Not everyone responds to stress with anxiety or panic. Some people respond by going quiet. Still. Numb. They function, show up, take responsibility — but inside, they feel disconnected from their emotions, their body, even themselves.

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. It builds slowly — a tension in the shoulders, a fog in the mind, a heaviness you can’t quite name. At first, you push through. Then you adapt. Eventually, you forget what it feels like to truly rest.

The child you once were never disappears. They live quietly inside you — in your nervous system, in your breath, in the way you react when you're scared, hurt, or overwhelmed.