I’ve been thinking a lot about the quiet exhaustion I often notice in teenagers today, the way their shoulders slump under the invisible weight of expectations, or how their eyes lose a little of their spark as exams approach. Sometimes, when I’m mentoring students or talking to parents, I find myself asking: When did learning become so heavy for our children?
In Pakistan, where grades are tied to prestige, opportunity, and sometimes even family honour, academic pressure doesn’t just sit in school bags; it follows students into their homes, their sleep, and their identities. And whether we admit it or not, teen academic burnout has slowly become a national concern.
What Exactly Is Teen Academic Burnout?
Academic burnout is more than just being “tired of studying.” Psychologists describe it as a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by long-term academic stress (Schaufeli et al., 2002).
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