High Performance Addiction: The Invisible Burnout Hiding in Plain Sight
“Maybe you don’t notice… because you’re always raising the bar.”
Two years ago, I ended up in A&E with burnout.
Not the “I just need a spa day” kind, the real kind.
The kind where your body goes into shutdown mode because your nervous system has finally hit its limit and you didn’t even see it coming.
Because like so many high-achieving women, I wasn’t slowing down long enough to notice.
I was too busy being busy.
Too busy coping.
Too busy performing “fine.”
This is the reality for so many women in leadership, especially those of us conditioned to prove our value through productivity. And it has a name:
High Performance Addiction.
It sounds like a badge of honour and that’s part of the problem.
It’s socially rewarded, even celebrated.
But behind the accolades and promotions, something dangerous brews.
What Is High Performance Addiction?
High performance addiction is the compulsive pursuit of achievement, success, and external validation - even at the cost of your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
It’s not officially in the DSM (yet), but psychologists and leadership experts increasingly recognise the pattern:
Constantly raising the bar on yourself
Feeling uncomfortable or guilty when resting
Needing to be busy to feel worthy
Basing your identity on output or achievement
Struggling to enjoy success before moving onto the next goal
Sound familiar?
It’s burnout with a side of ambition.
It’s perfectionism in a power suit.
And it thrives in high-functioning women because it hides behind the metrics of “success.”
What’s Happening in the Brain & Body
Let’s talk neuroscience for a second.
When you live in a state of chronic stress (which high performance addiction keeps you in), your sympathetic nervous system — aka fight, flight, freeze or fawn — stays switched on.
This triggers:
A constant flood of cortisol and adrenaline
A reduction in executive function (aka clear thinking and emotional regulation)
Suppressed digestion, immune response, and even fertility
Poor sleep, fatigue, and mood instability
In short: your body becomes wired for survival, not strategy.
Meanwhile, the brain learns to associate achievement with safety.
Each win becomes a dopamine hit reinforcing the addiction cycle.
But unlike other addictions, high performance is celebrated so it’s even harder to notice until it breaks you.
But I Feel Fine...
Of course you do.
You’re brilliant at coping.
High-performing women are masters of “holding it all together.”
You’ve trained yourself to override signals of depletion.
You keep going because you can not because you should.
You move the bar every time you hit it.
You say things like “after next week I’ll slow down.”
You cancel your own self-care before you’d ever cancel on someone else.
Until one day… your body takes the decision out of your hands.
The Way Out: Regulate, Rewire, Reclaim
I’m not here to scare you. I’m here to show you what’s possible on the other side.
Healing high performance addiction doesn’t mean you have to give up your ambition.
It means you stop abandoning yourself in the pursuit of it.
Here’s what changed my life — and now forms the core of my methodology, Luminology:
Regulating my nervous system
Daily, not just in emergencies. Breathwork, movement, rest, and rituals that restore. When your body feels safe, you stop operating from fear and start leading from clarity.Rewiring my beliefs about success
Letting go of “busy = valuable.” Reclaiming enoughness. Learning to celebrate softness, intuition, and ease as strategic assets — not liabilities.Reclaiming my leadership identity
No more shape-shifting. I lead from my feminine energy, in full alignment with who I really am not the person I thought I had to be.
Burnout Isn’t the Price of Success
If your success is built on self-abandonment, it’s not sustainable.
If you’re leading from pressure instead of presence, something’s got to give.
And if you’re always raising the bar, maybe you haven’t noticed how exhausted you really are.
But I promise you... there’s another way.
One that doesn’t cost you your health, your joy, or your identity.
It starts with one decision: you stop pushing, and start listening.
Want to explore a new way to lead?
DM me "LUMINOLOGY" and I’ll send you the details of the Luminology experience — my signature 12-week container for high-achieving women ready to lead from light, not burnout.
Your nervous system — and your future self — will thank you.
