Sometimes It’s Not Depression. It’s Just Unwritten Code.

There are days when life feels heavier than it should. You wake up already tired. Money is tight. Your startup isn’t where you imagined it would be by now. Coworkers test your patience. Your wife wants chocolate and you’re calculating whether that counts as a luxury or a necessity. Your car needs new brake pads, and somehow that feels like the final boss in a long level of bad news.

In moments like these, it’s easy to label everything as stress or even depression. And sometimes it truly is. But other times, I’ve realized something uncomfortable: what I call “burnout” is really just disconnection from what makes me feel alive.

For me, that thing is code.

When I’m not coding, my mind fills the silence with worries. Bills become louder. People become more annoying. The startup feels like it’s failing instead of just “in...