内耗

The invisible exhaustion

内耗 literally means "internal consumption" — it's a term from physics and engineering describing energy lost to friction within a system. Chinese internet users borrowed it for the mind:

Your brain is running at full capacity, but none of the output is useful. You're burning fuel just to stay in place.

The 内耗 loop

Psychologists and netizens agree on the common 内耗 patterns:

1. The replay loop — replaying a conversation from three days ago, imagining what you should have said.
2. The decision paralysis — spending an hour choosing between two nearly identical options.
3. The imposter spiral — believing you'll be exposed as a fraud at any moment.
4. The comparison trap — measuring your behind-the-scenes against everyone else's highlight reel.
5. The mind-reading game — assuming you know what others think of you (and assuming it's bad).

The 内耗 generation

Young Chinese people are particularly prone to 内耗 for several reasons:

• Social pressure — the weight of family expectations, career competition, and social comparison.
• Digital overload — constant exposure to others' curated lives on social media.
• Uncertainty — economic instability makes every decision feel high-stakes.

How to fight it

Chinese internet has developed a whole vocabulary around combating 内耗:

• 内耗星人 — "internal friction person": someone prone to overthinking.
• 停止内耗 — "stop internal friction": the most common advice tag.
• 反内耗 — "anti-internal friction": content and strategies for breaking the loop.
• 钝感力 (dùn gǎn lì) — "the power of insensitivity": the ability to not over-analyze everything.

How it connects

• 松弛感 — the opposite state: calm, unbothered, no internal friction.
• 内卷 — external competition that fuels internal friction.
• 摆烂 — one way out: stop caring and the friction stops too.

If a friend says "最近内耗很严重", don't try to solve their problems. Just acknowledge it: "确实，想太多真的很累" (it really is exhausting to overthink). Sometimes that's all they need.