Hustle Culture Burnout: Why “Powering Through” Can Dysregulate Your Nervous System
“Just push through it.” “Keep your head down and work.” “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Hustle culture often treats relentless effort as a virtue and exhaustion as proof that we care enough. When powering through becomes your default response to stress, it can take a real toll on your nervous system. As a trauma-informed therapist, I often meet clients who are highly capable on the outside and completely depleted inside. They may look successful while privately feeling anxious, numb, irritable, or unable to rest. Burnout is not a personal failure. Sometimes it is the body’s way of saying that the pace has become...