IN BANGLADESH today, exhaustion has become an unspoken norm among young people. It appears in exam halls, coaching centres and university classrooms, and increasingly in everyday conversation. Terms such as burnout, pressure and feeling lost are used almost casually, even by those barely out of adolescence. Yet this pervasive fatigue is often dismissed as impatience, weak discipline or an inability to cope. From a psychological perspective, however, such exhaustion is neither exaggerated nor surprising. It is a predictable response to prolonged pressure without adequate relief.
Psychological research consistently shows that chronic stress differs fundamentally from short-term challenge. Stress becomes harmful when it is continuous, largely uncontrollable and closely tied to a person’s sense of worth. For many young people in Bangladesh, these conditions begin early and persist for years. Academic expectations intensify from primary school onwards, peaking around public examinations, while leaving little space for rest, exploration or failure. Success is framed not merely as achievement, but as evidence of personal value.
Within such systems, motivation often shifts away from learning towards fear — fear of falling behind, fear of disappointing family members, fear of being judged as incapable. Research on achievement-oriented environments shows that sustained exposure to these pressures encourages maladaptive perfectionism, where self-esteem depends almost entirely on performance rather than growth or effort. Over time, work is driven not by curiosity or meaning, but by anxiety. This is emotionally costly, particularly when there is no clear endpoint at which the pressure eases.
For many, graduation does not bring relief. Instead, structure gives way to uncertainty. Young adults enter a labour market where degrees no longer guarantee stability and effort does not consistently translate into opportunity. Psychologically, repeated exposure to such unpredictability can lead to disengagement and emotional numbing. When individuals feel that outcomes remain beyond their control regardless of effort, they may begin to withdraw internally — a process well documented in research on learned helplessness. What is often interpreted as laziness or lack of ambition may, in reality, reflect deep psychological fatigue.
Cultural context further intensifies this strain. Bangladesh’s collectivist social fabric places strong emphasis on family reputation, social comparison and the fulfilment of expectations. While these values can foster responsibility and social cohesion, they can also restrict emotional expression. Research on mental health stigma in collectivist societies shows that individuals frequently avoid sharing distress for fear of burdening others or bringing shame upon their families. Emotional difficulty is therefore more likely to be internalised than openly discussed.
Social media has magnified these pressures. Online spaces are saturated with curated narratives of success — scholarships, foreign admissions and career milestones — rarely accompanied by stories of uncertainty, stagnation or failure. Social comparison theory suggests that constant exposure to upward comparison can erode self-worth, particularly among young adults already navigating instability. The outcome is a persistent sense of inadequacy, even among those who appear outwardly accomplished.
It is important to stress that this exhaustion does not signal weakness. Many young people in Bangladesh demonstrate remarkable endurance under sustained pressure. What is often labelled resilience, however, is being demanded continuously, without sufficient emotional or structural support. Psychological resilience is not an unlimited resource; it depends on rest, safety and a sense of meaning. When these are absent, individuals may continue to function outwardly while experiencing significant internal distress.
Addressing this issue requires moving beyond individual-level advice about motivation or time management. It demands recognising exhaustion as a social signal rather than a personal failing. Educational institutions can reduce overreliance on rank-based evaluation and introduce basic psychological literacy into curricula. Families can support wellbeing by valuing emotional health alongside academic success. Media narratives, too, shape which struggles are treated as legitimate and which are ignored.
Youth exhaustion in Bangladesh is not an anomaly. It is a rational response to prolonged pressure, uncertainty and silence around emotional difficulty. A psychologically informed society does not dismiss such signals; it listens to them. If distress continues to be framed as individual failure rather than a shared responsibility, the country risks raising a generation that meets expectations yet struggles to feel whole.
Nusrat Jahan Tahia is a psychology student at University of Greenwich.
