The Middle Path ~ Voices of the Collective
Student Athlete Burnout: Signs, Causes and How to Recover
Fall comes with a lot of changes: a new school year, the start of a new season, new clothes and school supplies, new routines and more!
This can be a lot to navigate, especially for student athletes. All of these new changes and routines can leave you feeling stressed, anxious and eventually... burnt out?
When College Burnout Becomes the Expectation
But maybe the pressure to make college the best years of our lives makes it harder to enjoy them. Maybe the need to make the most of every opportunity prevents us from being present for any of them.
The version of college remembered by previous generations - or presented by current students on social media - is not necessarily realistic for most students.
We know people filter the difficult parts out of what they post. We see the parties, friendships, accomplishments, study-abroad trips, and graduation pictures. We rarely see the financial anxiety, failed exams, loneliness, family pressure, uncertainty, or exhaustion happening outside the frame.
College has also changed. The cost of an education can feel like mortgaging decades of your future. Students are expected to graduate with experience, connections, leadership credentials, and a clear plan for what comes next. There is less room to follow your curiosity when you believe every choice has to move you toward a specific target by a specific age.
To be a person, we need time.
Everything Is On Fire. Now What?
The fear of the unknown and unseen. More importantly, the fear of the unlikely. Anxiety. From our most primitive state, fear was what kept our ancestors alive. Now we’re here, doomscrolling our way through the 21st century and anxiety has evolved from sabertooth tigers to finances and thinking too long at night about that interaction you had last week with the stranger at the store and they probably thought you were mean or weird or something…
Anxiety is Grief’s Unwelcome Companion
Death reminds us of the finality of life. We normally push that bitter awareness out of our conscious mind. Most people don’t think about death until it walks in, uninvited, to remind us that everything that matters to us will eventually go away. It doesn’t mean you didn’t know people die. It just means that up to this point, you weren’t expecting it to happen to you.
Beyond the Chore Chart: Navigating Neurodivergence, Emotional Needs, and Deeper Connection in Relationships
When you're in a relationship with a neurodivergent partner—someone with ADHD, autism, sensory processing differences, or another form of neurodivergence—these dynamics can become even more layered. What looks like avoidance or lack of effort on the surface might actually be executive functioning struggles, emotional regulation challenges, or sensory overwhelm. And what looks like nagging or micro-managing from the other partner might be an attempt to feel less alone or unsupported.