Learning Not to Treat Yourself Like a Work Animal Why Some People Sacrifice Themselves Long After It Stops Making Sense A few years ago I slowly began noticing something uncomfortable about myself. Actually, that is not entirely true. The behavior had existed for most of my life. What changed was that I finally recognized it clearly enough to name it. I was treating myself badly. Not dramatically. Not in some visible self-destructive way that immediately alarms people. From the outside it probably looked like responsibility, hard work, reliability, endurance, and willingness to help. The sort of behavior society usually praises. But underneath, something was wrong. I noticed that work, effort, productivity, solving problems, helping others, and achieving results often felt more important to me than my own body. Sometimes probably more important than my own mental health too. And that realization disturbed me. Because once I started observing honestly, I saw how often I was...