You don’t have to wait for validation for your turn to feel. You can control how long you wait and how much you put up with while you do. Even if others need you. If you have not given to yourself, what you’re offering them is a husk of a person left after everyone else has already had their turn to pick your emotions dry.

Emotional fatigue is a syndrome that comes from having too many things that require an emotional response from you happening in a short period of time. It’s also been called “compassion fatigue” and the symptoms very much intersect with those of depression.