Empathy Burnout Is Real

There’s a version of tired that sleep doesn’t fix. It’s the kind that comes from being the person who always understands. The one who puts herself in everyone else’s shoes, who makes space, who translates her own pain into language other people can receive without flinching. Empathy burnout is what happens when you keep showing up for people who never once ask what it’s like to be you. When you hold the door open and they walk past it. When you offer honesty and they call it too much. When you carry their feelings on top of your own and nobody notices the weight. I’m tired of understanding people who don’t try to understand me. And I think that’s allowed.