You keep saying yes while something in you quietly goes numb.   You are tired in a way that sleep cannot touch, and when someone asks what you actually want, you feel a kind of blankness, or panic, or anger that has nowhere to land. This reflection sits right in that exhausted space, for the person who has spent a long time making other people more comfortable than themselves and is no longer sure what desire even means. If you recognize yourself here, you are not being analy

By the time you finally lie down at night, your body feels exhausted, but your insides are wide awake. Thoughts sprint, conversations replay, your chest is tight. You scroll, you pray, you bargain with tomorrow. Nothing really lands. It just keeps moving.   You tell yourself, “I just need to calm down,” but that only adds another voice to the crowd.   Something in you is loud, and it will not be managed.     When Your Insides Won’t Quiet Down   For some, the noise is obvious: