内耗

Imagine your brain as a phone that's always running background apps you never opened — that's 内耗. It describes the exhausting mental loop of overthinking, second-guessing, and anxiety-spiraling that drains your energy before you've done anything productive. Think of it as burning fuel while the car sits in the driveway. Chinese millennials and Gen-Z adopted it to describe the psychological toll of modern pressure culture, where the biggest obstacle isn't the world outside — it's your own relentless inner critic.

The term surged amid China's grueling '996' work culture, intense academic competition, and post-pandemic uncertainty. As youth unemployment rose and the concept of 'lying flat' (躺平) gained traction, many young Chinese found themselves caught in a painful middle ground — too anxious to rest, too drained to strive. 内耗 gave a name to that paralysis, resonating widely on platforms like Weibo and Douyin as a shorthand for a generation's collective burnout.

指个人内心的过度焦虑、反刍和自我消耗，精力在无效的内部挣扎中白白流失。