Is Your Check Engine Light On? A Note to UT Students

When “Doing Fine” Takes All Of Your Energy

Maybe you are attending class, turning in work, and answering “good” when someone asks how the semester is going. You are also sleeping badly, living on caffeine, avoiding messages, or feeling one small setback away from falling apart.

College distress does not always look like failure. It often looks like competence held together with no margin.

At UT, it is easy to treat overload as a normal personality trait. Everyone seems busy. Someone is always taking more hours, landing a better internship, or appearing remarkably calm at the PCL. Comparison can turn exhaustion into evidence that you are not trying hard enough.

Your Worth Is Not Your Output

That sentence may sound obvious and still feel completely untrue in your body. If achievement has been the most reliable way to feel safe, admired, or certain about the future, slowing down can feel risky.

Burnout is not solved by becoming even more efficient. It may require asking what you are sacrificing to maintain the current pace and whether every demand deserves equal urgency.

Start with a practical inventory:

• What is genuinely time-sensitive this week?
• What are you doing mainly because you are afraid of disappointing someone?
• Which basic need has become negotiable—sleep, food, movement, connection, or medical care?
• Who knows how you are actually doing?

Ask For Help Before The Warning Light Becomes A Breakdown

Support might begin with a professor, academic adviser, physician, trusted friend, campus resource, or therapist. Reaching out does not obligate you to have a diagnosis or a perfectly organized explanation.

If you are considering therapy, burnout therapy can help with depletion, perfectionism, and the fear of slowing down. Anxiety therapy may be useful when worry, panic, or relentless self-criticism is taking over.

I offer telehealth sessions for clients located in Texas as well as in-person sessions in Austin. The practice is not presented as being steps from campus; the important question is whether the format, location, availability, and therapeutic fit work for you.

If you are in immediate danger or thinking about suicide, call 911, go to the nearest emergency room, or call or text 988. UT students can also use the university’s current crisis and counseling resources.

You do not need to earn help by collapsing first. A warning light is useful precisely because it appears before the engine stops.