Burnout Is a Weird Flex

Burnout has become a modern brag, a strange way of proving we care enough, work hard enough, or sacrifice enough to be worthy. But let’s be honest: running ourselves into the ground is not devotion, it is avoidance. When we treat exhaustion as responsibility, we hand over our agency and call it virtue. The truth is far less flattering. Most of what we label as obligations are choices, and pretending otherwise keeps us stuck in cycles that drain the very life we are trying to give away. If we want to show up for the people we love, we have to stop glorifying depletion and start treating boundaries and self care as the real markers of strength. Burn out is not a flex. Taking care of yourself is.