When the Joy Switch Breaks

For when the burnout advice stops making sense.

Have you noticed that most of the burnout content out there — the think pieces, the reels, the carousels — seems to assume you’re still functioning? That you’re tired, sure, but still capable of following instructions? The endless “beat burnout in three steps” guides, or the “10 signs you might be burned out” quizzes (spoiler: you probably are).

But what about when you’re already in it — when the tank’s empty, the lights are dim, and your own brain feels like it’s buffering?

Because once you’ve hit that point, looking at a tree won’t help. Neither will a dopamine menu, nor the suggestion that what you really need is to “move your body and hydrate.” It’s not that those things don’t help in theory — it’s that, by the time you’re properly burned out, theory is a luxury.

🧬 What Endorphins Actually Are (and Why You Should Care)

Let’s start with some basics. Endorphins are your body’s natural painkillers — chemicals released by your brain that reduce stress, boost mood, and help you feel pleasure or relief. They’re the quiet heroes behind the “runner’s high,” that mystical euphoria runners swear happens somewhere between kilometre three and insanity. (I’ve been told it exists. Personally, I believe it happens five minutes after I stop running.)

Endorphins are part of a chemical cocktail that includes dopamine (motivation), serotonin (contentment), and oxytocin(connection). When things are balanced, these systems help you find joy, satisfaction, and drive.

But if you’ve been living in chronic stress mode — stretched, hypervigilant, overperforming, under-rested — that system goes offline. The receptors stop listening. The hits don’t hit.

You can take all the deep breaths and sunset walks you like, but your brain’s pleasure wiring has gone on strike.

🧠 When the “Right” Stuff Stops Working

Here’s where it gets tricky. You start doing what the internet tells you to do.
You exercise, you meditate, you “romanticise your life.” You journal, stretch, hydrate, manifest. You buy the good candle.

And still — nothing.

That’s because burnout doesn’t just make you tired; it rewires you. The same way your body adapts to adrenaline, your brain starts adapting to chronic depletion. The reward system gets dulled. The things that should make you feel better — laughter, connection, creativity — barely move the needle.

It’s not laziness. It’s not lack of gratitude. It’s anhedonia.

💭 Anhedonia: When You Can’t Feel Pleasure

Anhedonia is the scientific word for that horrible numbness — the inability to feel joy, motivation, or interest in things that used to light you up. It’s not sadness; it’s the absence of it.

You might know you should feel happy, but it doesn’t land. You laugh on cue, you show up for dinner, but inside, you’re flatlining. It can sound like:

“I’m not sad, I just don’t feel anything.”
“I know this is good news, but I can’t connect to it.”
“Everything I do feels like admin.”

It’s your brain’s way of protecting you from overload — a kind of emotional power-saving mode. But the cost is steep: creativity dulls, relationships feel distant, and even small tasks start to feel mountainous.

There are two main types:

• Social anhedonia, where people feel draining instead of comforting.

• Physical anhedonia, where food, music, sex, or touch don’t bring pleasure anymore.

Sometimes, it’s anticipatory — you can’t look forward to anything. Other times it’s consummatory — you can’t enjoy it when it happens.

Either way, it’s a signal: your system is tapped out.

🚫 Why “Self-Care” Advice Can Feel So Patronising

When you’re in this state, the wellness world becomes absurd.
Someone tells you to “take a bath” and you want to throw your phone in it. Another suggests “touch grass” as if it’s going to override the existential dread of your inbox.

This is because most “recovery” advice is written for the almost-burned-out, not the fully crispy. Once you’re properly depleted, motivation itself is the problem. You can’t “habit” your way out of it.

As I wrote in Smarter, “None of the advice, feedback or expert insights I sought out at that time spoke to me. They all felt like band-aid solutions spouted by people whose stress levels were piqued when their favourite candle was discontinued.”

Exactly.

🌱 So, What Can You Actually Do?

Here’s the part they don’t tell you: you can’t think your way out of anhedonia. You have to feel your way back, one sensory spark at a time.

1. Start with the body, not the brain.
   Sleep. Nourishment. Gentle movement — not to “get a high,” but to remind your body it exists. Even a shower counts.

2. Shrink the goal.
   Instead of “find joy,” try “notice something neutral.” A sound. A colour. A moment that’s not actively awful. That’s where reconnection starts.

3. Try novelty in tiny doses.
   Novelty (a new walk route, song, flavour, idea) activates dopamine and can gently reawaken curiosity — without needing full-blown excitement.

4. Reduce the noise.
   As I wrote in Smarter: “To remove yourself from the fantasy fuckfest that is algorithmic annihilation is to care about your wellbeing.” Step away from the scroll. Let silence do some rewiring.

5. Let time do its job.
   Recovery from burnout is not a 21-day challenge; it’s a rebuild. Think compost, not cure. Slow, organic, slightly messy.

❤️ A Note for the Numb

If you’re reading this and thinking, yep, that’s me — please know you’re not broken. Your system is trying to protect you. Understanding that system can help you work out the best way back to feeling your best. The work now isn’t to fix yourself from top to bottom, but to gently remind your body and brain that you’re safe enough to feel again.

Endorphins will come back. So will laughter. But for now, let stillness count as progress.