I still produce enough to hide how absent I feel

Dear Delyara, That is what makes burnout so deceptive for me. From the outside, there is still enough output to suggest I’m okay. Enough function. Enough competence. Enough routine. But the inside tells a different story — lower light, less presence, less arrival, less real participation in the life I am still mechanically sustaining. I’m beginning to understand that visible collapse is not the only valid form of depletion. Distance is depletion too.