A checklist asks whether symptoms are present. This asks something different, what happened to permission, and what route did the body take when permission started closing.
The Ten Questions
- What is actually happening, the visible action.
- What happened before it, hours, days, weeks.
- What state was the body in, sleep, hormones, sensory load, pain.
- Who was present, and what was being asked.
- What did the system expect would happen next.
- What became unavailable, speech, rest, honesty, asking for help.
- What action remained open instead.
- Who carried the cost.
- Does the route protect, trap, harm, or repair.
- What would widen permission without removing accountability.
This applies across clinical, sensory, social, hormonal, and founder burnout, coercive burnout brought on by someone else, and burnout that comes from within, whether that is fear-of-failing perfectionism, or a coercive pattern once imposed by someone else that has since become trained into a person's own system.