It doesn't always start with someone asking too much of us. Sometimes it begins with us repeatedly saying yes. Yes, I will sort it. Yes, I am fine. For a while, it looks like competence, reliability, kindness. Then one day you are exhausted, resentful, vaguely furious with everyone, and you cannot remember the last time you asked what you needed. This is the Self-Sacrifice lens, and here is how it quietly feeds burnout at work and at home.

Turning up, remembering birthdays, never making it all about you. Lovely qualities, until being thoughtful quietly becomes never saying no. We are both prone to people pleasing, and we both know the small, furious voice that arrives later asking: what about me? Some of our most familiar coping patterns look remarkably like being nice. Here is how to tell the difference between caring about a friend and disappearing inside the friendship.