I used to think staying calm meant I was in control. But what I was really doing was dissociating. Emotional regulation isn’t silence—it’s learning how to feel safely, stay present, and respond with intention.

Therapy didn’t just help me grow—it made some of my favorite coping strategies unusable. Detached humor, emotional shutdown, overworking? They don’t work like they used to. And weirdly, that’s how I knew the work was working.

A short text message is all it takes to send an overthinker into full psychological meltdown. But maybe—just maybe—it really was just a text