内耗
“internal consumption”
内耗 (nèihào, 'internal consumption') is Chinese slang for exhausting yourself through overthinking — self-doubt, replayed conversations, and imagined arguments that drain your energy without changing anything. The extended form 精神内耗 means the same mental spiral.
内 means inside or internal. 耗 means to consume or drain. In physics it describes energy lost to internal friction; in older usage, an organization wasting energy on infighting.
Exhausting yourself through overthinking: replaying conversations, rehearsing ones that never happen, second-guessing every choice, staring at a blank document for hours. The energy is fully spent, but nothing in the real world moved. Often intensified as 精神内耗 (jīngshén nèihào, 'mental internal friction').
Character Breakdown
Cultural Context
内耗 crossed from physics into feelings in 2021, when a psychology blogger's Weibo comic '100 Ways to Stop Mental Drain' (停止精神内耗的100种方法) put images to scenarios everyone recognized: staring at a blank document for three hours, rehearsing conversations that never happen. In July 2022 the extended form 精神内耗 exploded nationwide with the viral video 'My Second Uncle Cured My Mental Internal Friction in Three Days' (二舅治好了我的精神内耗), which contrasted an elderly villager's quiet resilience with young people's tendency to overanalyze instead of act.
内耗 is the inward sibling of 内卷 (nèijuǎn, involution): 内卷 is losing energy to pointless external competition, 内耗 is losing it to the battle inside your own head. It sits in the same burnout vocabulary as 躺平 and 摆烂, but where those describe strategies for opting out, 内耗 names the state you are trying to escape. The standard advice attached to it: 别再内耗了 — stop overthinking and just do the thing.
Where You'll Encounter This
How People Actually Use It
Worrying instead of studying
考前一直内耗，复习没复习多少，人先累垮了。
"Before the exam I just kept spiraling — barely reviewed anything, but exhausted myself first."
Replaying a meeting comment
开完会我内耗了一晚上，总觉得那句话说错了。
"After the meeting I overthought it all night, convinced I'd said that one thing wrong."
Encouraging a friend to act
别再内耗了，做就对了。
"Stop overthinking — just go for it."
Common Questions
What does 内耗 mean?▼
内耗 (nèihào) literally means 'internal consumption' — energy lost to internal friction. In Chinese internet slang it means exhausting yourself through overthinking and self-doubt: the energy is spent, but nothing actually happens.
What is 精神内耗?▼
精神内耗 (jīngshén nèihào, 'mental internal friction') is the extended form, made nationally famous by a July 2022 viral video about a resilient 'second uncle' (二舅). It names the same overthinking spiral, emphasizing that the drain is psychological.
What is the difference between 内耗 and 内卷?▼
内卷 (nèijuǎn, involution) is energy wasted on pointless external competition — everyone working harder for the same result. 内耗 is energy wasted internally on worry, self-doubt, and imagined scenarios. You can suffer both at once: competing all day, then overthinking all night.
Is 内耗 the same as anxiety?▼
Not clinically. 内耗 is everyday slang for an exhausting overthinking loop, closer to 'analysis paralysis' with an emotional edge. People use it casually about exams, work, and relationships, not as a medical label.
How do people respond when someone is 内耗-ing?▼
The stock encouragement is 别再内耗了，做就对了 — 'stop overthinking, just do it.' Posts about quitting 内耗 (拒绝内耗) are a whole genre of self-improvement content on Xiaohongshu and Bilibili.
Related Terms
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