I finally stopped using “busy” as a prettier word for not being okay

Dear Delyara, Busy sounds respectable. Busy sounds temporary. Busy sounds like a capable adult with a full life. Busy does not force the room to recognise pain. But I knew it wasn’t only busy. It was low. Flat. brittle. Distant. Costly. A state in which ordinary life felt too expensive emotionally, and I was still trying to make it sound like a time-management issue because that was easier for everyone, including me. I stopped doing that. And once I did, help got more accurate. Care got more honest. My own attention toward myself got less dismissive. That felt like a mental health victory because it ended a lie that had become socially elegant and privately destructive. And I needed it to end.