Where the term comes from

No one is credited with the phrase, which lives in popular writing, but clinicians have described the pattern for more than a century. In a 1916 essay section titled “Those wrecked by success,” Sigmund Freud wrote about patients who fell ill precisely when a deeply rooted, long-held wish had been fulfilled. In 1942 an article in JAMA described what the psychiatrist Adolf Meyer had called “the promotion depression”: a depressed state after a sudden, overwhelming increase in responsibility.

What the research shows

Large panel studies suggest that a promotion, on average, does not improve mental health and can worsen it. In Swedish data on 1,410 men and 1,926 women, promotion was followed by more depressive symptoms over the next two to four years. Studies in Australia and Britain point the same way. These are averages, and a promotion brings new pressure along with the sense of having arrived.

Success itself does not appear to wreck people. In a 25-year follow-up of 1,826 intellectually gifted adults and 496 elite science and engineering doctoral students, those with exceptional careers did as well as their peers or better on measures of well-being and health. In interviews with 18 Australian Olympians, the months after the 2016 Games went better when results matched expectations, a return to work or study was planned and support was at hand.

When it is more than a letdown

The US National Institute of Mental Health describes major depression as a low mood, or a loss of interest, lasting most of the time for two weeks or more and getting in the way of daily life. A persistent “empty” mood is on its list of symptoms. If that matches your experience, see a doctor or mental health professional for an assessment. If you are thinking about harming yourself, contact a crisis line now: in the US, dial or text 988; elsewhere, use your local emergency number.

How emptiness, burnout and depression differ is set out on our page about why success feels empty; the months after selling a company are covered in life after an exit.

Related terms

Arrival Fallacy: the expectation that set up the letdown.

Hedonic Treadmill: why a gain soon stops feeling like one.

High-Functioning Burnout: exhaustion that often comes before the goal rather than after it.