内耗
nèihào
Literally says
internal friction
Actually means
overthinking yourself into exhaustion without doing anything
When to say it
The fight happens inside your own head. Replaying a conversation forty times, writing a message and deleting it, worrying tonight about tomorrow. That is nèihào, often jīngshén nèihào. A huge topic among young Chinese, and naming it is the first step to stopping it.
Hear it in the wild
别内耗了，想就去做。
Bié nèihào le, xiǎng jiù qù zuò.
Stop overthinking, if you want it, go do it.
一条消息改了十遍，太内耗。
Yì tiáo xiāoxi gǎi le shí biàn, tài nèihào.
Rewriting one text ten times, pure self-torture.