I feel guilty every time I want to be left alone by the people I love

Dear Delyara, It happens by evening most days. The children ask one more question. My husband starts one more practical conversation. The television is on. Somebody is looking for something. Somebody needs help with a form. Someone says “Mum” in that exact tone that means now, not in a minute. And I can feel this hard internal wish for less. Less talking. Less needing. Less touching. Less entering. And immediately after the wish comes guilt. How can I love them and want space from them so badly in the same breath? What kind of mother, wife, woman feels relief at the thought of a closed door? I know the honest answer is an exhausted one. Still, the guilt doesn’t disappear just because the explanation is obvious. I spend so much energy trying not to let my own overstimulation become someone else’s emotional injury. That work is invisible. It still costs me.