I am still functioning enough to look fine from the outside

Dear Delyara, That may be the hardest kind of burnout to explain. Because the structure remains. I still answer. Still show up. Still do enough. Still appear mostly normal in the places where appearance matters. But internally, the light is lower. The aliveness thinner. The space between me and my own days wider than I want it to be. I think burnout is often misunderstood because people wait for visible breakdown before they respect invisible depletion. I’m trying not to wait that long with myself.