Mental Load

Self-help

Birgit Langebartels

Junfermann Verlag

Language of origin

Publication date

Infos :

208 pages

Rights representation

The Invisible Burden in Your Head: Recognise, Understand, Cope

Does your head sometimes feel fuller than your calendar?

Even before the day begins, thoughts are already circling: appointments, decisions, expectations and obligations. Everything seems equally important, nothing may be forgotten. And the inner list simply never gets shorter.

This invisible burden has a name: mental load.

Birgit Langebartels shows that mental load is far more than personal stress or individual overload. It is a mirror of our times and concerns us all: women and men, parents and working people, young people and older people.

Mental load also comes from what we ourselves contribute. So the book pursues the central question: why do we not let go, even though we have long been overloaded? Which psychological patterns drive us and exhaust us? What keeps us trapped in constant thinking, planning and ticking things off? And the decisive question: how can we regain more calm, self-determination and inner clarity?

With psychological depth, everyday examples, exercises and prompts for reflection, this book invites readers to reset their inner compass: away from constantly functioning, towards a more conscious and freer way of relating to themselves.

Birgit Langebartels

Birgit Langebartels is a qualified psychologist, founder of the research and consulting firm b.forscht and of the consultancy mediccoach. Her in-depth psychological research looks at psychological processes and cultural patterns in society, culture and consumption, with a focus on family, women, health and life stages. Her book Mental Load (Junfermann, 2026) asks why we do not let go even when we are long overloaded, and how to regain calm and inner clarity.

Agence Schweiger