting exhaustion links burnout, imposter syndrome, chronic self-doubt, shame, rumination, procrastination, and the hidden costs of undiagnosed neurodivergence. People may appear high-functioning externally while being deeply depleted internally, and rest fails when the hostile inner interpreter spoils recovery.
Read at Psychology Today
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