11 Things People Do When They’re Mentally Checked Out And Barely Functioning
Mental fatigue has become an epidemic in today's world.
Freeman Studio / Shutterstock More and more Americans are experiencing significant burnout and overall exhaustion. Recent studies indicate that a quarter of Americans feel completely burnt out before they even reach the age of 30, and many of them are just barely hanging by a thread. Burnout is triggered by a number of factors, including financial stress, working far beyond what your brain can handle, not enough time resting and feeling doom over the current state of the world. People feel as if they’re running on fumes nowadays, and barely have the strength to tackle another day.
There are many things people will do when they’re mentally checked out and barely functioning that we often miss. Beneath these behaviors is a quiet plea for help. It is important to recognize them.
Here are 11 things people will do when they’re mentally checked out and barely functioning
1. They zone-out mid conversation
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The lights are on, but no one’s home. When people have mentally checked out and can barely function, it is difficult for them to focus on even the most basic conversations. They may be telling you about their weekend plans before suddenly losing track of what they were even talking about.
While their zone-outs may be perceived as rude, they are certainly not intentional. It's not uncommon for people to respond to extreme stress by shutting down or detaching.
If you happen to notice someone zoning out during conversations, you may want to pause, ask them if they’re okay, and give them a few moments to recuperate.
2. Their work-ethic decreases
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Work plays a major role in even some of the best employees feeling as if they can barely hold it together, with a Deloitte study revealing that 77% of employees have experienced burnout, and 50% report feeling so overwhelmed it impacts their work.
It’s hard to use your brain when you’re running on empty. People who are barely functioning will likely experience a sharp decline in their work performance and daily productivity. In many cases, employers view their behavior as laziness and lack of motivation, continuing to pile on the work and exacerbating the burnout.
3. They endlessly scroll on their phones
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When people are mentally drained, they may only have the energy to mindlessly scroll through their social media accounts and Amazon shopping wish lists. This often becomes a default behavior rather than something you do out of boredom.
This excessive phone use, commonly known as doomscrolling, has been linked to anxiety, depression, and overall mental fatigue. Experimenting with a new hobby or starting a new TV show would just require too much mental energy, which people barely have already when they’re running on empty.
4. They avoid making decisions
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Whether it be deciding whether they want Chinese food or pizza for dinner, people who have mentally checked out often find making the most simple decisions to be an impossible obstacle. They can feel overwhelming, and people who are already dealing with enough mentally may delay, defer or just do whatever is easiest for them instead of having to make any significant decisions.
Emotional fatigue can impact cognitive functions, including memory, attention and processing, making even the most basic decisions difficult to come to a conclusion on. Decisions that once felt effortless, such as selecting clothes, planning a weekend, or choosing a coffee preference, become especially challenging when we’ve mentally checked out and exhausted our brains.
5. They spend most of their time sleeping or not getting enough sleep
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The only escape some people have from their mental fatigue is when they are asleep. And when they finally are able to sleep, they may stay that way for a long time. Because of extreme energy depletion and sympathetic nervous system dysregulation caused by fatigue, their bodies depend on sleep more deeply than we often realize.
People who are barely functioning may also experience a poor quality of their sleep, waking up several times during the night and having a difficult time getting themselves up. A 2022 study that focused on health care workers, teachers, social workers, and first responders found that mental exhaustion increased their sleep reactivity, a condition where stress makes it harder to fall and stay asleep.
“When any animal feels stressed and isolated, it’s in fight-or-flight mode all the time, because it feels unsafe,” said Jade Wu, a behavioral sleep medicine specialist.
“And when we feel unsafe, of course we’ll have a problem with sleep, since sleep is such a vulnerable state,” she added.
6. They neglect basic self-care
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When people have mentally checked out, even the most basic self-care tasks like brushing their teeth and taking a shower are deemed nearly impossible. Their lack of energy and emotional depletion makes it difficult to take care of themselves the way they should.
