Soul-crushing

Some came to get rich on their wits and intellect, others on their strength and brawn, toiling from dawn to dusk in soul-crushing labors.

And for an introduction to politics course, zombies represent the threat posed by a textbook that is so chock full of soul-crushing boredom that it will smother the mind and rot the flesh right off of students' faces.

Oh, it was nothing compared to the immediate, soul-crushing loneliness I'd experienced when Baxter and I had split.