Over a glass of spilled juice.

The way she froze—eyes wide, bottom lip trembling—still stays with me.

I stood there, heart racing, chest tight, and all I could think was:

What is happening to me?

The truth was, I had been living in chronic stress for months.

Work was relentless. Deadlines, messages, endless pressure.
At night, I was exhausted but couldn’t sleep.

I would lie in bed doom-scrolling for hours, replaying tomorrow’s meetings and everything I hadn’t finished.

The next day, I woke up even worse.

Brain fog. Low energy. No patience.

At work, I couldn’t focus. I would forget what I was saying in the middle of meetings. Small tasks felt overwhelming.

At home, I became someone I didn’t recognize.

Short-tempered. Emotionally distant. Constantly tired.

Even my skin looked dull and inflamed, like the stress was showing up on my face.

My husband asked me one night,
“Are you okay? You haven’t really been here lately.”

That broke me.

Because he was right.

I was physically there, but mentally I was still trapped in survival mode.

It wasn’t just poor sleep.

It was a nervous system that had been stuck in chronic stress for so long it no longer knew how to switch off.

Once I finally started addressing the stress itself, everything began to change.

I slept deeper.
I felt calmer at work.
I stopped snapping at the people I loved.

For the first time in months, I felt like myself again.