The Breaking Point: Why Gen Z Is Crashing Out More Than Ever

On a March evening in 2025, 23-year-old Anjali Chandak from Assam, found herself crying in the middle of a crowded Delhi mall. She had gone there to escape the silence of her apartment — her roommate had left for home, her friends were busy, and the loneliness she’d been brushing aside finally settled in. “I saw a little girl holding her mother’s hand, running and laughing,” she recalls. “Something inside me broke.”

What she experienced is what many in her generation are calling “crashing out” — an emotional or mental collapse that follows weeks, sometimes months, of suppressed exhaustion. It’s not simply burnout or sadness. It’s a full-body shutdown — the kind that brings you to tears in public or sends you offline for days without explanation.

What Exactly Is ‘Crashing Out’?

A new survey by Youngstown State University reveals that nearly half of Gen Z workers already feel too burned out to keep going. With 43% juggling full-time jobs alongside additional degrees or certification programs, exhaustion is setting in well before mid-career.

Psychotherapist and Founder of Gateway of Healing, Dr Chandni Tugnait calls crashing out “the nervous system’s emergency brake.” Unlike burnout, which builds gradually, a crash “is often sudden and dramatic — the body and brain abruptly shutting down once coping resources are exhausted.”

For Gen Z, that crash often arrives without warning. “They’ve grown up hyperconnected,” she explains. “Constant feeds, notifications, and the culture of performative productivity keep the nervous system in a state of high arousal.”

In an age where being “off” feels like falling behind, Gen Z’s baseline stress level rarely resets. Add precarious jobs, rising living costs, and an economy of visibility — where one’s self-worth is intertwined with online performance — and the pressure becomes relentless. “The pandemic amplified this,” says Dr Tugnait. “It interrupted rites of passage, prolonged isolation, and eroded social buffers.”

Gen Zers Share Their Experiences

For Riya Shah, 25, a senior account executive at a PR firm, crashing out feels like “being completely stuck — out of motivation and too overwhelmed to do even the simplest of tasks.” Her solution? Music, meditation, and gentle withdrawal. “I’ve learned to take breaks before reaching that point,” she says.

Unnati Mishra, 23, also experienced ‘crashing out’ as a total retreat. “I disconnected from conversations, paused work, and pulled back from people,” she says. “I just stopped.” For her, crashing out became less about falling apart and more about survival — “a way of giving myself space to breathe, feel, and let go.”

Anusreeta Das, too, a 24-year-old journalism student in Bengaluru, whose first crash came during her 12th-grade math exam — a day she still remembers as “the scariest of my life.” That emotional breakdown, she says, became a turning point. “After that, I started defending myself, setting boundaries. Now, when things go wrong, I just let myself rest — eat pizza, watch a crime thriller, sleep, and start again.”

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The Digital Age of Breakdown

Clinical psychologist Dr Chitra Shukla explains that crashing out represents “a severe stress response triggered by prolonged emotional overwhelm and nervous system dysregulation.” Unlike previous generations who may have internalised or hidden their breakdowns, Gen Z’s crashes often unfold in public — through social media posts, long notes app confessions, or digital disappearances.

“They’re a generation raised on expression,” says Rima Bhandekar, senior psychologist at Mpower. “They don’t suppress emotions like their parents did. They’re more comfortable being vulnerable online, but that also means they feel their emotions more intensely and more publicly.”

The same spaces that offer connection — Instagram, X, LinkedIn — can also accelerate the crash. “The constant comparison and curated perfection lower self-esteem and increase anxiety,” notes Dr Pallavi Sharma, Psychiatrist, Fortis Escorts, Okhla. “What once meant falling asleep from exhaustion now describes emotional collapse — amplified by digital culture.”

From Burnout to Breakdown: The Modern Evolution

While every generation has faced exhaustion, today’s crashes are distinctly shaped by the attention economy. As Dr Tarun Sehgal, co-founder of Solh Wellness, puts it, “Gen Z operates in an uninterrupted loop of micro-stressors. Continuous digital exposure, fragmented rest, and unrealistic performance pressure rarely allow decompression.”

Historically, stress came in waves — followed by recovery. Industrial workers faced physical fatigue; the service economy brought “burnout.” Now, in the digital age, the collapse is psychological — invisible but just as intense. “Crashing out is the digital-age equivalent of a nervous breakdown,” says Dr Sehgal.

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How To Cope

Experts agree that while crashing out may bring temporary relief, it’s not a healthy coping mechanism. “It’s a signal, not a solution,” says Dr Tugnait. “A one-off crash can be a necessary reset. But if it keeps repeating, it’s a red flag.”

The antidote, she says, lies in preventive care — consistent sleep, micro-breaks, digital hygiene, and emotional regulation. “Build routines that lower baseline stress before the body pulls the emergency brake.”

For many Gen Zers, however, awareness is already the first step. “Crashing out doesn’t make you weak,” says Anjali. “It makes you human. It reminds you that you’re allowed to feel.”

In a culture that equates exhaustion with ambition, perhaps that, too, is a quiet form of rebellion — the refusal to keep pushing when your body’s asking you to pause.

Image courtesy: Freepik

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