I finally told my sister I was not okay

Dear Delyara, For nearly eight months, I kept saying I was just tired. That was the word I used with everyone because it sounded manageable and temporary. But the truth was that I had been waking up with a heavy chest, going through my day on autopilot, and coming home feeling like I had left myself behind somewhere between work and the supermarket. Last Sunday, my sister came over for tea. She looked at me for a long moment and asked, “Are you actually alright?” Usually I would have smiled and changed the subject. This time I didn’t. I told her I had been feeling low for a long time and that I was scared of how normal it had started to feel. I cried so hard I couldn’t finish the sentence properly. Nothing dramatic changed overnight, but something very important did happen. I stopped carrying it alone. She helped me book a GP appointment the next morning. For the first time in months, I felt like I had stepped back into my own life instead of watching it happen from a distance. That was my victory this week.