A feeling of weariness with the same old issues that have always bothered you, the same boring flaws and anxieties you've been gnawing on for years. It's the exhaustion that comes from being stuck with yourself and your recurring problems.
From German 'alt' (old) and 'schmerz' (pain), literally meaning 'old pain.' This compound follows the German tradition of creating precise emotional vocabulary, similar to 'weltschmerz' (world-pain), reflecting the language's capacity for nuanced psychological states.
Altschmerz perfectly captures what therapists call 'therapeutic fatigue' - when clients become tired of working on the same issues repeatedly. It's the emotional equivalent of wearing a groove in a record, where your mind keeps playing the same painful track over and over.
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