For those barely hanging on, there’s only so much time in the day to get things done. They may opt to put work, school and other priorities ahead of themselves and their basic care. They may not even have the energy to treat themselves to a long shower or a walk outside to get fresh air, failing to realize that this is far more essential than doing the tasks that are only contributing to their burnout.
Basic self-care can be rejuvenating, which is exactly what people who have emotionally checked out need to get them up and running again.
7. They start things but don’t finish them
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People who have mentally checked out may have no problem with starting tasks, but actually completing them can be a different story. A to-do list with only two tasks checked off will often sit on their desk for weeks. A tab will remain open on their computer for so long they forget why they needed it in the first place.
Starting a task may initially seem exciting and manageable, however over time, as energy dwindles and their internal battery turns red, it becomes impossible to finish it with the effort they started with. When people are running on empty, they simply cannot muster the energy they originally believed they would have.
8. They lose track of time
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People who have mentally checked out are not necessarily bad at time management. They just don't have the energy to effectively get things done in the timely manner they used to. Burnout makes even the simplest tasks more time-consuming. What they used to be able to do in ten minutes may now take an hour. Time tends to fade away quicker, and before they know it, the sun is setting and all they’ve done is get dressed and move their dishes from the table to the sink.
Burnout often impairs cognitive functions including our perception of time. This also impacts our ability to perform multiple tasks in a day.
“Studies show that it becomes increasingly difficult to switch between tasks [when you are burnt out], which means you're constantly dropping the ball and missing deadlines,” explained Llewellyn E. van Zyl, Ph.D., a professor of positive psychology at the Optentia Research Unit within the North-West University.
The time you may have thought to meet those deadlines appears before you in the blink of an eye when you can barely function getting everything else on your checklist marked off.
9. They withdraw socially
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When people have mentally checked out, they may take days to reply to text messages, decline phone calls, and constantly turn down plans. While their behavior may seem cold, we promise they are not intentionally trying to make you feel bad. When you have nothing left, sending a text back or meeting up with people for coffee takes an extraordinary amount of effort that you often don’t have the energy for.
“While burnout is most commonly associated with work, the impact that it can have spreads much further than just the office,” Charlotte Mosley, a senior people scientist at Culture Amp, told Unmind.
“People who are experiencing burnout can experience a general lack of motivation, so may seem more detached and start to withdraw from social activities,” she said.
While your friends who are experiencing mental fatigue still care deeply for you, they simply just may not have the emotional bandwidth to commit to any social events.
10. They rely on caffeine to survive
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Many people who are dealing with unrelenting exhaustion turn to the one thing they know will revive them: caffeine. You will often spot them chugging coffee mugs throughout the day, doubling or even tripling the amount of espresso just to keep themselves awake and focused.
While caffeine certainly is an effective stimulant that will keep people alert, they shouldn’t be dependent on it just to make it through the day. Caffeine is a stimulant that can increase heart rate and blood pressure, potentially causing anxiety, jitteriness, and nervousness, which may only worsen your mental fatigue.
It can also have severe withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches, shakes, and fatigue, that could make you feel like you cannot even function if you are unable to access caffeine on certain days. Even if a Starbucks latte may serve as a great pick-me-up on difficult days, you should not depend on them for survival.
11. They use sarcasm as a defense mechanism
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When people are barely hanging in there, they may disguise their struggles with sarcastic comments like, “I’m dead inside” or “I’m not even surviving.”
Sarcasm and humor often prevent us from feeling too much when we don’t want to deal with our authentic emotions. If someone is feeling overwhelmed mentally, they may act like nothing matters or to joke about it, rather than admit how much it actually affects them.
Keep an eye on your friends who make you laugh the most or always have the best punchlines. They may be the ones battling the worst inner demons.
Megan Quinn is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on justice in the workplace, personal relationships, parenting debates, and the human experience.
