What you call “high functioning” is often just chronic stress that has become normalised. And because it’s normalised, it’s rarely questioned. But high functioning isn’t the goal. It’s just a more socially acceptable way of being dysregulated.

Real regulation looks like flexibility. Capacity. Being able to meet life without abandoning yourself in the process. And for a lot of people, that will feel unfamiliar at first. Because you’ve been praised for the version of you that copes, not the version of you that actually feels safe,

One of the biggest reasons people stay stuck in cycles of anxiety, exhaustion, burnout, chronic symptoms and emotional overwhelm is because they are trying to heal in fragments.