精神内耗jīng shén nèi hào

Mental drain

wǒ yòu zài jīng shén nèi hào le.我又在精神内耗了。I’m overthinking again.

精神内耗 is the energy you lose inside your own head: replaying a conversation, worrying about what people think, making plans and never starting. It names a tired feeling with no clear cause.

Took off: 2022
Started in: A viral video
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

内耗 first meant energy that a machine wastes inside itself, then any pointless loss of effort. 精神内耗 is that waste inside the mind: useless strain that harms your health if it goes on for long.

You reread a message ten times before you send it, or lie awake over one thing a coworker said. That is 精神内耗.

How people use it

It is still common, and often light: 别内耗了, “stop overthinking it”, is something friends say to each other. Asterisk Magazine notes that 发疯, “going crazy” in your posts, is one way people let the strain out instead of keeping it inside.

灯灯

我给老板发了个消息，他两小时都没回
wǒ gěi lǎo bǎn fā le gè xiāo xi, tā liǎng xiǎo shí dōu méi huí
I messaged my boss, and he hasn’t replied in two hours.
是不是我说错话了？
shì bu shì wǒ shuō cuò huà le?
Did I say something wrong?
他可能在开会
tā kě néng zài kāi huì
He’s probably in a meeting.
别精神内耗了，先吃饭！
bié jīng shén nèi hào le, xiān chī fàn!
Stop draining yourself. Eat first!

More examples

为了他一句话想了一晚上，太精神内耗了。
wèi le tā yí jù huà xiǎng le yì wǎn shang, tài jīng shén nèi hào le.
I spent all night on one thing he said. Such a mental drain.
别再精神内耗了，先睡觉吧。
bié zài jīng shén nèi hào le, xiān shuì jiào ba.
Stop overthinking and get some sleep.

Where it came from

The term comes from popular psychology. It went mainstream in July 2022, when a vlogger posted a video titled 回村三天，二舅治好了我的精神内耗, “Three days back in the village: my second uncle cured my 精神内耗”. The video spread across the Chinese internet within days.

That December, 咬文嚼字 put 精神内耗 on its list of the ten most popular phrases of 2022.

衣戈猜想, 2022. Watch on Bilibili

The original. The video’s title made the term famous: a vlogger spends three days with his uncle in the countryside. The Paper reported the 2022 list and the story. The Paper (in Chinese)